Inside the five most eye-catching launch campaigns of 2018

From a chicken dinner-proof Xbox controller to a dramatic pitch to Sir David Attenborough and a video optimised for dogs, Mumbrella asked launch marketing experts Five by Five to nominate and help tell the stories behind some of the most creative promotions for new products and services we’ve seen this year.

‘I told the UN, I’ve got an idea that will change the world’ – The Lion Share

Late last year, Christopher Nelius was watching TV when he had something of a eureka moment – and promptly rushed into his colleague Robert Galluzzo’s office to get it off his chest. Animals, he explained, don’t get paid to appear in ads. And in a world where up to 10,000 species are facing extinction every year, with precious little funding to stop it, those appearance fees could be a life-saving revenue stream. “I think you’re onto something,” agreed Galluzzo.

Nelius and Galluzzo helm Sydney-based production company Finch and after a few days’ thought, settled on the proposal that 0.5% of all media spend from campaigns staring animals should be donated to help conservation causes.

The pair told friends and then friends of friends in the industry until Andrew Clarke, then global CMO of Mars, promised the confectionary giant would back their proposal but only if they could persuade the United Nations to get involved. “So I wrote to this guy at the UN,” says Galluzzo, talking in a giddy rush on the phone, “and told him I’ve got this idea that will change the world. But I need one hour in person with them.”