1. The Emotional: Octopuses & Earbuds

The holidays are one time of year when brands become legit storytellers—floating out simple emotional films above their more urgent holiday marketing mix. Traditionally, UK retailer John Lewis has owned this moment by crafting beautiful shorts each year. However, this year’s entry, “The Gifting Hour”, was… a bit of a mess? I’ve watched it twice and am still a little unsure what’s actually going on here. 

My two favorites of this season opted for simplicity. Disney and Taika Waititi told the story of a boy and his pet octopus in the aptly-titled “The Boy and the Octopus” which is so wholesome it almost feels like cheating. My favorite however is “Heartstrings” by Apple, a story of the deaf parent to a musically gifted child, which should sound familiar to anyone who saw the 2021 Best Picture-winner CODA. The film is a masterclass in music and sound design that integrates a simple product benefit (Apple AirPods Pro 2) in a way that truly lives up to its title.

Note from Shachar: This isn’t Taika Waititi’s first rodeo when it comes to directing ads. One of my personal favorites is his work on The Lost Voice for Apple.

2. The Personal: Audio & Algorithms

Few brands have consistently owned a cultural moment better than Spotify. Wrapped has become a guaranteed viral event each year and somehow turned corporate data harvesting into a fun game. Its cultural presence has also ballooned beyond the window of its release, as fan anticipation grows—some even “hacking” their listening habits to trick the app into creating a “cooler” output. 

However, this year the overwhelming response was… meh? Despite Spotify claims that this was the most successful Wrapped since its inception in 2014, cultural sentiment seemed to have soured this year. The fun, shareable genre exercises like “Sound Town” or “Audio Aura” were replaced with a relatively generic overview that felt more like a Google Slides presentation than a cultural moment. The one new feature—a “podcast” discussing a user’s results—felt more like a data report than a personal overview. So what’s the deal? According to a former Spotify engineer, it’s everyone’s favorite soul-crusher: generative AI.

3. The Curious: Characters & Kitchens

I work in the gaming space and always keep my eye on Roblox. For many brands, it’s a playground to experiment with interactive ideas at a lower barrier to entry than a conference booth or physical event. Brands have used the game world to create Hamilton-inspired historical museums, VMA voting booths, and sports training arenas. 

I was drawn to the latest Roblox experience from New York Common Pantry and The Purpose Group called “Mission: Hunger”. The event was essentially a virtual food kitchen, in which players restocked shelves, prepared food, and served digital meals—while learning about the root causes of hunger through in-game characters. The players’ actions in the experience were also matched by real-world food donations. While the immediate benefit is great, I love the idea of training and immersing people in volunteer work through gaming. There’s a case for gaming as a way to build the muscle memory of a behavior (like Jann Mardenborough, who got his professional racing start by playing Gran Turismo) and this felt like a smart way to start building the next generation of community kitchen volunteers.