Adaily's Year of Brilliance #14: Get a Testimonial
This week, we explore how brands build powerful belief by Getting a Testimonial. Leveraging voices from customers, experts, celebrities or even unexpected sources can lend immense credibility. The key is choosing the right voice and a creative approach to make the endorsement truly resonate. See more in Adaily here.
Psst! Wondering whose testimonial would truly elevate your brand? Adaily 2.0 helps you identify strategic approaches and insights, ensuring your chosen voice amplifies your message with genuine credibility. Don’t miss it!
1. Leaf Evangelists • Nissan
TBWA G1 • 2022 • Cars • France • Europe
Campaign Summary:
Nissan's "LEAF EVangelists" campaign used real LEAF owners as ambassadors, providing powerful customer testimonials to connect with potential EV buyers. Through Facebook activations and short films, these passionate owners shared their positive experiences, praising the car's benefits.
This approach effectively leveraged authentic voices to boost brand awareness, consideration, and showcase the LEAF as an accessible family EV.
2. The Most Famous Can Model • Stella Artois
GUT Miami • 2024 • Alcoholic drinks - beer • United States • North America
Campaign Summary:
Stella Artois cleverly used David Beckham as a "hand model," making his iconic tattoos the recognizable element in a celebrity testimonial that kept the product as the star. This innovative approach to a celebrity endorsement aimed to stand out and generate buzz.
The campaign was highly successful, earning 735M impressions and widespread media coverage, praised for its unique product-first use of a global icon.
3. The First Edible Mascot • Pop-Tarts
Weber Shandwick Chicago • 2024 • Retail - food • United States • North America
Campaign Summary:
Pop-Tarts created the first edible mascot for its sponsored bowl game, offering a unique, unexpected "testimonial" through its sacrificial (and snackable) demise by the winning team. This stunt redefined sports sponsorship, demonstrating extreme desirability.
The campaign exploded online (4B+ impressions, 15x more media mentions than other bowls), boosted sales (+3% week after), and saw the highest brand search since 2008.
4. Eat Like Your Avatar • INTERBEV
Rethink Canada • 2022 • NGO - equality • Canada, Cross-country • Global
Campaign Summary:
Naturellement Flexitariens encouraged healthier eating among gamers with "Eat Like Your Avatar," featuring a gamer's 15-day documented journey (a real-person testimonial) adopting his avatar's diet in real life. This creative approach demonstrated the challenges and benefits of balanced choices.
The campaign resonated strongly, with the documentary hitting 250k+ YouTube views in 24 hours, 6M minutes of health content watched by Gen Z, and inspiring over 100 other gamers to try the challenge.
5. Superstar Ravi's • Adidas
Havas Middle East Dubai • 2023 • Shoes • United Arab Emirates • Middle East
Campaign Summary:
Adidas collaborated with iconic local Dubai restaurant Ravi to create "SUPERSTAR RAVI's" sneakers, using the restaurant and its community's love as a powerful, unexpected testimonial. This initiative aimed to celebrate local identity, turning affection for Ravi into a wearable statement.
The limited-edition sneakers sold out in hours, generating significant buzz and media coverage, demonstrating the strong endorsement from the diverse Dubai community.
Quick Takeaways: Get a Testimonial
Empower Your True Fans: Turn loyal customers into "evangelists" like Nissan did. Their authentic passion and real-world experiences are incredibly persuasive. Think: Who are your most passionate users, and how could you give them a platform to share their genuine stories?
Use Celebrity with a Product-First Twist: A famous face can grab attention, but ensure your product remains the star, like Stella Artois cleverly did with Beckham's hands. Think: How can a celebrity endorsement uniquely highlight your product's features or essence, rather than just their fame?
Think Beyond Human Endorsers: A testimonial doesn't need words or even a person. Pop-Tarts' edible mascot "spoke" volumes through a sacrificial, buzzworthy act. Think: What unconventional action, symbol, or even non-human element could dramatically testify to your product's desirability?
Document Relatable User Journeys: Showcasing an individual's experience and transformation (like INTERBEV's gamer eating like his avatar) makes the benefits tangible and inspiring. Think: What relatable challenge or journey could a real person undertake with your product to demonstrate its impact?
Harness Community Love as an Endorsement: Collaborating with a beloved local institution, as Adidas did with Ravi's restaurant, can turn shared community passion into a powerful, authentic testimonial. Think: What local icon, community group, or shared passion point could lend grassroots credibility and collective endorsement to your brand?
About Adaily Inspiration
Adaily Inspiration is your weekly dose of creative fuel. Each Tuesday, we explore a powerful creative thinking tool from the Deck of Brilliance (a collection of 52 methods by Juggi Ramakrishnan and Todd McCracken). We break down the tool, show you how to apply it to your marketing, and analyze five award-winning campaigns from the Adaily database that demonstrate its effectiveness. Our goal is to help you generate breakthrough ideas and create campaigns that truly resonate.
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Disclaimer: All campaign descriptions in this post are AI-generated, based on real-life descriptions provided by the authors.
Adaily does NOT produce inaccurate info ("hallucinations"). Your inputs are NOT used to train AI models.