IRIS
Two-and-a-half years after Cheil Worldwide bought a stake in Iris, the deal seems to be paying off.
Iris proved its mettle in 2016 with innovative work, notably “The mouth boggles” for Domino’s. In one of Domino’s biggest social activations, Iris created Snapchat lenses that “boggled” users’ mouths and recruited Youtubers to reach more than one million people in less than 24 hours. The effort delivered real results: during the ten-week campaign, Domino’s net sales grew by 18% year on year and its ecommerce sales rose by 26.6%.
Iris also continued to make unique work for star client Adidas. The “Never follow” campaign, featuring Paul Pogba, moved away from the typical lionisation of football stars, Adidas Glitch enabled select users to create bespoke boots via an app, and #Myneolabel invited people to submit clothing designs on Snapchat.
Other creative highlights included an immersive virtual-reality music video for Samsung, Barclaycard’s 50th anniversary campaign, Purdey’s brand relaunch and the first TV ad in 25 years for Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
The agency picked up business from Eurosport after opening a sports marketing division while Iris Nursery, the innovation unit, claimed Camelot as its first client.
The agency suffered a blow in May with the loss of Mini’s UK integrated ad account to The Brooklyn Brothers but it continues to work on data and analytics as well as PR for BMW Group. Earlier this month, Domino’s called a creative review. Iris will not repitch but retains social, digital and retail.
Iris hired David Prideaux as joint executive creative director to lead its global content division alongside Andy Taylor and Digby Lewis. The acquisition of Founded, a creative B2B agency, along with the launch of Work.life means the shop will be turning more attention to this area in the coming year.