We asked marketers a single question in the summer of 2020: what is the year's best marketing campaign? The answers clustered faster than expected. Volkswagen's "The Last Mile" drew the most praise by a wide margin, with Gillette and Sephora taking the remaining votes.
Here is what they said, and why those three campaigns kept surfacing.
Volkswagen — "The Last Mile"
Sam Williamson, head of marketing at CBDiablo, pointed to the campaign Volkswagen built around the retirement of the Beetle as the company moved its line to electric. The centerpiece was an animated film tracing the Beetle's evolution through the eyes of a young boy. Williamson described it as an emotional piece dense with pop-culture references, one that made the case for the car's place in the culture rather than its specifications.
Carolyn Cairns, a marketing manager at Creation BCI, made the same pick. She noted the campaign's use of Andy Warhol, who made the Beetle a subject of his work, and Kevin Bacon, who drove one in Footloose. The homage structure did the argument for her: a car referenced that widely across decades of film and art has a cultural position most products never earn.
The structural lesson is worth isolating. Volkswagen was retiring a product, which is normally a communications problem. The campaign treated it as an occasion instead. The transition to electric became the reason for the tribute rather than an admission buried in a press release.
Gillette — "The Best Men Can Be"
Matt Scott, owner of Termite Survey, argued the Gillette campaign deserved more attention than the pandemic news cycle allowed it. The film called on men to reject objectification and what the brand termed toxic masculinity, arriving into the conversation the #MeToo movement had opened.
Scott's read was that the campaign raised awareness and brand visibility at once. That was the widely held view in the first half of 2020. The commercial picture turned out to be more complicated, and the campaign has since become one of the most closely studied brand-purpose cases on record. The full data file on "We Believe" covers the reception numbers, the demographic split, and the P&G writedown that followed.
Sephora — "Identify as We"
Samantha Moss, editor at Romantific, selected Sephora's Pride month campaign. The video work centered on LGBTQ+, non-binary, and gender-fluid identity, extending the brand's existing "We Belong to Something Beautiful" platform and built around influencer voices rather than brand narration.
Moss's point was about continuity. "Identify as We" did not arrive as a standalone Pride activation. It extended a platform Sephora had already established, which is the difference between a brand with a position and a brand renting one for thirty days. That distinction is the whole subject of inclusivity in marketing and where LGBTQ+ advertising goes wrong.
What the Three Have in Common
All three campaigns took a position that could have cost them something. Volkswagen retired an icon in public. Gillette addressed its own core demographic on uncomfortable terms. Sephora tied its brand to a contested identity conversation.
None of the three led with product. Each led with a claim about who the brand was, and let the product follow. That was the pattern in the marketing work people actually remembered from 2020, and it is why these three kept coming up when we asked.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
