Doodle Inspirations – September 11

At NDP, we pride ourselves on staying on top of the industry – what’s new, what’s trending, what’s surprised us. Here are a few things that caught our attention and got us talking this past week: 

A creative execution from Helsinki had our hearts bursting with joy. The OOH execution done in celebration of Helsinki Pride Week featured Burger King and Ronald McDonald touting “Love Conquers All.” We love this cheeky execution that brings together two competitors that stand for equality, love and value.


Movie theaters have started reopening post COVID safety mandates and Labor Day number for studios didn’t disappoint. Tenet opened in theaters helping provide the third-highest Labor Day opening of all time and touts reports of some watchers flying across state lines where theaters are still closed in order to see the film. Theater owners feel moviegoers are excited to go back to theaters, but audiences will take time to rebuild having implications on advertisers’ delivery numbers. While it will take more than two weeks to see how quickly the recovery for movie theaters will go, we are excited for the industry to have this captive audience opportunity return to consideration sets for media mixes.


Fox News is taking an interesting approach to advertising opportunities associated with the election. With media coverage already discussing the traditional election night turning into election week, the cable news network is offering election day advertisers the to opportunity to extend their ad buys in order to capitalize on expected elongated coverage. With six major sponsors already signed up for their election coverage, we’re interested to see if this model turns into one adopted by other major news outlets and are contemplating implications on media buys and makegoods during this possible election week situation.


While Peloton has hit its stride during COVID in terms of churning profits and tripling paid digital subscriptions, other home fitness brands have taken notice and are kicking off their holiday marketing plans early. While 2019 had Peloton as the solo home fitness marketer between May and September, this year has seen Bowflex, NordicTrack and Mirror join the fray with TV ads. Believing their entering the market is less about taking market share from each other, industry insiders are saying the goal is to go after the traditional gym-goer who is leery of returning to the traditional gym environment until vaccines exist. As many of us are re-evaluating our own gym memberships, we’re excited to see the prices on many of these products declining, but are waiting to see if the home-fitness bubble bursts once that vaccine is available and if these platforms eventually open to advertising opportunities.