Hot campaigns for the dog days of summer

Hot off the Ink Drop

The dog days of summer have officially arrived, but brand creativity is showing no signs of wilting.

Here are four campaigns that are just as hot as the forecast.

Wellhub found a workout crew for every Terry Crews. The actor tries everything from yoga and pickleball to running and jiu-jitsu, meeting a new “crew” along the way. It’s a clever use of his name that also makes the platform’s wide range of activities and communities easy to understand.

⚡ Get inspired: Relevance starts with recognizing that no two people have exactly the same needs or preferences. Meet Sonal Bilawala, Head of Customer Engagement & Lead Development at The Globe and Mail, and learn how she uses lifecycle thinking, automation, and personalization to shape each customer’s experience.

Gap is heading back to 1996 with Hailey Bieber. The limited-edition Hailey Jean collection comes with a campaign full of boomboxes, corded phones, bulky computers, and the minimalist style that defined some of Gap’s most memorable ads. Bieber delivers the punchline herself: 1996 also happens to be the year she was born.

⚡ Get inspired: The most memorable marketing often finds new ways to build on what people already love. Stream every Think Summit New York 2026 session on demand to see how marketers from Amazon, Hibbett, Intuit TurboTax, PetSmart, The Home Depot, Bloomberg Media, and more are approaching customer engagement.

More from the week

Liquid I.V. and Samsung are both swinging into the next Spider-Man movie. Liquid I.V. is keeping Ned Leeds hydrated during a scorching New York day, while Samsung helps Spider-Man find a phone that can survive the job. Both partnerships extend beyond traditional ads with co-branded products, digital experiences, in-film appearances, and fan activations.

⚡ Get inspired: A single idea can stretch across products, content, digital touchpoints, and in-person activations. Our latest blog explains how Programmatic CRM brings that same coordination to owned channels, using AI to select the most relevant experience across email, mobile, and web.

Farmers Insurance is trading blue for pink. Its new “Honesty Is Our Policy” platform refreshes nearly a century of brand history with an all-pink identity and new lyrics set to its familiar jingle. The pieces are recognizable, but the brand is using them in a way designed to stand apart from a category filled with sameness.

⚡ Get inspired: Producing more campaigns, journeys, and creative variations doesn’t automatically help a brand stand out. This blog explores why campaign-based CRM is reaching its limits and what marketers can do when more marketing stops creating more relevance.