Young Innovator Nominee: Emily Salas, CP+B

Why she is nominated: In her four years at CP+B, Emily has touched almost all of the agency’s brands, producing work for clients such as Xbox, MetLife, Aspen Dental, Fruit of the Loom, Stove Top Stuffing, and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, as well as helping to bring in brands through her pitch work on Infiniti and Hotels.com. She also worked with CP+B’s Product Invention group to hone the voice for agency-owned rum brand Papa’s Pilar, a now-heralded brand sold in 13 states nationwide. In the past twelve months, Emily produced an extensive TV campaign for Aspen Dental as well as a multi-platform campaign for Stove Top Stuffing that was recently featured in Communication Arts.

Her most notable success, however, is helping to conceive and execute the “World’s Largest Blind Taste Test” for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. The idea came after Kraft announced they’d be removing artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from their iconic mac and cheese and fans began to worry that the taste would change. The “World’s Largest Blind Taste Test’ required the brand to sell their new mac and cheese recipe for three months without advertising the change, so people could try it for themselves. During the three-month blind taste test period, Kraft sold 50 million boxes of mac & cheese proving that the new recipe still tasted like Kraft Mac & Cheese. The “World’s Largest Blind Taste Test” garnered over 1.2 billion earned media impressions and was featured in publications from E! to the New York Times. Stephen Colbert even devoted his entire Late Show monologue to the idea. It has also received several accolades since its launch in March, including winning the Grand Prix at this year’s 4A’s Jay Chiat awards.

The Young Innovator Award celebrates excellence and innovation by young professionals. See the other nominees and their backgrounds and check back to learn who has won this prestigious honor from The Advertising Club of New York and Google, with support from The Drum.