Testimonials perform well, but they’re usually boring. So when we came up with the idea to leverage Codecademy’s strong pool of brand advocates to create testimonial ads, our goal wasn’t just for them to perform well — we also needed them to build our brand.

To do this, we leaned into three of our brand pillars: community, inclusivity, and possibility. The results are ads that paint a picture of what makes a person’s life meaningful and how their newfound career enables that life.

Theses ads became our longest-running series and the bedrock of our ad mix, with 12 people featured across three years of production.