From sweating on the Northern Line to the seasonal slump that comes hand in hand with the summer season, keeping creative demands a relentless commitment to curiosity. With that in mind, BITE has asked industry leaders to share what work is inspiring them this summer. Flora Joll, Strategy Director at JOAN London, shares that the work inspiring her this summer has cultural cut-through. 

Between sport, music and film, there is no shortage of inspiration outside the world of creative agencies to be had this summer, but there is plenty of work within it worth getting excited about. 

People doing free stuff really well are Curry’s and Burger King. The former giving out worldwide adapters at the Pitbull gig was absolutely inspired: jumping on the contagious nature of the mass bald tributes his fans were making at the O2, and dancing around giving away products no one would ever pay any attention to outside an airport was superb culture-piercing sampling. 

Burger King teaming up with EA Sports to give away burgers as part of the move to make Stevenage the most used team in the League Two club (English Fourth Division). Not hard to get gamers to eat burgers, or get people to eat free burgers, but it is hard to do it well and put Stevenage on the map at the same time. 

Recent examples of cultural relevance obviously include Oasis tributes: Lidl continue to smash it here, and turning up in a refreshing way compared to what is expected from brands at sporting events: Stella making a limited edition white can for Wimbledon stood out from the strawberries and most recently, Tesco jumping on the words hidden in long copy ads by bringing it home for the Lionesses on their receipt OOH execution. Liquid IV hijacked Times Square at 4pm to create a moment we didn’t know we needed and made people think about their hydration. 

Inspiringly good out of home, Kit Kat's grand prix winning outdoor campaign 'phone break' is really nice and of course simple: illustrating our phones are attached to our hands and it is a simple ask to put it down and have a chocolate biscuit. Also, Polaroid’s nostalgic outdoor campaign has been a big hit at JOAN, and does the job of referencing the past without driving home the product’s limited ability to innovate. 

Notable outliers that are harder to categorise and all the better for that: Do the Course - Make New Zealand the Best Place in the World to Have Herpes is brilliant, and does that famously hard thing of trying to incite behaviour change, bring levity to a thing that scares people and is still a bit taboo, and has globally travelled as a testament to its success. Finally, a luxury example from Hermès whose activation was a murder mystery-style game that consistent of 6 rooms telling the house’s full brand story, was open for 10 days and injected some tangibility and fun to a brand that can get bogged down exclusivity and all the codes that go along with that: but anyone can find some missing horses, after all.