The 2025 Creative 100: Brand Innovators Challenging the Status Quo

Yahoo

06-05-2025

As social media pushes brands to be louder and zanier than ever, ADWEEK's 2025 Creative 100 Brand Innovators are pushing boundaries-in brand safe ways. These honorees are building brands with unconventional creativity, challenging their categories, and inspiring other marketers to do the same.
Blake Lown Beers
Vice President of Brand Marketing, Calm
Quiet time: Blake Lown Beers capitalized on a unique moment of collective stress when she led meditation app Calm's 2024 election campaign. Offering viewers 30 seconds of silence, the spot resulted in a 30% increase in app downloads.
Cohesive creativity: Leading Calm's brand strategy, Beers prioritizes trust in her team: "Winning work is born from true co-creation. When we're in the creative trenches, titles fall away-there are no copywriters or art directors, just a room full of thinkers."
Best advice: "Storytelling is at the core of what makes us human. Lean into your lived experience-it's often the most powerful place to uncover work that resonates deeply with others." -Katie Davies
Thilo Alex Brunner
Chief Design Officer, On
Watch him go: The Swiss product designer was working at Swatch and had no footwear experience in 2009 when he was approached by On, before the company was even off the ground. He signed on because of the founders' "incredible optimism," Brunner told creator platform It's Nice That.
Boom clap: In 2024, the athleticwear company released the On Cloudboom Strike LS, running shoes made using 3D printing technology. -Meredith Begley
Kim Chappell
Chief Brand Officer, Bobbie
Formulating partnerships: Formula startup Bobbie made waves when a Times Square billboard featuring a breastfeeding Molly Baz went viral and sparked a cultural conversation. The effort was a two-week sprint from concept to delivery, including a photoshoot on Baz's own kitchen counter.
Shifting the narrative: Continuing to tackle issues facing mothers, Chappell led another campaign about postpartum mental health with singer Meghan Trainor. "She vulnerably shared her struggles with postpartum anxiety" while explaining how combination feeding became part of her support system, Chappell said. "The campaign's CTA was about encouraging new moms to ask for help when they need it."
Breaking stories: A background in journalism-spending a decade "exercising a muscle of making daily deadlines"-has defined how Chappell builds brand teams: "We root ourselves in the stories of our customers." -Katie Davies
Yasmin Dastmalchi
General Manager, NYX Professional Makeup U.S.
Bold moves: Leading L'Oréal-owned beauty brand NYX in the U.S., Yasmin Dastmalchi aims to foster a team culture that embraces the unconventional. She has overseen boundary-pushing marketing, including NYX's 2024 Super Bowl commercial-a too-spicy-for-the-NFL spot starring Cardi B that sparked debate about whether female perspectives are overly censored in advertising.
Diverse perspectives: Growing up in a multicultural household exposed Dastmalchi to "a ton of traditions, languages, and artistic expressions," which helped her understand how culture influences confidence and beauty.
Her best advice: "Don't be afraid to experiment and take risks, but also learn when to iterate, pivot, or even abandon an idea." -Katie Davies
Marcus Engman
Chief Creative Officer, Ikea CEO & Creative Director, Skewed
Creative collective: In addition to his role at the creative helm of Ikea, Marcus Engman has his own design studio, Skewed Productions, with recent work including "The Monster's Ball," an immersive retail and brand experience for Puma in Stockholm.
Celebrating design: Under Engman's direction, Ikea has become a fixture at cultural events such as Milan Design Week. This year, the furniture retailer built an outdoor cafe serving drinks from coffee to cocktails, with live music and workshops for crafty attendees. -Katie Davies
Ben Goodwin
Co-founder & CEO, Olipop
Functional fizz: In the past year, fast-growing prebiotic soda brand Olipop used viral marketing and strategic partnerships to enter the cultural conversation. CEO Ben Goodwin is also lead formulator, overseeing the creation of the brand's soda flavors.
Feeling peachy: Following a cameo in the Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice music video for 'Barbie World,' Olipop launched its Peaches & Cream flavor with Mattel for Barbie's 65th anniversary-and added the soda to its permanent lineup this year.
Musical taste: Goodwin has been a DJ and music producer for over two decades, and says sound and taste engineering have "structural similarities." He treats his flavor formulation like "dropping a new song or album." -Katie Davies
Lisa King
Founder & CEO, Free AF
Inspiration is everywhere: Lisa King came up with the idea for the New Zealand mocktail brand's Dry January stunt-Khloe Kardashian "tricking" her mom Kris Jenner with alcohol-free cocktails-in the back of an Uber.
Bullseye: To celebrate its launch in Target last year, Free AF created a gigantic CGI vending machine complete with a can that rolled out into the parking lot.
No triple sec, just triple sales: Free AF launched in just 400 stores when it hit the U.S. in 2023. A year later, the boozeless bevs are in 2,000 locations. King told Just Drinks that she's aiming to triple sales in 2025. -Meredith Begley
Calvin Leung
Head of Creative, Gap
Dance-off: Gap is making a comeback by tapping into nostalgia and culture. Calvin Leung helped to align the preppy clothier with the zeitgeist through a series of dance ads featuring cross-generational stars like Troye Sivan and Parker Posey.
Working together: In 2024, Gap launched a custom hoodie with influencer Julia Huynh, who found TikTok fame by chronicling her search for the perfect hoodie. "The initial thought was to simply send her one," Leung recalls, as many other brands did. "But then we asked: Why not create it with her instead?" The Extra Heavyweight Hoodie became Gap's first creator collab.
Best advice: "Learn your superpower and lean into it-know how to use it to add value." -Katie Davies
John Ludeke
SVP of Global Marketing, Dr. Squatch
Beauty and brains: John Ludeke is the brains behind the grooming brand's first foray into body wash. Turns out, it's easy to get male attention when Sydney Sweeney is selling Dr. Squatch soap in a bubble bath. Partnering with Nick Cannon and dropping a line of products inspired by Call of Duty also works.
Back to basics: Ludeke credits a love of reading and fueling his natural curiosity with research with honing his ability to think abstractly and creatively.
Best creatives: "The creative process is non-linear and requires a willingness to experiment and explore." -Meredith Begley
Elizabeth Money
SVP of Brand Marketing & Creative, Béis Travel
Special case: During the last year, Elizabeth Money led a collaboration between the already hip luggage brand Béis Travel and clothier Lonely Ghost for a limited-edition collection of suitcases to expand its appeal among the TikTok generation.
Cleaning up: Money's marketing fosters brand love through community building. When customers complained about scuff marks on their bags after limited use, Béis leaned in with a pop-up bag wash activation on the streets of L.A.
Time = Money: "When I carve out space to think, research, and fully immerse myself in an idea, that's when I do my best work." -Katie Davies
Michael Moses
Chief Marketing Officer, Universal Pictures
Flying high: Michael Moses defied gravity-and expectations-by leading the marketing behind the movie musical Wicked, which took in a staggering $164 million during opening weekend. It was the biggest debut for a Broadway musical adaptation, and is now the highest grossing one to date, pulling in more than $700 million globally.
Fine line: To drum up excitement, Wicked partnered with more than 400 brands, including Starbucks, Lego, and Lexus. Moses told Variety his strategy was "to be just short of obnoxious."
Girls rule: Yes, the Wicked campaign was inspired by the marketing success of 2023's Barbie. "I get frustrated sometimes that our industry has to relearn that lesson time and again: There are enough women in the world," Moses told Variety. "If you make something that is truly an event for them, they will show up." -Meredith Begley
Charlie Smith
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Loewe
Spelling it out: As marketing chief at Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe, Charlie Smith has injected fun into the typically staid category and steered the brand in unexpected directions. "Decades of Confusion," starring actors Dan Levy and Aubrey Plaza at a spelling bee, used humor to address the many mispronunciations of the brand's name. Loewe also collaborated with Suna Fujita to transform Japanese ceramics into a creative universe, including a children's book and pop-up spaces.
Key to success: The combination of art school and studying English literature gave Smith a good grasp of art direction, copywriting, and big-picture creative concepts.
Don't give up: "I got rejected from many graduate schools and jobs, but I had a strong sense of the journey I wanted to go on and was determined and committed." -Katie Davies
Ola Sobiecki
Executive Creative Director, Hinge
Match made: Ola Sobiecki is part of the creative and marketing teams fueling growth at dating app Hinge and defying a downturn in the sector. While spending less on advertising than competitors in 2024, Hinge has evolved its messaging to strike a more relatable tone with Gen Z, most recently with "It's Funny We Met on Hinge."
Modern love: The ads feature real couples talking about how they met, highlighting that the path to love is rarely linear. The aim is to distinguish Hinge's messaging from "archaic representations of love and relationships that can feel really unachievable," Hinge CMO and president Jackie Jantos recently told ADWEEK. -Katie Davies
Emma Sullivan
Creative Director, Vinted
Something borrowed: Emma Sullivan was the visionary behind the European secondhand marketplace's "New Again" campaign, a simple yet elegant montage of people and their new favorite things that redefines what's "new."
But make it fashion: Vinted's "Too Many" ads went viral for their cheeky look at overconsumption. Sullivan credits their success to "a relatable insight, a silly idea, and an elegant, cinematic execution."
Career change: Sullivan studied science and says her time in STEM influenced her problem-solving skills.
Advice to aspiring creatives: "Don't be a person who only knows advertising and takes the identity too seriously. Learn, engage, and pursue experiences beyond the industry. That, and befriend AI." -Meredith Begley
Cat van der Werff
Executive Creative Director, Canva
Design leader: Cat van der Werff joined design platform Canva as its first brand designer in 2018; she now leads an in-house design team of 100 across brand, campaigns, performance, and production.
Talking business: In 2024, van der Werff led conceptualizing on "Love Your Work," a campaign intended to spark dialogue about work culture. The creative represents a new strategic platform for Canva as a B2B business.
Learning from others: "The core brand tenets that we have today are 'human' and 'inspiring' and 'empowering,' and those are the things that have led all of the creative that we do," van der Werff said on ADWEEK's Speed of Culture podcast. -Katie Davies
Courtney Zalewski
Chief Brand Officer, Embarc
Making history: Courtney Zalewski has been on a mission to normalize cannabis throughout their career. They scored a big win in 2024 with Embarc Dispensary, the first time the California State Fair had allowed on-site sales and consumption of cannabis products.
Tools of the trade: Zalewski uses ChatGPT to uncover biases and blind spots, and to hone half-baked ideas. "I'm using it to guide strategic insight and help me think through problems that would have required multiple meetings with expensive executives."
Against the grain: "Growing up obsessed with punk music and pop culture, I naturally gravitated toward ideas that were on the weird, unusual and rebellious side. That mindset still fuels my creativity today." -Meredith Begley