ADWEEK's 2025 Social Marketing Masters Deliver Results With Boldness, Humor, and Cultural Savvy

Marketing is firmly in its social-first era. No longer a media or performance buy, social platforms and creators are now essential for brands to connect with communities, drive engagement and deliver sales. ADWEEK’s inaugural Social Marketing Masters list honors the individuals, teams and campaigns cutting through the noise in the attention economy, translating clicks and impressions into business results. Selected by our editorial team, the 2025 class of Social Marketing Masters spotlights the brand team that turned a TikTok trend into a sales boost, agencies shaping culture through their work, and social media managers using absurdist humor to appeal to Gen Z. —Rebecca Stewart Best Social/Creator Agency: Whalar Full-service indie creator agency Whalar had a bumper 12 months, leading to a surge in AOR wins from brands including Peacock and Nestlé Health Science. Beyond adding to its bottom line, last May the business became LinkedIn’s first creator marketing partner, with a remit to pair brands with talent on the platform. Whalar also inked a deal with iHeartMedia that will identify creators who could expand their reach beyond social media into radio and podcasts. As the influencer economy evolves, Whalar is leading industry-wide efforts to demonstrate the necessity of creators, both to brand KPIs and cultural conversations. The strategy is paying off. Recent Nielsen research found that Whalar campaigns deliver an ROI of $2.41, outperforming expectations and surpassing all other media channels. Whalar credits its people as its “superpower,” and with an 81% talent retention rate they’re sticking around. So what’s their recipe for success? “Stand for something, own it, celebrate it, and be open about it,” according to North America president Jo Cronk. Best Agency Social Team: Dentsu Creative for Nutter Butter Dentsu’s absurdist takeover of Nutter Butter’s social channels—imagine creative somewhere between a “horror movie and an acid trip”—has fans scratching their heads. And opening their wallets. Tapping into both fear and fascination, Nutter Butter’s recent unhinged posts on TikTok and Instagram have been lauded as “genius” and “winning social media” by Gen Z fans. For one of the smallest Mondelez International brands, the impact has been enormous, yielding over 251 million impressions, 1.3 million new followers (a 215% year-over-year increase,) and a 16.5% rise in household penetration. The stats are even more remarkable given Nutter Butter forgoes paid social reach in favor of native content. Dentsu’s social teams work overtime as extensions of the brand, giving them the creative freedom to make their point (whatever it may be). For Nutter Butter, Zach Poczekaj, Olivia Matalon, Lorena Pedetti, Sandra Yang and Aidan Maloney—the peanut cookie superfan who inspired the whole campaign—tag-teamed with Dentsu Creative social leadership Bridget Jewell, Tony Wood and Kristin Maverick on this sweet slam-dunk. Poczekaj said it’s all about listening to the audience and letting their ideas lead the way. “They will be all the more emotionally invested in your brand for it,” he explained. Best B2B Campaign: "Find Your Favorites on Snapchat" In January, Snapchat harnessed the public’s trepidation about a potential TikTok ban and created a solution with “Find Your Favorites on Snapchat.” The social platform roped in creators Savannah Demers, Avani Gregg, Harry Jowsey, and Loren Gray for the campaign, going all-in on playing hardball with its Chinese-owned rival. Ultimately, audiences took note: Snap saw an uptick in search and engagement after “Find Your Favorites” launched. Its recent unified Monetization Program, in which eligible creators can earn a portion of Snap’s ad revenue, didn’t hurt interest either. “We wanted to highlight Snapchat as the place where people naturally connect with their favorite creators and brands,” Snap CCO Colleen DeCourcy said, “and the response reflected that.” Best Brand Social Team: Duolingo “Our goal is always to make something so good it has to make it to the group chat,” said Duolingo campaign director Michaela Kron-Hags. It’s safe to say Duolingo has showed up in those moments over the last 12 months, generating buzz by killing off its mascot with “Dead Duo” (its most viral campaign to date), crashing Charli XCX’s Brat tour, and its annual April Fools stunt, which has become a fixture on the advertising calendar. Its small but mighty in-house social team drove 6.2 billion impressions in 2024, a growth of 107% year over year. The brand’s go-big-or-go-home April Fools stunt was a fake ice-skating show, complete with a SeatGeek partnership and four original tracks on Spotify, including the bilingual earworm “Spanish or Vanish.” Kron-Hags is honest in acknowledging the ever-present challenge of developing a long-term strategy while creating reactive, trend-based content, a common concern among social teams. However, no one’s complaining. Duolingo’s active users grew 51% year-over-year, a stat leadership attributes to the social team: “By focusing on creative, high-impact efforts,” according to a recent shareholder letter, “we’ve improved user acquisition effectiveness and sustained growth as we’ve scaled.” Led by senior global social media manager Zaria Parvez, the powerhouse team also includes Kelsey Dempsey, Melissa Yeung, Sarah Whittle, Karen Buchanan, and Kat Chan. Best Reactive Campaign: “Club Classic” Sandwich Bags, Hellmann's What Charli XCX saw as “obviously a sandwich bag,” Hellmann’s saw as a blank canvas. The singer made headlines last year for an innocuous-looking tour poster she claimed U.K. ad regulators banned for “promoting bad things.” The offensive content in question? An empty sandwich bag, which detractors said alluded to drug use. In response, Charli went on TikTok to set the record straight and showed off a new tour poster that had a sandwich in the bag, just to drive home the point. Hellmann’s drove it even further, offering fans at some of the singer’s U.K. tour stops “club classic” sandwiches—a nod to one of the tracks on the singer’s ubiquitous “Brat” album—in those quintessential clear plastic bags. The 119-year-old condiment brand spoke directly to Gen Z with the stunt, leaning hard into Brat Summer, meme culture, and ironic humor to pull it off. And Gen Z listened: The campaign organically reached 2.7 million people, garnered 11.4 million views (16.5 million impressions), and engaged 60,000 fans on TikTok. However, quite possibly the biggest seal of approval came when Charli herself shared a pic of the coveted Hellmann’s sandwich on TikTok. Social Rising Star: Christina Vittas, Sesame Workshop What started as a quick mental health check-in from Elmo in 2024 quickly became an outpouring of angst across the internet. Sesame Workshop got the message loud and clear: People were hurting. The world needed more Elmo, who would listen with empathy and affirmation. Social media manager Christina Vittas seized the moment and Sesame Workshop extended its “Emotional Well-Being” initiative by recruiting Andrew Garfield, who lost his mother to cancer in 2019, for an emotional segment on grief. Elmo and Garfield’s conversation reached 33 million social users and earned 24 million video views, resulting in 8.7 billion press impressions. Vittas was also part of the team who took the Sesame gang to the Paris Olympics, where they rubbed elbows with Team USA gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik and swimmer Katie Ledecky. She’s since turned her attention to more content partnerships, leading the social media campaigns with fellow kiddie icons like Ms. Rachel and Baby Shark. Sesame Workshop senior vp of marketing Aaron Bisman offered high praise: “Her passion and expertise ensure Sesame Street, and her furry red pal Elmo, stay top-of-mind with audiences and help us meet over a billion people each year where they are.” He added: “Christina’s work, as part of the social media team, is one of the most direct ways to spread joy, love, and the educational messages at the heart of our mission.” Best Social Marketer: Zaria Parvez, Duolingo Zaria Parvez has been the brains behind Duo, the internet’s favorite bird, since joining the online education brand in 2020. She hit the ground running, growing the Duolingo TikTok account from 50,000 to 5 million followers in her first year. Far from resting on her laurels, she’s been a major driving force in the brand’s recent success. As Duolingo's global senior social media manager, she has her finger on the pulse of what’s next, leading Duolingo’s strategy on the rising YouTube Shorts platform, where the brand’s audience has increased 300% year-over-year. She has also been integral to some of Duolingo’s biggest initiatives, including the notorious “Dead Duo” stunt and the brand’s partnership with Webtoon on an original content series. Parvez keeps leveling up: In the last six months, her team of three has had an impact seven times greater than that of the brand’s global social team. No surprise there: Birds of a feather flock together. Best Use of Influencer/Creators: Duolingo Whether it’s starting a TikTok dance trend or tapping creators like Kiuzr for product marketing, the Duolingo social team knows it’s the guests that make the party. In December, the team lined up creator Erika Titus and K-pop dance influencers to amplify its music in partnership with Netflix to promote the second season of Squid Game. The pair kickstarted a dance trend that garnered 16 million impressions on TikTok. Team members Hitakshi Shah and Kelsey Dempsey are the duo who identify brand insights with the potential to go viral, then find VIPs who fit the narrative. One valuable lesson they’ve learned along the way: Don’t overlook the niche micro-influencer. Shah and Dempsey said they can reach the same audiences as celebs at just a fraction of the cost. However, Duolingo’s biggest asset in the social space remains Duo, along with his emo friend Lily, who have driven huge brand awareness. For Super Bowl 58, the brand partnered with renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Miami to amplify the reach of its regional ad. Dr. Miami gave Duo a BBL in preparation for his butt to be showcased on TV. This part of the campaign alone earned 42 million social impressions. @duolingo BTS of my BBL for game day #SuperbOwl ♬ Bounce When She Walk - Ohboyprince

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ADWEEK's 2025 Social Marketing Masters Deliver Results With Boldness, Humor, and Cultural Savvy

The people, brands and agencies conquering the algorithm

Meredith Begley

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