This month marks Pace’s ninth anniversary and to celebrate we’re sharing Team Pace’s all-time favourite campaigns.

Anita, our MD, picked the ‘Silhouette’ campaign by Apple to launch its iPod in 2001. It featured dark silhouettes of people listening to iPods and dancing in front of bright backgrounds.

She said: “What I love about Apple’s brand strategy is its simplicity, its contemporary look and feel and its very clear positioning.  Apple can normally be relied on to nail its marketing (with the exception of its misjudged “Crush” campaign last year).  Its iconic Silhouette campaign that launched the iPod in 2001 was eye catching and very fresh at the time and is still revered in marketing circles around the world today.”

Two members of the Pace team, operations manager Katie and client services exec Oyin, voted for Cadbury's Mum’s Birthday, originally released in 2018, where the little girl in the sentimental ad pays for a chocolate bar with buttons.

Katie said: “I love it when a brand goes nostalgic and makes me cry!”

Ashleigh, also from our social team, picked Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, which launched in 2004 and aimed to challenge unrealistic beauty standards.

Ashleigh said: “I like it because as the times have evolved, so has their campaign. Their most recent Real Beauty campaign messaging, for example, is based around the fact that 90% of content is predicted to be AI-generated by 2025. Their message still stands: keep beauty real.”  

Sport England’s This Girl Can was chosen by Hannah D from our PR team. The 2015 campaign aimed to break down the barriers that stop women and girls from exercising. The YouTube ad alone has been watched more than 37m times and campaign results report 1.6m more girls have started exercising because of it.

Hannah said: “I like it due to the simplicity of the wording and the powerful message and imagery used. Plus, it’s about girl power, which I’m always a fan of!”  

The choice of Jo, also from our PR team,  was NHS Blood and Transplant’s 2015 Missing Type campaign,where letters went “missing” from high profile places, including Waterstones’ and Odeon branches in London as well as the Downing Street sign, to help promote blood donation.

Jo said: “It's so simple yet so clever - as all the best ideas are! The number of brands that got on board with the campaign is incredibly impressive. And the results of the campaign show that creative PR really can drive action.”

Over 30,000 new donors registered during National Blood Week (the key week of the campaign), 20,000 more than the previous year.

Boddington’s print campaign from the 1990s still ranks highly for graphic designer Mark, who liked the departure from the serious way bitter had previously been advertised.

Mark said: “The print ad is very simple, using bold images and visual puns on the word ‘cream’ to reference the brand’s ‘Cream of Manchester’ strapline.

“As well as being impressive creatively, they’re equally impressive technically. Today, the illustrations would no doubt be created with CGI - back then though, each was an often complex 1:1 scale model shot in a studio. Hiding the supports and clamps required behind a see-through glass of beer must have been quite the challenge!”

Meanwhile, senior client services manager Amy picked the more recent Barbie movie campaign due to its combination of nostalgia and genius partnerships alongside harnessing the power of an existing brand.  

Amy said: “I loved the way the Barbie film was teased for so long - nobody truly knew what it would be about until they were already invested.

“The whole campaign was magical from start to finish - the messaging was perfect, the collabs were brilliant and it evoked a fantastic sense of nostalgia that made women everywhere feel sparkly and bright.”

And finally, two members of the team chose the same brand - Coca-Cola.

Patrick loves the Share a Coke campaign which first launched in Australia in 2011 and then spread worldwide. The logo was replaced with people’s names, which encouraged consumers to find bottles with their names on.

Patrick, one of our social specialists, said: “It was so successful because it created a personal connection with people. I remember everybody, including myself, loved finding bottles with their names and sharing photos of them on social media, which brought a lot of free publicity and boosted sales massively - by $12.9 billion in two years, to be exact, which is incredible!”

Ian, from our design team, loved the festive feel of his favourite campaign, which will be 30 years old next year.

He said: “When you see it you know it’s Christmas time. In fact, you probably don’t even need to see it, you can just hear the tune. You know the one: “Holidays are coming, holidays are coming…”