Chuck Studios business lead Robert Volten highlights the best and worst uses of famous brand assets in 2024 and gives brand leaders three resolutions for 2025.

The start of a new year always brings time for reflection. However, where many are looking back at the effectiveness of their favourite campaigns from last year, the fundamental question brand leaders should be asking is: “Did we push our brand to be distinctive enough in 2024?”

As branding experts in the food and drinks category, we constantly ask this. Although we witnessed some great examples of distinction last year, there were undoubtedly some missed opportunities. A brand marketer’s role is to promote the brand, not just the category, but, as with every year, some fell into predictable patterns.

For example, most chocolate brands use the same ad template to depict the logo appearing from a pool of liquid chocolate. Even burger ads are typically shot with a masculine colour palette on a wooden board and bold font.

For this piece, I wanted to spotlight those brands we feel have used their famous and unique assets most effectively this year, as well as those where the marketing missed an opportunity. Good news—this does not include Jaguar.

Unanimous branding

Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs) remain the core ingredient driving brand recognition engagement and recall in ads. They’re vital to branding, as they trigger brand recognition without using the brand name or logo. Think of the ‘lime wedge in a bottle of beer’, and your mind connects the dots.

Brand leaders who aren’t focusing on their DBAs are missing a trick. No other part of a brand’s identity is so powerful that it can be used in all paid and owned media. If creativity is the system used to develop an outstanding campaign, then the DBA is the hardware.

Distinct Winners

Once again this year, KitKat expertly reminded us why its ‘Have a Break’ tagline and break of the bar is timeless. Kit Kat is the best-in-class brand that can use the same ingredients but in modern contexts. Look at how effective it was back in 1994 – over thirty years later, its value is a lesson to all marketers.

Meanwhile, Magnum leveraged nostalgia with a “fake” vintage ad that captivated audiences by celebrating its role as the ‘original’ ice cream. In addition to this great campaign proposition, the team expertly blended in the crack and Magnum pour. Even my Mum, who doesn’t understand anything about marketing, instantly knows what I mean when I describe these two brand assets.

Cheetos has perhaps one of the best DBAs out there—not the product, but the effect of the product, is the most precious brand asset they own. The marketeers dazzled this year with the ‘Hand Genius’, reframing how everyone experiences the brand—the residue of the snack on your hands when you eat it—adding a completely new layer to their DBA: the effect of the effect. This makes it an even more memorable and relatable symbol of indulgent snacking.

When you have such a strong, distinctive, and famous visual identity, imagine the fun you can have with it when you don’t have to mention the brand. McDonald’s paved the way with the icons campaign a few years ago. Tesco did its own twist this year, replacing the letters of the logo with food items, making their core proposition of bringing food to families unapologetically clear.

The end of the year brought a new great case in which a very famous brand used its strongest brand asset. Kellogg’s brought Cornelius the Cockerel back onto the screen in both a logical and smart move for the brand. The Kellogg’s cockerel not only has deep-rooted associations with the cereal brand but also epitomises the morning time, which strengthened its leading role in the breakfast category.

Brand Breakdown

So, who failed to use their distinctive assets last year?

KFC has one of the best DBAs around: its founder. While Wieden Kennedy has made amazing campaigns for years, putting this front and centre, unfortunately, this year, the US brand took the radical step of not using this representative anymore. I’d be interested to know if this is a short or long-term marketing decision and urge them to reconsider if so!

Twix decided not to highlight its iconic “two-bar” uniqueness, opting for edgy humour that felt disconnected from its strongest asset. The number 2, or as they translated it into ‘Left and right Twix’, is famous and unique. It is such a pity to throw away its heritage.

Tropicana fumbled this year – again – by ignoring its packaging as a crucial DBA. After a refreshing film highlighting its brunch appeal and building distinction with its original logo and packaging, the brand reverted to a design that stripped away its distinctiveness, drawing consumer criticism reminiscent of past mistakes.

Don’t go changin’

The life of a brand leader is not easy. For 2025, I recommend starting the year with three resolutions: define your DBAs, use them consistently with disruptive creativity and tell whoever to keep their hands off.

In my experience at Chuck Studios and previously building campaigns at TBWA Amsterdam & Shanghai, the greatest creatives embrace a brand’s limitations and use the distinctiveness that represents the brand to create the best campaignable work. I call out to our industry in 2025 to do just that.

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