A street at night by a railway bridge in Tokyo, lit by large digital screens on the buildings above, with taxis on a wet road and people walking on the pavement.

Where ideas take root.

About HaELM

The ad is only half the story.

HaELM exists to study the other half — what a campaign becomes once it leaves the agency and lands in the real world, where people notice it, ignore it, misread it, or remember it wrong. That gap between intention and perception, between what a brand meant and what someone actually felt, is where advertising gets interesting — and where HaELM spends its time.

Decode

Two Lenses on Every Ad

The choice the brand made, and how it may work on the person who sees it.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Took Over Times Square

Spider-Man Google Maps Street View activation

Spider-Man: Brand New Day × Google Maps

Ramp’s “Chase Global Markets. Not Receipts.” lightbox at Chicago O’Hare

Ramp Made Receipts Funny at O’Hare

From the Field

Somewhere Real

Every ad HaELM decodes started somewhere real — a street, a screen, an airport wall. New York and Chicago are archived below; more cities are coming.

Central Park in autumn, with Manhattan towers rising above the trees

A yellow billboard on a building above a downtown Chicago street

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in fog, its orange towers fading into the cloud

The Hollywood sign on the hills above Los Angeles

A teamLab Biovortex Kyoto ad on a train, showing the walk from Inari to Kyoto station

The Jack Trice Stadium sign at Iowa State University in Ames

Delhi Humayun's Tomb editorial photograph

Mumbai Marine Drive editorial photograph

A Tokyo street at dusk, with a tall office tower and a bus at the crossing

The Marina Bay skyline in Singapore, reflected in a lily pond

Photos are HaELM’s own, except Delhi and Mumbai (Unsplash).

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Reach out about the Decode, a collaboration, or anything worth a second look.