Reviews have always helped people decide whether to buy. But they can do far more than reassure someone near the checkout. A five-star dishwasher review can become a love song. A product comment can become witness testimony. A durability review can become a score. A negative tourism review can help protect an endangered place. Here are nine tactics from the Creative Tactics Engine that turned reviews from passive validation into active creative material.
- Embrace Bad Reviews
- Review Format Remix
- Review Platform Hijacks
- Unexpected Reviewers
- Lived-Experience Experts
- Trojan Testimonial Reviews
- Reviews With Purpose
- Long-Term and Live Proof Reviews
- Reverse Reviews
1. Embrace Bad Reviews
Weaponise the criticism — and watch it become intrigue.
Vienna Tourist Board · Publicis · 2021 · Austria
The campaign pulled real negative reviews of Viennese landmarks — "boring," "messy," "overrated" — and ran them as posters and digital ads alongside the line "So, who decides what you like?" The bad review became the invitation. Tourists were pushed to form their own opinion rather than defer to the crowd.
Camden Stout asked fiercely loyal Guinness drinkers to review its rival stout, then treated grudging reactions such as “Not bad” and “I’d pay for it myself” as glowing endorsements. The faint praise became films, billboards, pub signage and live advertising, allowing Camden to turn the incumbent’s hardest loyalists into its most credible advocates. Curtice Brothers ran their ketchup in some of TripAdvisor's worst-rated restaurants without telling diners, then watched the reviews shift. Frida Baby turned graphic, funny, painfully honest parent reviews into their campaign script — the messiness became the proof of usefulness.
2. Review Format Remix
If the review is true but boring, change the container.
Love The Racks · KitchenAid · WoW Studios · 2024 · USA
KitchenAid's 360 Max Jets Third Rack Dishwasher had accumulated years of unusually passionate five-star reviews — customers writing in the register of love letters, not appliance feedback. For the relaunch, the brand took one real review from a customer named GermanIris and turned every lyric verbatim into a fully produced love song with Grammy-winning X Ambassadors artist Sam Nelson Harris. GermanIris received writing credits on the music video, title cards, and post copy. The campaign launched as if it were Harris's latest solo drop — listeners were singing along before they registered it was about a dishwasher. Earned media exceeded paid by 3x, social shares rose 1,062%, and KitchenAid overtook its top competitor by 36 percentage points in preference among $100K+ household income consumers.
Lenovo partnered with heavy metal band Iron Savages to perform real user reviews as full-scale metal anthems for their gaming audience in Sweden. Carousell turned real home services reviews word-for-word into musical videos in Singapore, keeping the authenticity of the feedback while making the format worth watching. IKEA invited serious literary critic Hellmuth Karasek to review their annual catalogue as if it were the world's most interesting book — reaching approximately 230 million people and turning a routine launch into a cultural event.
3. Review Platform Hijacks
The audience is already looking. Show up there.
Skoda · Track DDB · 2022 · France
Skoda worked with automotive YouTubers to re-upload competitor test-drive reviews with 3D Fabia billboards inserted into the footage. Buyers researching Peugeot, Renault, and Citroen found Skoda inside the review they were already watching. The campaign generated 9.1 million impressions and a 10% sales spike the following month.
L'Auberge des Migrants placed former migrants' comments on essential Amazon products — toothbrushes, sleeping bags, blankets — with their profiles linking to stories and a donation wishlist. Guides Tao encouraged negative reviews of endangered French natural sites to deter visitors and protect them from overtourism, protecting 36 locations with 14 more planned.
