The first month of the year often sets the tone for the creativity that will shape the months ahead. This January, across industries and geographies, the most resonant work isn’t chasing novelty for its own sake. Instead, brands, agencies, and creators are returning to the idea of human connection.
This month’s adoboPicks brings together stories that show how creativity is evolving in a world shaped by AI, data, and platforms, without losing sight of people, culture, and lived experience.
From human-led approaches and artificial intelligence to campaigns that turn tradition into collaboration, to frictionless brand experiences and handcrafted design that resists digital fatigue, these works reflect a global creative shift toward empathy, relevance, and meaning.
Stories from the road: Inside Grab’s human-led Driver AI Ambassador Program (Philippines)
Grab’s human-led Driver AI Ambassador Program reframes the AI conversation by putting people at the center. By empowering drivers to become ambassadors who bridge technology and lived experience, Grab proves that AI adoption works best when it is guided by trust, empathy, and community voices. It’s a reminder that innovation scales fastest when it grows from the ground up, not the top down.
“The Driver AI Ambassador Program is designed to reimagine influence — shifting it from traditional content creators to the people who live the brand every day: our drivers. AI is the enabler, but the stories, the voice, and the truth come from them,” Grab Philippines’ Head of Integrated Marketing Services, Jewel Oliveros said in a statement.
Coca-Cola taps Gen Z to reimagine Chinese New Year 2026 (China)
Coca-Cola’s Chinese New Year campaign recognizes that while the holiday’s core values such as family reunion and togetherness remain unchanged, the way it is celebrated continues to evolve.
Anchored on the theme “Spark Every Moment and Let Us Come Together This Chinese New Year,” the campaign speaks directly to a new generation that values tradition but expresses it differently.
The brand’s key insight is that Gen Z isn’t abandoning cultural rituals; instead, they are reinterpreting them. Traditional moments like watching the Spring Festival Gala together or preparing classic holiday food still matter, but younger audiences are blending these with digital habits, social media, and contemporary experiences.
Furthermore, Coca-Cola positions itself as a bridge between generations, showing how shared moments can feel just as meaningful whether they happen around a dining table, on a screen, or through collaborative, modern traditions.
By encouraging young people to actively shape joyful and inclusive celebrations, the campaign reframes togetherness as something dynamic and evolving.
PAL, BBDO Guerrero turn in flight safety into a telenovela moment with MMFF debut
Who said safety briefings have to be forgettable?
Philippine Airlines (PAL), in collaboration with BBDO Guerrero, transformed the familiar in-flight safety video into a creative and culturally resonant experience called a “Safetynovela.”
Titled “Care That Comes From The Heart,” the video abandons the usual procedural demonstrations in favor of drama, tension, and emotional storytelling inspired by iconic Filipino telenovelas.
By embedding safety instructions within a compelling narrative, PAL turned a typically overlooked requirement into a moment that engages and entertains passengers. Even though it wasn’t part of the official Metro Manila Film Festival lineup, the video captured attention from both audiences and industry observers, highlighting how cultural insight and creativity can make even mandatory communications meaningful and memorable.
“This project challenged us to rethink safety communication from the ground up. Filipino audiences connect through story, emotion, and shared cultural language so we embraced that truth. The Safetynovela reflects our commitment to elevating even the most functional parts of the journey,” PAL Vice President for Marketing Alvin Miranda said.
“We are all familiar with in-flight safety videos, and this familiarity can lead people to pay less attention to them. Working with Philippine Airlines, we wanted to change that by tapping into the love people have for telenovelas and creating one they’d watch all the way to the end. The Metro Manila Film Festival is the perfect stage for the Safetynovela, connecting us with an audience that loves a good story,” BBDO Guerrero Creative Chairman, David Guerrero added.
Marriott International, BBH Singapore show how loyalty can be effortless with Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott International, in partnership with BBH Singapore, has launched a new ad campaign for its award-winning loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy, centered on the idea that loyalty can be simple. The campaign, titled “Loyalty’s Just That Easy,” addresses the common perception that loyalty programs are only for frequent travelers or business elites and often require too much effort to be worthwhile.
By showcasing Marriott Bonvoy as a program for everyone, the campaign highlights how points can be easily earned and redeemed — not just for hotel stays across more than 30 brands at various price points, but also for spending on food, beverages, and spa services. As a result, this makes loyalty effortless and accessible for all travelers.
By designing seamless, intuitive experiences, Marriott and BBH Singapore show how brands can reward customers simply by respecting their time, turning ease and effortlessness into the ultimate value proposition.
Spotify Wrapped 2025 becomes a communal celebration in Vietnam through Happiness Saigon
Spotify Wrapped has always been personal but in Vietnam, it becomes communal.
Happiness Saigon has made Spotify Wrapped 2025 in Vietnam its most ambitious local edition yet, transforming the global year-end recap into shared, real-world experiences that celebrate fandom and local culture.
Unlike the typical focus on personal reflection, this campaign shifts toward collective celebration, reflecting how music in Vietnam is rarely solitary by listening habits spill into fan groups, memes, comment sections, and everyday conversations.
Embracing the playful, vocal, and emotionally invested nature of Vietnamese fandoms, the campaign interprets fan behavior itself as culture, giving it physical form and enabling fans to connect through shared knowledge and inside jokes.
A standout example is the viral “bring me an orange juice” meme from Gaga and Ed Sheeran, which Spotify turned into a giant orange juice installation. Anchored by pop star Orange, it made a fleeting internet joke a tangible, communal experience that is unapologetically Vietnamese.
Through Happiness Saigon’s localized execution, data transforms into a collective celebration of identity, music, and culture.
BE REALE: A handmade manifesto for seeing beyond the camera
Rounding out this month’s picks is BE REALE, a handmade manifesto that pushes back against hyper-digital culture.
BE REALE, a new photography project by Ale Burset, is a family-led, fully artisanal initiative that celebrates craft, emotion, and the human eye over technology.
Entirely AI-free, the project aims to return to the raw, unfiltered joy of image-making. By transforming basic, generic cameras into personalized, expressive tools, BE REALE turns the act of taking photos into an emotional experience, emphasizing that vision and intuition are at the heart of capturing and preserving meaningful moments.
With contributions from a diverse group of guest collaborators including Serpa, Versolato, Dubrik, Balarin, Gola, Valero, Posada, Macias, Ibañez, Sazky, and many more, the project becomes a collective, unrepeatable exploration of storytelling, where each image is treated not as an end point but as a beginning, with narratives shaped by those who choose to see differently.
BE REALE stands as a manifesto for authenticity in an increasingly automated world, celebrating the enduring power of human perspective, craftsmanship, and the timeless act of truly seeing.
Ultimately, across platforms, borders, and disciplines, January’s adoboPicks reveal a creative industry recalibrating toward meaning. Technology is present, culture is central, and craft is intentional — but at the heart of it all is a simple truth: the most impactful ideas are still deeply, unmistakably human.
