PROBLEM
Stagwell’s inaugural SPORT BEACH at Cannes Lions 2023, the flagship sports business destination at the festival, was a great success –featuring nearly 40 athletes and drawing more than 5,000 attendees. But to elevate the guest experience in 2024, Stagwell needed a cutting-edge digital ecosystem: a premium, seamless digital experience across web and app that matched the energy of the live event, streamlined scheduling, and personalized attendee engagement.
SOLUTION
Stagwell tapped Code and Theory to design and engineer a fully integrated SPORT BEACH website (sportbeach.com) and app in less than five months. The app featured an AI Assistant powered by Stagwell’s Enterprise ChatGPT, offering real-time event recommendations, scheduling tools, and local insights. Leveraging Sanity’s Content Cloud and Vercel’s hosting, the system enabled dynamic content updates, real-time integrations, and a scalable infrastructure for future events.
RESULTS
SPORT BEACH’s digital transformation delivered impressive results, with an 89% user registration completion rate, surpassing the industry average by 50%. In less than five months, the new website and app were designed, engineered, and launched, creating a seamless digital experience that enhanced attendee engagement. With a scalable foundation now in place, SPORT BEACH is poised for an even more impactful Cannes 2025.
About Code and Theory: The Code and Theory Network is the only technology and creative network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Its unique makeup makes it the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses.
PROBLEM
Adobe launched a competitive global RFP seeking an innovative agency and holding company network partner that could become its most trusted partner. The goal was to develop a truly global campaign with a central red-thread idea across four key regions and over 100 markets, while also driving strategic growth amid rising competition and market share erosion.
SOLUTION
Stagwell brought together a unified team from 72andSunny, Code and Theory, Movers+Shakers, Locaria, and National Research Group to develop a solution, emphasizing two key value propositions: our collaborative and creative strength in driving profitable outcomes, and an innovative joint go-to-market model. Through our differentiators, our team offered strong strategic insights, creative leadership, and innovation to drive growth and groundbreaking ideas. By adopting a customer-zero mindset, this partnership also automated content supply chains for brands streamlining the delivery of content for marketing campaigns and personalized customer experiences with Adobe.
RESULTS
Stagwell’s approach to Adobe’s global RFP proved our challenger approach works, earning trust across the C-suite with our non-traditional strategic go-to-market growth market strategy. As a result, Stagwell was named Adobe’s global lead for creative campaigns and social content in both its Digital Media alongside Adobe’s Digital Experience and its (DX) business —our biggest, most transformative AOR RFP win to date. Stagwell’s early successes at Adobe have already led to a 30% increase in Adobe’s year-one investment in its marketing services.
ABOUT THE AGENCIES
- 72andSunny is a global marketing agency that unlocks possibilities for the world’s most ambitious brands. Driven by their founding value of optimism, 72andSunny leads with unparalleled strategy, disruptive creativity, and is driven to expand and diversify the creative class. Recognized 14 times by Ad Age’s A-List and honored as “Agency of the Year” by both Adweek and Ad Age, 72andSunny continues to push the boundaries of innovation.
- Code and Theory: The Code and Theory Network is the only technology and creative network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Its unique makeup makes it the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses.
- Locaria is an always-on multilingual content agency helping creative, brand marketing and digital media teams to scale global campaigns.
- With 250 billion views on their social campaigns, Movers+Shakers drives fandom with Gen Z and Millennials. The socially-native creative agency is a 3x “Small Agency of the Year” by Ad Age and one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies in the World.”
- National Research Group (NRG) is a leader in data driven insights and strategic consultation to the global entertainment and technology industries.
PROBLEM
The 2024 U.S. election played out against a landscape of mistrust fueled by misinformation, deep political divides, and an emerging wave of AI-generated doubt. NBC recognized that regaining public confidence wasn’t about louder headlines or flashier graphics. It was about turning raw data into a source of clarity. With NBC’s Steve Kornacki as the nation’s most trusted data interpreter, the opportunity wasn’t just to inform; it was to find a partner to help NBC reconnect audiences with precise and real-time data around the election clock.
SOLUTION
Code and Theory built a system capable of ingesting millions of data points, updating in real-time, and clearly delivering insights across multiple languages and platforms, from NBC to MSNBC, Telemundo to YouTube and TikTok. To get it right, the team embedded itself in Kornacki’s process, mapping his habits, preferences, and decision-making to engineer a system that could respond as fast as he could think. The Big Board became more than a tool; it was an extension of the storyteller himself. Viewers weren’t just watching returns –they were experiencing a form of narrative data journalism that made the noise intelligible. When the numbers turned chaotic, it stayed calm. Its precision became a pressure valve for a country on edge, reminding millions that truth still had a place on live television.
RESULTS
NBC’s Big Board is today’s fastest, most accurate real-time data storytelling platform. It takes four seconds to ingest, verify and deliver data from anywhere in the country to the Big Board live on air. The end result was instant access to 10 million data points from 16 years of electoral data and results. Election 2024 marked MSNBC’s most viewers in network history, surpassing rival CNN for the first time. MSNBC’s YouTube channel achieved a record-breaking 30 million video views on election day, marking its single strongest day on record.
About Code and Theory: The Code and Theory Network is the only technology and creative network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Its unique makeup makes it the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses.
PROBLEM
Target, a leading retail brand, had established a strong presence across various social media platforms. However, over time, its social channels had evolved into a broad content hub, lacking a clear strategic focus. Instead of serving as a driver for innovation and growth, the platforms became cluttered with diverse content that diluted Target’s brand message and engagement potential. Target needed to redefine its social media strategy to transform its channels from a content catch-all into a focused, growth-oriented asset.
SOLUTION
Crispin transformed Target’s social strategy by blending connection and commerce, using entertainment to drive engagement and sales. Instead of chasing trends, they reimagined product storytelling in a culturally relevant way. A standout example of this new strategy is Pets of Tarjay, a reality TV-inspired campaign that humanized pets and showcased products through the eyes of pets, seamlessly integrating products into engaging content.
RESULTS
This strategic approach boosted Target’s social relevance and expanded its reach. The socially disruptive idea that taps into very real cultural trends, Pets of Tarjay was the brand’s first reality-inspired social series, and one of the most talked about social campaigns with 22 million organic views on social owned channels. The humor and wholesomeness attracted viewers to the content, sharing love not only for the campaign, but also intent to purchase specific featured products.
About Crispin: Crispin is a full-service agency that taps into social and cultural conversation to drive business on behalf of brands.
PROBLEM
Marketers today face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more precise, and data-driven decisions in an environment that’s increasingly fragmented across platforms, devices, and markets. Simultaneously, they must navigate shifting consumer behaviors, rising demand for personalization, and tightening data privacy regulations—making it harder than ever to connect the dots between insights, activation, and measurable impact.
SOLUTION
Assembly launched STAGE AI, a next-generation enhancement of its marketing operating system, designed to be smarter, faster, and sharper than ever before. Built on the robust and scalable infrastructure of Google Cloud, and with key support provided by Google Cloud partner, SADA, An Insight company, STAGE AI embeds advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. This solution transforms how marketers process data, uncover insights, and make decisions. It centralizes intelligence across fragmented ecosystems, automates complex analysis, and delivers real-time recommendations—empowering brands to act with greater speed, precision, and agility across global campaigns.
RESULTS
STAGE AI, engineered using Google Cloud, delivers significant gains in speed, data connectivity, and predictive intelligence—enabling brands to stay ahead in an increasingly dynamic and competitive landscape. By automating time-consuming tasks, seamlessly integrating data across sources, and generating forward-looking insights, STAGE AI empowers marketers to respond to changes in real time, personalize strategies at scale, and continuously optimize performance. It’s a future-ready solution that can transform how brands operate—making them faster to act, smarter in their decisions, and stronger in their outcomes.
About Assembly:Assembly is a leading global omnichannel media agency that merges data, talent, and technology to build more connected omni-experiences that make brands perform.
PROBLEM
For Snapdragon Summit 2024, Qualcomm faced the challenge of showcasing its new Snapdragon 8 Elite’s integrated AI, XR, and automotive capabilities beyond traditional presentations. The complexity lay in transforming invisible computational advancements into tangible experiences that would demonstrate real-world applications simultaneously. Audiences needed to physically experience how on-device AI processing could revolutionize interactions. This required creating a reliable, multi-sensory demonstration that pushed hardware boundaries while engaging diverse attendees—with authentic, unscripted interactions.
SOLUTION
Left Field Labs partnered with Qualcomm to create the first outside-of-lab demonstration of Snapdragon 8 Elite’s on-device AI capabilities. LFL designed a 3D-printed Snapdragon City on an LED floor showcasing two interactive journeys: automotive experiences via Quest 3 headsets and mobile tech on Qualcomm reference devices. Visitors interacted with conversational AI agents on Snapdragon hardware—marking the first use of on-device generative AI in an interactive XR environment, proving Snapdragon’s leadership in real-time AI processing.
RESULTS
This was Qualcomm’s first live demonstration of on-device generative AI in an interactive XR environment, using LLAMA (large language model meta AI)-based national language processing for real-time computing. Attendees didn’t just watch—they experienced Snapdragon 8 Elite firsthand. The magic happened when visitors realized this wasn’t pre-rendered content but technology responding to them in real-time. Through AR/mixed reality explorations of Automotive, Mobile, and Gaming solutions, guided by conversational AI, this activation showcased Qualcomm’s leadership while creating genuine human moments of discovery. In its initial success, the Snapdragon City experience was expanded to CES 2025 and featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live, bringing the immersive technology to mainstream audiences.
About Left Field Labs: Left Field Labs is a team of engineers, designers, strategists, information architects and creative technologists who thrive at the intersection of imagination and scientific rigor.
PROBLEM
How do you get Gen Z to care about taxes? This was a question H&R Block needed to answer to become the company of choice for young and first-time tax filers. Recognizing that traditional advertising methods focused on a topic like taxes would likely be dismissed by this generation, they needed a more innovative, community-centric approach to capture their attention and keep H&R Block top of mind while reminding Gen Z about tax season.
SOLUTION
According to GWI, over 50% of Gen Z list gaming among their personal interests. To reach them, GALE created a custom tax-themed competition within Minecraft, the #1 most played Gen Z video game. The Minecraft Competitive League competition featured top gamers from across the country and a live-streamed creator tournament with a $100,000 prize pool. The goal was to create an event and rewards that would resonate with the gaming community, building brand love and loyalty through entertainment.
RESULTS
The H&R Block-branded Minecraft character, Sir Block, was created and quickly became a player favorite. Once gamers discovered his ability to “tax” other players, depleting their resources, every team chose to play this character—fostering brand love for the company behind the character. The activation drove 730K+ unique viewers and a 101% increase in website traffic for H&R Block during the campaign. Gaming drove a 39% lift in consideration with our target audience—the largest growth of all channels including TV, streaming, and social.
About GALE: GALE is a Business Agency bringing business insights to brand storytelling, activating across every channel. With expertise in business strategy, CRM, loyalty, brand storytelling, integrated, performance, creative, and content marketing, experience design and media, GALE creates marketing systems and communications that grow businesses.
PROBLEM
Market research is only as good as where the data comes from: your underlying survey panel. And unfortunately, actions of the major players in the market have degraded the trustworthiness of data. As brands and researchers increasingly deploy next-gen consumer understanding tools, there is a gap in the market for a reputable and dependable survey panel asset.
SOLUTION
Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s Unlock Surveys was created to address the shortcomings with existing survey panels. It holds a database of nearly a million consumers across the US, Canada, and the UK who have agreed to participate in research surveys for ad tests and brand tracking. Unlock Surveys is also a key part of SMC’s emerging ID Graph technology, providing the real-time attitudinal insights that power next-gen consumer understanding.
RESULTS
Unlock Surveys is a triumph in terms of market research quality, efficiency, and cost savings. Since launching in March 2024, Unlock Surveys has increased its revenue more than 10x YoY, added over 100,000 additional verified members in the US, and absorbed more than $4 million in Stagwell research spend that would otherwise have gone to third-party vendors. Internationally, Unlock grew its number of unique users in the UK database around 75%.
About Stagwell Marketing Cloud: Stagwell Marketing Cloud is a suite of AI-powered, data-driven solutions built for the modern marketer, spanning research, communications, creative, and media.
ContextLens: Introducing the first AI-driven anticipatory design system
PROBLEM
Polling data can be complex and challenging for readers to interpret when presented without context, limiting understanding of significant trends. Traditional static visualizations often lack the interactivity to explore deeper layers of information, requiring readers to search across multiple pages to gain a complete picture. Isolated data hinders the public’s abilities to comprehend dynamic insights, a limitation especially pronounced during high-stakes periods like the 2024 election cycle. Publishers also routinely struggle with organizing vast datasets into easily accessible and engaging content for their readers.
SOLUTION
To address these challenges, Code and Theory worked with RealClearPolling to introduce ContextLens, a pioneering AI-powered data visualization and interpretation tool. This anticipatory design system leverages generative AI to intuitively adapt to the reader’s needs by displaying contextual information directly on the RealClearPolling platform. ContextLens can answer any questions asked by “reading” the page metadata to offer related data suggestions in real-time, transforming how readers engage with polling data on RealClearPolling, offering interactive, visual data summaries for easy comprehension of complex electoral insights.
RESULTS
With 1,000 users per minute, a 99.99% stability rate, and a 3-second response time, ContextLens enhances reader engagement and provides publishers new advertising opportunities. The AI is designed with a focus on accuracy, reducing misinformation risks, while reinforcing RealClearPolitics’ commitment to unbiased, intelligent political reporting.
About Code and Theory: The Code and Theory Network is the only technology and creative network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Its unique makeup makes it the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses.
PROBLEM
For their “Best Phones Forever” series—where Pixel and iPhone are friends, not competitors—Google had to turn a traditional campaign into an interactive, fan-driven experience. The challenge was generating personalized content in real-time while showcasing Google’s AI. They needed a solution to create high-quality, brand-consistent videos at scale, blending AI power with human creativity while maintaining control.
SOLUTION
Left Field Labs, Google, and The Mill created “Best Phones Forever: AI Roadtrip,” the first AI-powered social media experience. LFL designed a generative content engine using Google’s AI—Gemini, Imagen, and Cloud Text-to-Speech. Fans suggested locations, and a smart ecosystem transformed ideas into scripts, visuals, and audio, ensuring AI and humans kept everything on-brand and high-quality.
RESULTS
This innovative campaign produced 306 unique videos from thousands of comments, becoming @googlepixel_us’s top post with millions of views. Fans saw their suggestions shape the journey, making it truly interactive. By merging AI content generation with social media, Google set a new benchmark for brand engagement, showing how AI enables audiences to co-create authentic content at scale.
About Left Field Labs: Left Field Labs is a team of engineers, designers, strategists, information architects and creative technologists who thrive at the intersection of imagination and scientific rigor.