Dave Weist and Tim Vaccarino Executive creative directors, MullenLowe Boston / Ideas Creative American

Dave Weist and Tim Vaccarino Executive creative directors, MullenLowe Boston Our idea that worked: American Greetings, "What It Means to Love" What's the best work to come out of our own walls this year? That's a tough question because opinion is often shaped by what others project on the work. So really, the question for us became, what felt especially personal this year? Probably the American Greetings campaign "What it means to love." Will it win awards? Perhaps. Does it ring true and capture the human condition? Absolutely.

The film shows the complicated lives of six different people all grappling with what it means to love. They have their own stories and struggles, but all of them have a hard time expressing their true feelings. The film shows their inner thoughts superimposed over the scene in their own handwriting. It's the connection they hope to make. For us, this one gets the details right and it elevates American Greetings to something much bigger than cards. Cards are just cards, but in the right moment they mean everything. And by the way, the Mercadantes were awesome. Another idea that worked: Apple, "Welcome Home" That one thing that made us turn green with jealousy? The "Welcome Home" Apple spot shot by Spike Jonze was just ridiculously good. In a time where so much work is quick and disposable, to see something with that level of imagination, craft and sheer determination was overwhelming.

You got the sense that it started with a simple premise and kept building and building and building to a truly magical place. It's just deeply original, flawless, committed and, ugh, hard to watch because you want one, too. A lot of the Apple work felt this way in 2018, but the Spike edition was our highlight.