In an age defined by algorithms and automation, there’s still one thing no machine can replicate: the power to move the human soul.

Soul Movers is a series of short films that explores that rare, electric force behind the people who move us. From Grammy-nominated vocalists and famous chefs to magicians, dancers, and speechwriters, these are the humans who remind us what it means to feel something real.

Each film explores what defines us at Connelly Partners, and our core belief: If you want to move customers’ feet, you have to first move their souls.

Will Burns, Chief Growth Officer

For most of my career, I’ve been inside or alongside ad agencies of every shape and size. I’ve worked within them, led them, pitched for them, and in recent years, consulted with them — often on their approach to new business. And if there’s one claim I’ve heard more than any other, it’s this one: “We’re a full-service agency, all under one roof.”

Every agency says it. Every deck, every website, every pitch. And every time, it’s not quite true.

The “Full-Service” Myth

Even the most talented 20-person shops I’ve consulted with confidently call themselves full service, usually because they’ve built a tight core team and then outsource what they need when they need it. It’s not deceitful — it’s just how the industry evolved. You find great specialists, build relationships, and assemble capabilities to meet the client’s needs.

But to say it’s all under one roof? It never is. Not really.

That was my baseline assumption—until I met Connelly Partners.

How It Started

What began as a consulting engagement quickly turned into something else. My task was to immerse myself in the Connelly Partners business: understand how they see themselves, how they sell, how they deliver.

I went deep. Ten senior employee interviews. Five recent pitches. Five RFP responses. Countless hours on their site and blog. I wanted to see what made this place tick.

And somewhere along the way, a realization hit me: this wasn’t another agency claiming integration. This was the first agency I’ve seen that actually is integrated.

No Assembly Required

Connelly Partners is the rare agency that truly lives up to that “full service” claim. Advertising, brand strategy, media planning and buying, digital, influencer marketing, production, even in-house editing — all actually under one roof (well, several roofs, given our teams in Boston and Dublin).

When that hit me, so did the client benefit.

For the past decade, marketers have been assembling ecosystems of “specialist” agencies — one for social, one for influencer, one for digital, another for media. On paper, it sounds smart: best-in-breed expertise across every channel.

In practice, it’s chaos. Every specialist brings a narrow view of the brand and, understandably, an agenda to sell more of their niche. So the marketer becomes the integrator — trying to align competing priorities, maintain brand consistency, and assemble a unified plan out of mismatched parts.

It’s exhausting.

At CP, that problem doesn’t exist. No assembly required.

One agency. One brand understanding. One cohesive plan. We can shift strategy on a Tuesday and deploy a new mix on Wednesday. Because when all the disciplines live together, collaboration isn’t a talking point — it’s just how work happens.

The Soul of the Agency

Of course, great structure means nothing without great spirit. What drew me in even more than CP’s integration was its ethos: We move customers’ feet by first moving their souls.

That line hit me because it’s not just a brand statement — it’s a truth. Everything here is guided by empathy, curiosity, and creativity that’s designed to drive real business outcomes. Emotional intelligence meets commercial intelligence. And it works.

From Consultant to CGO

My time consulting with CP’s leadership team went better than either of us expected. We clicked — philosophically, strategically, culturally. I saw an agency with enormous potential. A true full-service shop that nobody was giving full credit to.

So when the opportunity came to join as a fractional Chief Growth Officer, the decision was easy. My job now is to make sure marketers discover what I’ve discovered — that Connelly Partners is the real thing.

No assembly required.

In Canada’s fragmented $200B+ insurance market, differentiation is rare. Our partners at Navacord embarked on a massive transformation: unifying their diverse family of local brands—including established names like Waypoint—under one cohesive national identity. As Canada’s second largest brokerage, but new to the market as this brand, we needed to find a way to cut through and immediately put Navacord on the map, building awareness and trust.

While competitors lean into “adulting is hard” tropes or faceless digital forms, we focused on Navacord’s unique value proposition which lies in the intersection of local relationships and national resources. We moved away from transactional insurance marketing and embraced the very human, caring relationships that define their brokers. The people who don’t just sell policies but live beside the people they protect.

Speaking directly to hockey fans as part of a high-impact Sportsnet media buy during Canucks games, we used the striking visual of a goalie on a rainy city street as a metaphor for having the wrong protection. Through a kind gesture (a passer-by offering the goalie an “umbrella assist”) the message is clear: Navacord is here to ensure you have the right protection.

The campaign successfully introduced Navacord as a national powerhouse with a local heart, proving that even in a complex industry, the right protection starts with a human connection.

A first aid song designed to stick in your head, using musicology and neuroscience-led design to help build memory structures and improve recall in the moments that matter.

In partnership with Epilepsy Ireland, we’ve released a new single, “Time, Safe, Stay,” created to help the public remember what to do if they witness someone having a seizure. The track is a key part of Epilepsy Ireland’s International Epilepsy Day awareness activity and is designed as an earworm with a purpose: to help people recall seizure first aid quickly, even under pressure.

“Time, Safe, Stay” is the seizure first aid method Epilepsy Ireland recommends: Time the seizure, keep the person Safe during the seizure, and Stay with them until the seizure subsides. The campaign aims to make those three words genuinely memorable for the general public, so more people can respond calmly, safely and appropriately in the moments that matter.

There are approximately 45,000 people living with epilepsy in Ireland, yet many people only learn about epilepsy when it affects them or someone close to them. This campaign is designed to close that gap, replacing myths and uncertainty with a simple, practical message people can remember.

To make the message stick, we worked with sonic branding agency LaudHaus to create a track that’s intentionally engineered for recall. The song uses a clear melodic hook, a steady pace and rhythm, and a repetitious lyrical structure designed to build memory structures, which help the brain store the message so it’s easier to retrieve in a stressful situation.

The track was composed and performed by Richie Egan (Jape / The Redneck Manifesto) along with Keith Lawler of Laudhaus.

“In moments of crisis, like when someone is having a seizure, people don’t have time to think. So we needed to find a way to make our message – ‘Time, Safe, Stay’ – easy to remember in a stressful situation. Music is a powerful tool to do that: rhythm and rhyme improve recall and make it easier for your brain to store the steps for when they’re needed.”

Sam Moorhead, Creative Director, Connelly Partners
 

“Time, Safe, Stay” is available across major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, and via epilepsy.ie. The campaign is supported by shorter versions of the track that will run on radio/digital audio, and across all social platforms.

While the Seahawks and Patriots fought for the Lombardi Trophy at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, a different kind of high-stakes competition was playing out across the commercial breaks. Our team sat down to analyze the strategies that broke through the noise, evaluating the hits, the misses, and the head-scratchers. Between the heavy lean on 90s nostalgia, the swarm of celebrity cameos, and the quantity of AI content, we weighed in on which creative risks actually delivered a return on the most expensive airtime in history.

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In a blur of over-the-top, (now to be expected) random celebrity cameos, the ad that stood out to me was “Relax your Tight End” by Novartis. Differentiating and unexpected comedy from a Pharma giant, delivering an instant product-benefit connection without the usual lifestyle formula … all with the contextually relevant power of celebrity. Parody-driven tone and music with hard-hitting stats were perfectly executed. Home run.

Hillary Williams, Director of Brand Leadership

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We all knew AI was going to be front and center, and the “Good Will Dunkin’” spot was a great example of how AI can really bring an idea to life. It was a little creepy, sure, but still a fun concept. Nostalgia was everywhere too, and the VW spot bringing back the still-strong “Drivers Wanted” tagline was beautifully done. I’ve always had a soft spot for VW ads, so that one really stood out to me. But my favorite of the night was the Redfin Rocket Mortgage ad. It hit that sweet spot of great storytelling, a stunning Lady Gaga track, and a message that really sticks with you — one we could all use a reminder of. Finally, the spots for Claude were brilliant. They made me excited that concept is still king.

Alyssa Toro, Sr. Partner, Chief Creative Officer

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My personal MVP was Emma Stone for Squarespace (the cinematography alone!), but I was struck by two overall themes: low-fi nostalgia (Crypto.com and Dunkin) and a push for love, peace, and being a good person. In a world wrought with turmoil, many brands turned to happier moments (Redfin, Lays). As Bad Bunny famously says, “The only thing more powerful than hate, is love.”

Miranda Gaudet, New Business Director

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As someone who placed an ad this year, I have to admit that I watched the game with a different lens, knowing the perils of ad logs in a live, cultural event! So you could say my attention was certainly heightened ;). I thought Anthropic did a great job coming out swinging on ads in ChatGPT, and for those of us who use AI, they really hit the nail on the head in personifying what that experience could be like. I feel like campy nostalgia seemed to be on display, and while Dunkin’ kind of nailed it, Instacart did not, despite great celebrity talent. And while I realize this is unpopular and people are fed up with Coinbase, but seriously, we all sang along, right? And stayed and waited to see where it was going? 

Michelle Capasso, Partner, Chief Media Officer

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A lot of brands continue to play with nostalgia and tapping into the 90s, but I was specifically dialed in on the Xfinity Jurassic Park ad. The set up was classic to the film, but the relief that Xfinity brought to the scenario, and imagining what would have happened if the park had a more stable connection was perfect. It was a great example of a simple solution that a brand can articulate over and over again. Plus, it was fun too! Xfinity has been on a great run with their Super Bowl commercials over the past several years (remember Beyonce seeing if she could break the internet?). They continue to showcase the same strategy – Xfinity offers a strong connection – and have found a number of hyper relevant ways to show up, referencing current events, cultural icons, and more in order to excel in their creative showing.

Allyson Chapman, Associate Strategy Director

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I loved the simplicity of the Levi’s spot; it was a perfect, visual tribute to the brand’s history that didn’t need bells and whistles to be effective. The Uber Eats ad with Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper also stood out to me, because it got out of its own way with the script. Letting Matthew McConaughey ad-lib and play to his strengths created genuinely funny moments that didn’t feel forced.

JoAnne Borselli, Group Brand Director

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This year’s Super Bowl ads proved that celebrity cameos can’t rescue a weak concept. The Dunkin’ spot was the ultimate flop—a cluttered “advertising fever dream” that chose a celebrity bingo card over a clear idea. The most impactful moments skipped the glitz for raw emotion. By overlaying iconic sports speeches onto the stories of patients, these ads successfully translated grit and spirit into a real-world context.

Barry Frechette, Director of Production

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Lay’s “Last Harvest” stood out as Sunday’s emotional peak, hitting all the feels by highlighting the vital role of family farms. On the comedy front, William Shatner’s “Will Shat” double entendre for Raisin Bran took the crown—a hilarious, “if you know, you know” nod to the importance of fiber. Nostalgia was easily captured by the “Good Will Dunkin” throwback, while the influx of AI commercials felt like the worst of the bunch.

Michele Hart-Henry, Managing Director, CP Health

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This year’s winning ads leaned into a unifying theme of legacy, from the nostalgia of “Good Will Dunkin,” Levi’s iconic back pocket, and the Budweiser Clydesdales to modern spins like VW’s “Drivers Wanted” and our own Gorton’s Seafood spot. These commercials were universal hits in my family’s multi-generational group chat, though each age group—from the Silent Generation to Gen Z—interpreted “legacy” differently. Whether seen as vintage style, brand relevance, or pure sentimentality, it was a reminder that legacy isn’t just about history.

Carrie Parks, Managing Director

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Novartis took the top spot with their “Relax Your Tight End” ad, succeeding through a simple concept, relevant stars, and light-hearted humor that avoided the typical Super Bowl trap of over-complicating the message. On the other hand, ai.com was the night’s clear loser; their spot lacked substance and failed to offer a clear consumer benefit. Adding to the failure, their domain crashed immediately after the ad aired, signaling a lack of technical readiness. 

The winner in the ai category was Anguilla; with .ai domain sales already driving millions in revenue, the British Territory is the true beneficiary of the night’s AI-heavy messaging. Congratulations, Anguilla—you’re the real winner of Super Bowl 60.

John Norwood, Associate Brand Director

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This year’s broadcast confirmed that the most effective breakthrough strategies remain rooted in the familiar pillars of humor, nostalgia, and celebrity influence. The most successful brands used these elements to create an immediate connection with the viewer, bypassing the need for complex explanations. By blending star power with ‘throwback’ cultural beats, advertisers were able to create a sense of instant trust and emotional resonance that a new concept alone rarely achieves.

Scott Madden, Sr. Partner, Chief Strategy Officer

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Despite being a marketer who believes strongly in the power of brand storytelling, I have to admit that when I’m off the clock and sitting on my couch as a consumer, you can pull me in very easily with relatable humor and funny one-liners. I’m a cheap laugh, what can I say. So naturally I found myself enjoying a bunch of the comedic ads—a few that come to mind are State Farm’s “Stop Livin’ on a Prayer” with Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key and the nostalgia-focused “Good Will Dunkin” featuring some of my childhood favs.

But if I were to put my work hat back on, I personally loved Grubhub’s “The Feest.” These days people order food delivery like they breathe air, and one of the primary pain points that everyone talks about is all the extra fees. Grubhub creatively—yet very clearly—addressed that topic head-on, conveying a simple message that we can all get behind: no more fees (on orders of $50 or more…there always has to be a caveat, of course). The filming style, the dialogue, the little details (like calling it a “Feest”), and the George Clooney reveal all came together to make a really effective ad that raises awareness of something—no fees—that will resonate with the masses.

Neal Malone, Director of Social Media, Influencer Marketing, and PR

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At the end of the day, the best ads are the ones that keep the conversation going long after the final whistle. Whether it was a nostalgic throwback or a glimpse into the future of AI, this year’s lineup proved that a $10 million-dollar buy is only as good as the idea behind it. The game may be over, but the debate over who truly won the night is just beginning.

Gorton’s Seafood has been listed among 16 creative campaigns to know about by AdAge. The frozen seafood brand is leaning into its long history with a new campaign that puts the Fisherman character back at the center of the brand story. Titled “Trusted Since 1849,” a new spot traces Gorton’s 177-year run through changing eras by framing them from the perspective of its most enduring character, using familiarity as a way to signal consistency rather than nostalgia for its own sake. Now running across streaming TV and online video, the campaign positions the Fisherman as both a legacy figure and a contemporary guide, extending a presence the brand has also been building on TikTok and through recent experiential work.

See the full list from AdAge

Additional coverage:
Roastbrief: Gorton’s puts its most iconic figure center stage in new ‘Trusted Since 1849’ campaign

SHOOT has shared the top 10 stories that generated the most engagement of 2025. Topping the click tally was the news that indie agency Connelly Partners (CP) acquired McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB), the Boston-based creative shop behind campaigns for Subway, Sam Adams and Toyota. Additionally David Register, longtime creative lead at MMB, joined CP as executive creative director.

Read more here.

Scott Madden, Sr. Partner & Chief Strategy Officer

Like many, as I work from home this week, I’m also forming my short-list of resolutions for 2026. Some, like Dryuary and a daily Peloton ride, feel doomed from the get-go (they certainly do for me). After all, only 6% of all resolutions started on Jan. 1 are maintained all year. Even more profound, the majority of us break our resolutions by the 2nd Friday of January. But there’s an important lesson we can learn as strategists from these epic fails that may hold the secret to better campaign results in the New Year.

I’ll start by telling you what you already know: all audiences today are full-fledged members of the attention deficit society. And accordingly, we all bounce, or rather thumb, from one shiny thing on our screens to the next. Most of us don’t retain information in our heads as well as we did five years ago (Quick: Name the streamed series you watched just before the last series you watched? Can’t do it, can you?), and we certainly don’t focus throughout our day as we did before the era of reels, shorts, pings, and notifications set off Busy Brain Syndrome.

Behavior science tells us that most resolutions are bound to fail because they tend to be radical (all-in) and immediate (Jan. 1) changes in our common behavior, rather than more modest and gradual shifts. Most humans successfully enact change when the transformation is gradual and includes new elements. I’m not professing nudge theory here. I don’t believe that a linear series of nudges works in most situations, especially when you factor in Busy Brain. But as I think about what derails my resolutions year after year, I have come to realize that it’s more the ADD at work than it is my inability to find inner strength to see them through. And that’s where the lesson lies.

We all start with a specific motivation when it comes to acting on a resolution. “I want to be in better shape,” “I want to get into my favorite bathing suit and feel comfortable in it,” “I want to swear less and be more patient,”….(two of the three are mine BTW, feel free to guess which). But with Busy Brain, that one motivation can be forgotten or deemed less inspiring as quickly as the name of last month’s streamed series.

The lesson I’m proposing is that audiences today need multiple motivations to get them to take an action we want them to take. Think of it as a series of micro motivations that you lean into when crafting message strategy; they should be a mix of emotional and functional. Above all they should be multiple, each addressing a defined micro motivation. “I want to feel confident” is an emotional micro motivation. “I want to have more muscle definition” is a related, but functional micro motivation. “I want to have more energy at the end of my day, to be more fun with my spouse,” yet another.

When we embrace the idea that a series of distinct micro motivations, when well defined, should be seeded across multiple message strategies throughout all of our content, we give our audiences more ‘sparks’ to drive desired actions and in doing so, lower the risk of them becoming less shiny or forgotten. And each of those sparks will likely work more effectively at different moments in time given the headspace of our audience when our content reaches them. Analytics will help us recognize which micro motivations work best where and when and optimize accordingly. And that, my friends, is how you make campaigns perform better in the new year.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2026!

We are thrilled to announce that Connelly Partners has been ranked #1 in the U.S. and #5 Globally for 2025 in the prestigious Lürzer’s Archive.

For decades, Lürzer’s has been the global benchmark for the industry, championing advertising that is simple, powerful, and deeply conceptual. Being recognized at the top of this list isn’t just an honor; it’s a validation of our approach to storytelling and craft.

This year, six different campaigns earned their place in the Archive, representing a diverse range of our client partners. Having such a high volume of work recognized in a single year speaks to the depth of our creative bench. It proves that high-level conceptual thinking is applied to every brief that enters our doors, regardless of the industry or medium.

This ranking is a testament to the talent of our team and the bravery of our clients.

 Neal Malone, Director of Social Media, Influencer Marketing, and PR

AI Resistance, Creator Rates, and Performance Marketing 

Asking a social media or influencer marketing executive for 2026 industry predictions is like asking a meteorologist what the weather is going to be like next month. They’ll give you their best guess, but when it comes down to it, we could get a massive snowstorm or a series of unseasonably warm days.

Like any good meteorologist, though, we never shy away from a prediction—even if the industry landscape is moving at the speed of a Nor’easter. Here are four social media and influencer marketing thoughts we have going into the new year: 

1. Social media will be a very unwelcoming place for AI

As AI continues to flourish across industries, it’s going to be met with significant resistance on social media. It’s so easy to get swept up in all the ways AI is transforming our world—and in many cases that’s true. But in case you haven’t noticed, social media is quickly becoming a place where anything that even might be AI-generated is deemed “slop” and gets rejected immediately.

Here’s the thing—you can adopt AI in many facets of life while still rejecting it in others. It’s a great collaborator and productivity generator, but it’s just not what people (especially Gen Z) want to see in their feed. So in 2026, get ready for social media to be a safe haven for everyone looking for good ol’ fashioned authenticity and humanity.

2. Creator content will become paid social fuel 

Remember when you could reach large audiences with organic content? Ahhh, those were the days. Fast-forward to today and the platform algorithms have made organic reach almost impossible to predict. Concerning? Maybe. But a more optimistic take is that it’s simply changing how brands should be viewing creator partnerships. 

Partnering with creators used to be about renting access to their followers, but now that you’re only reaching a fraction of their audience organically, brands should instead be viewing creator partnerships as content generators for their paid social campaigns. There’s still a ton of value in brand messaging coming from a trusted third-party voice as opposed to a logo. It’s just that your content now requires a little boost.

The changing landscape means that the connection between creator content and performance marketing is as strong as ever. Brands should be treating authentic, creator-generated content not just as one-off organic posts, but as perpetual assets that can be tested, optimized, and scaled across paid social platforms. You’re going to see more and more brands moving beyond traditional ad formats and instead powering their entire paid social strategy with content that carries the undeniable trust and authentic voice of a creator.

3. The bubble might finally burst for creator rates

Anyone who works in influencer marketing knows firsthand how much time and effort goes into each brand partnership—both on the creator and agency/brand side. It takes immense talent and creativity to do what creators do, and that shouldn’t be overlooked. 

But with organic reach way down and paid amplification almost essential to get the eyeballs you’re looking for, the climbing rates are becoming much harder to justify. For a while now, the inflationary environment around rates has seemed unsustainable, and in 2026, we may see brands finally say “enough is enough, we’ll go find someone else.”

4. The line between social content and TV will only get blurrier 

When you sit down to watch your favorite TV show these days, it’s only a matter of time until you see creator-generated content in some form or fashion. Maybe it’s a brand spot powered by creator content or a social video running as a standalone ad. Either way, you’re seeing the social sphere blend into the traditional media world.

The feeling is mutual, too. Creators are searching for new ways to entertain their audiences, and that means turning their social channels into….well, TV. Episodic content, short films, live events, and reality programming are all extremely popular among creators. Call it blurred lines, call it mutual admiration—you just see a lot of one when you’re watching the other. This trend will only become more obvious in 2026.