Creative Hot Takes: January 2025

Riot Games has once again raised the bar in marketing with the release of Arcane Season 2, the animated series based on their iconic League of Legends game, now streaming on Netflix. Building on the Emmy-winning success of Season 1, Riot's latest campaign integrates storytelling with gaming, capturing audiences far beyond its core fanbase. 

With a multifaceted approach, Riot has set a new standard for creating memorable brand experiences. The campaign not only earned Arcane a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes but also made it the most-watched Netflix show on its debut day across 60+ countries.

Here’s how Riot achieved it: 

• Cross-Platform Reach: Riot ensured Arcane reached fans wherever they were. From exclusive content on social media to live streaming the first episode of Season 2 during Twitch’s Global Community Premiere, Riot created buzz across platforms. Behind-the-scenes, trailers, and sneak peeks kept the hype alive while the Twitch stream provided a free taste of the series, enticing newcomers and long-time fans alike.  

• Influencer Marketing: By partnering with voice actors, celebrities, and content creators, Riot amplified their reach. Twitch Drops offered exclusive in-game rewards to viewers who tuned into official Arcane streams or watched any League of Legends streamer for at least an hour, creating urgency and incentivizing engagement. 

• In Game Immersion: Ambessa, first introduced in Arcane Season 1, made her debut as a playable champion in League of Legends. Her release came with Arcane-themed cosmetics, new game modes, in-client mini-games, and so much more. These updates kept players immersed in the Arcane universe while episodes were gradually released. 

• Franchise Cohesion: Arcane extended into Riot’s other games, including Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, Wild Rift, Legends of Runeterra, and 2XKO, creating a consistent narrative across their entire ecosystem.

• Brand Collaborations: Riot’s partnerships reached well beyond the gaming industry, teaming up with brands like Fenty Beauty, Arctic Fox, Hayabusa, Secret Lab, Funko POPs, and Redbull. Adding a unique musical dimension, Riot also collab’d with Twenty-One Pilots for the music video "One Line" and with Stray Kids, Young Miko, and Tom Morello for the track “Come Play,” blending audiences from different communities. 

• Interactive Events: Fans worldwide participated in events across EMEA, Asia, and the Americas, bringing the Arcane universe to viewers through community-centered experiences.

Arcane shows how brands can go beyond traditional digital marketing. By mixing a variety of strategies and tactics, Riot created a multifaceted campaign that redefined game-inspired marketing. For other game developers and entertainment brands, Arcane serves as a prime example of how effective marketing can resonate far beyond its core audience and make waves in pop culture. Riot Games didn’t just market a show and game—they established themselves as a leader in creating creative, immersive brand marketing.

If you’re a designer or even creative-adjacent you’ve heard of Pantone’s Color of the Year. Pantone has been choosing a COTY since 1999 as a way to highlight the relationship between color and culture. It also informally signals the end of the year and looking forward into the possibilities of the year ahead.   

Each color of the year seems to have its own vibrant personality and equally exciting name: Viva Magenta, Living Coral, Veri Peri, and Ultra Violet are some recent favorites that come to mind. So what is the color of the year for 2025? Surely it’s something like Fiery Orange or Bahama Blue. Well, not quite. It’s Pantone 17-1230 AKA “Mocha Mousse”, which is essentially a basic brown. Did the panelists throw in the towel for 2025 or is there something more innovative happening here? 

As I dive into the background behind how Pantone chooses these colors, I’m struck by the sheer number of influences taken into account. Anything from scientific breakthroughs to arts and film to socio-economic conditions are fair game. The more I research the more it becomes clear that Mocha Mousse might be the perfect color for 2025. 

To begin, anyone that’s been alive for more than 5 seconds is aware of the intense political divide surrounding the 2024 election, so clearly anything in the red or blue family is probably not the smartest choice. Additionally, red and blue are associated with very binary genders, which as we know is not a very inclusive or accurate viewpoint of the human race. So it’s safe to say red and blue were off the table. 

In addition to talking about what Mocha Mousse isn’t, let’s talk about what it is. Pantone describes this color as “nurturing and comforting, reminiscent of coffee and chocolate”.  Ok I get that. Coffee and chocolate are simple pleasures and little moments of luxury in our daily lives. After all, Mocha Mousse does look like a very indulgent dessert. Warm brown is also a color commonly associated with nature, which in and of itself is considered calming and grounding. And since it’s a neutral color, it also conveys a sense of balance and ease. 

Taking all of these into account and thinking about all the uncertainty of the world around us, maybe a little simplicity and stability isn’t such a bad thing after all. Cheers to Mocha Mousse and a warm, comforting 2025!

For any parent with kids in the “Santa” years, the holidays are a whirlwind for magic, wonder, make-believe…..and let’s be honest, a “healthy” doses of stress. For starters, whoever came up with the idea that Santa’s Scouts are elf dolls which move around nightly, certainly didn’t foresee the working mom crafting intricate webs of elfish mischief in the wee hours of the mornings. Thankfully, this year I had some help from technology. 

Tech innovations have evolved over the last few years at an alarming rate: some innovations are questionable, some daunting, and others simply help make life easier. For me, technology innovations like the Evenlabs AI voice tool, and the AR Elf Cam helped bring holiday “magic” to life for my kids. Watching their faces light up when they heard Santa say their name and watched an animated elf sneak across our hallway—I swear right then and there I won Christmas this year! 

How will I top this for next holiday season? Maybe the kids will hear directly from the big man in red himself or book a virtual visit straight from the North Pole. What innovations will arrive for next year's holidays? Will kids be able to see Santa in ‘real time’ at their homes? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what’s next in innovation in 2025. As technology continues to evolve, let it gift you some help in creating moments of magic, especially around the holiday season.