As highlighted by the New York Times, the campaign refers to the efforts by marketers and agencies to acknowledge the sped-up internal clocks of consumers, as new technologies have resulted in increased expectations of content delivered instantly. “Creating content in real time is not easy to do,” Chen told the New York Times. “But we’re happy to see that the content we’re creating has been found very relevant.”
“If you orchestrate around creative and content … and design the marketing structure in keeping pace with the way the world works, it’s a far more in-tune, dynamic, exciting media relationship and far better [positions] that brand to do better at everything,” Facebook’s director of global creative solutions and member of the 14-person Studio Awards judging panel Mark D’Arcy told Adweek. He thought the campaign was “the most high-profile example…of putting a newsroom environment at the heart of a brand’s thinking.”
Fellow judge Rob Feakins, chief creative officer and president at Publicis Kaplan Thaler, acknowledged the Oreo/360i/Draftfcb newsroom for the brand’s ability to notch more than 60,000 shares. “Yeah, it’s a brilliant piece of creative and [gay rights] was a hot topic during that time. But it’s a cookie. That’s cultural timing meets really smart creative,” he also told Adweek.
However, Adweek emphasises that being able to time creative to culture is tricky. Brands like Kenneth Cole have been burned by wading into too-hot waters, and many marketers must go through labyrinths of legal approval before publishing to their social channels. “You can’t have a conversation [with your social community] if you have to go through legal approval every time you talk to them,” Adweek was told by 360i president Sarah Hofstetter, whose team together with Oreo and Draftfcb hashed out guidelines before the campaign. “A combination of agency partners, brand stakeholders and legal agreed on a couple different directions to develop the image and copy,” she commented. “Our metaphor was operating like a newsroom, having qualities like a media company by constantly publishing, looking for different angles, holding edit meetings,” added Hofstetter, who used to be a New York Times Company employee.
“We cannot predict the future, but I can tell you that Oreo is committed to the fundamentals of what this campaign is all about — showing how a 100-year old cookie can stay relevant in today’s world by offering timely, interesting content that helps our communities to ‘celebrate their inner kid’,” Chen told ABC News.