Labubu launch
It’s been exhausting to overlook the recognition of Labubus this yr. Whether or not it’s the excitement across the “ugly-cute” dolls on social media, or the raft of imitations seen in present retailers and stalls all through the world, the Labubu collectables have been in all places.
It’s simple to neglect then that mere months in the past, only a few individuals within the UK had heard of Labubus. The product vary was created by Chinese language collectible retailer Pop Mart, which opened its first UK retailer in 2022.
The furry creatures had already made a splash in Asia and have been starting to make waves within the US, however Pop Mart wished the Labubu vary to change into well-liked within the UK as a broader doorway into Europe.
With a transparent purpose in thoughts, the model developed a creator technique designed to drive credibility inside subcultures, earlier than scaling to the mainstream. It developed a gifting technique, working with a bunch of creators it had chosen due to their suitability for the model.
It constructed on that preliminary hype by launching a pop-up in Harrods, which helped carry the Labubus to a wider viewers. The distinctive-looking toys quickly caught the eye of main influencers and celebrities, earlier than gaining PR traction.
Whereas from the surface, it might appear as if Labubus got here from nowhere and grew organically, the workforce behind the development thought strategically about driving hype across the collectibles.
This marketing campaign noticed clear success driving a 689% improve in UK social mentions, together with 1.5 million TikTok movies. The work delivered a 300% gross sales uplift, with one retailer even closing attributable to “overwhelming demand”. NC
GoDaddy – Airo platform launch
The significance of brand name constructing, and the worth of humour and storytelling, has continued to maneuver up the agenda for B2B manufacturers this yr, and GoDaddy has emerged as a primary instance of how it’s accomplished effectively.
In late 2024, the website-building platform partnered with actor Walton Goggins, greatest recognized for his function in season three of ‘The White Lotus’, to launch the Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses.
The wraparound shades-meet-goggles hybrid appeared at high-profile occasions, together with GQ’s Males of the 12 months Get together, the place Goggins sported the look and sparked widespread on-line curiosity.
After months of hypothesis, GoDaddy revealed the marketing campaign’s function in the course of the Tremendous Bowl with its hero spot ‘Act Like You Know’. The advert noticed Goggins step into exaggerated roles – from detective and astronaut to race automotive driver – earlier than grounding the humour within the actuality of operating a small enterprise.
The inventive in the end positioned GoDaddy’s AI-powered answer, Airo, as a device that allows entrepreneurs to begin and develop their on-line companies.
Supporting the teaser marketing campaign and most important spot, GoDaddy rolled out further content material throughout TV, YouTube, out‑of‑house, social media and influencer channels, turning Act Like You Know right into a year-round inventive platform.
The built-in marketing campaign was a powerful success. It generated greater than 3,500 earned media placements, over 15 billion impressions, and an 87% improve in visitors to GoDaddy’s Airo platform. It was additionally secured the Artistic B2B Lions Grand Prix at Cannes this yr – the highest prize for B2B manufacturers. GG
Vitality – ‘Life’s Fairly Good’
Insurance coverage will not be a straightforward factor to get individuals enthusiastic about. However with assistance from its long-standing model mascot Stanley the dachshund and a compelling information level, well being insurer Vitality was capable of seize individuals’s consideration.
After delving right into a seven-year research of greater than 465,000 members, it found Vitality may also help engaged customers reside for as much as 5 years longer. A fairly distinctive promoting level, given most insurers place their insurance policies as a type of compensation for loss of life.
Working with company associate VCCP, Vitality Life Insurance coverage flipped this narrative on its head, positioning the insurer as a device to assist clients reside longer, more healthy lives.
The marketing campaign, which spanned TV, social, radio and extra, shared this key message, with the hero movie exhibiting Stanley cruising alongside the seafront in a pink Cadillac convertible, whereas individuals round him are proven staying energetic.
It’s a message that resonated. Consideration for Vitality Life Insurance coverage grew by 5 share factors within the 5 months following the marketing campaign launch, whereas searches for the model elevated 21%.
The insurer additionally skilled a 19% discount in value per lead from lower-funnel social exercise, all of which led to a gross sales improve of 31%, in comparison with the identical interval in 2024.
The variety of clients associating the model with residing more healthy, longer lives rose 5 share factors, whereas clients describing the agency as ‘progressive/progressive’ grew 4 share factors.
To prime it off, Vitality gained the 2025 Advertising Week Award for Excellence in Monetary Providers. LT
BBC Studios – Bluey
Few manufacturers have constructed the identical stage of cultural capital as Bluey. Since launching in 2018, the Australian youngsters’s programme has change into a globally recognised franchise, airing in 140 nations, with audiences consuming 95,000 years’ value of content material.
It’s the primary present throughout all genres within the US and the most-watched youngsters’s present within the UK. On YouTube alone, the Bluey portfolio has amassed greater than 21 million subscribers and over 13 billion lifetime views.
The model has grown right into a billion-dollar enterprise, supported by shopper merchandise, reside experiences and licensing partnerships. A film can be scheduled for launch in cinemas in 2027, signalling additional enlargement of the franchise into long-form leisure.
Such is the success of Bluey, BBC Studios, which co-commissions the present with the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) and manages its world distribution and merchandising exterior Australia and New Zealand, has restructured its advertising and marketing workforce and employed three senior model entrepreneurs for Bluey.
The corporate transitioned from a genre-led strategy – the place groups are divided into exhibits relying on sort, reminiscent of scripted and factual content material – to a brand-led technique. This shift created devoted groups for properties like Bluey, in addition to Physician Who and Strictly Come Dancing because it appears to place Bluey and different exhibits on the coronary heart of the enterprise.
The long-term ambition, in response to Shelley Macintyre, interim CEO of brand name and licensing, is to attain 100% consciousness and place Bluey as “the subsequent Mickey Mouse”.
The influence is mirrored in BBC Studios’ monetary efficiency. In its 2024/25 full-year report, the corporate posted document revenues of £2.2bn, alongside a fourth consecutive yr of EBITDA exceeding £200m, reaching £225m, an 11% year-on-year improve on the earlier interval. GG
Sainsbury’s – Personalisation and information use
Personalisation in retail isn’t a brand new idea, however as know-how and information capabilities develop, what manufacturers do to innovate within the house is essential, with Sainsbury’s being one of many frontrunners of this by means of its Nectar scheme.
This yr, Sainsbury’s achieved its highest ever market share, rising for a fifth consecutive yr, with the grocery store claiming Nectar provides it a “aggressive benefit”.
Going ahead, its CEO Simon Roberts sees “personalised worth” enjoying “a vital function in profitable on this trade”. He stated clients are “loving” personalised Nectar costs because it permits them to get “their very own worth distinctive to them”.
Nectar has additionally been key within the grocer’s efforts to extend worth and value perceptions. Earlier within the yr, it rolled out extra personalised Nectar pricing, with 10,000 merchandise now obtainable on the scheme. On an £80 store, clients are saving a median of £14 by means of Nectar pricing.
That is amongst a backdrop of many corporations leaning into loyalty. Knowledge from the Competitors and Markets Authority final yr discovered loyalty pricing, particularly in grocery, is changing into an excellent greater a part of the client expertise. Some 97% of consumers are a member of a least one scheme.
Sainsbury’s is working to a purpose of delivering 500 million personalised provides per week, with over 1,000,000 clients accessing personalised financial savings each seven days, serving to to drive individuals to shops and on-line, and contributing its market share enhance.
Personalised provides complement Sainsbury’s different worth pushes, together with its Aldi Worth Match, which has been prolonged to round 800 merchandise, driving 6% development in comfort gross sales and the grocery store’s “highest ever buyer satisfaction rating”.
Sainsbury’s personalisation drive additionally contributed to its chief know-how, information and advertising and marketing officer, Mark Given, being named Marketer of the 12 months at this yr’s Advertising Week Awards. AV
Fairy – Skip The Soak product launch
Maybe the toughest factor a marketer can do is discover a new entry level to a product that everyone is already keenly conscious of.
Take washing-up liquid Fairy, as an illustration, it’s a product that everyone is aware of and understands learn how to use: add water, make bubbles, clear pots. Certain, you possibly can clarify the way it performs than its rivals, however past that how do you achieve any significant distinction?
The reply is a eager data-driven perception effectively carried out. Fairy launched ‘Skip The Soak’ constructed off analysis exhibiting that 80% of individuals soak or partially wash their dishes earlier than cleansing them by hand or placing them within the dishwasher.
One thing that’s each time-consuming – and contemplating washing the pots is seen as Europe’s second-most hated chore – a ache level for shoppers too.
Fairy Skip The Soak was designed to alleviate the pre-soaking ritual and meant clients may end washing the pots in minutes relatively than being confronted with them the subsequent day.
Its launch led to a powerful 5% class worth development and it has discovered a spot in 8% of UK households, pushed by the effectiveness of its supporting marketing campaign on platforms reminiscent of TikTok.
The lesson being that buyer analysis issues greater than trialling a brand new flavour or variant – and when taken critically and utilized successfully it may be a driver of development for companies, even in a class the place you’re the market chief. JS
Audi – ‘Mild, as you prefer it’
Audi’s ‘Mild, as you prefer it’ marketing campaign units out to problem class norms. It does so by dialling down the technical promote and leaning into one thing extra human.
Moderately than rolling landscapes and product close-ups, a choir all wearing black is proven performing a rendition of Reel 2 Actual’s ‘I Wish to Transfer It’ sat inside Audi’s A6 Avant e-tron – a transparent standout in a sector the place promoting may be largely comparable.
By forgoing the drone pictures of lengthy winding roads, Audi and company associate BBH have delivered one thing actually memorable.
That is key when given how robust the UK automotive market presently is. New manufacturers, notably in electrical autos, are flooding in, whereas whole gross sales volumes haven’t recovered because the pandemic, in response to the Society of Motor Producers & Merchants (SMMT).
Betting on what makes Audi ‘Audi’ has paid off. Audi’s model “desirability” rating has risen 5 share factors over the previous yr, a central purpose for advertising and marketing director Tony Moore.
Taken along with Audi’s pre-existing promoting heritage in addition to the inventive freedom afforded by its 40-year partnership with BBH, Audi’s providing stays distinct within the premium market.
Efficiency indicators across the marketing campaign level in the identical route. Consideration elevated by 5.1%, whereas top-of-funnel visitors doubled. Direct leads landed at triple the preliminary goal, and the work additionally generated Audi’s highest natural social attain for a product marketing campaign.
“In case you can construct [desirability], you drive long-term development. We all know a 3% rise in want provides a 5% carry in leads over time,” Moore stated in October. EM
M&S – ‘Love That’
M&S’s ‘Love That’ marketing campaign was one in all its first main campaigns post-cyberattack – and one in all Sharry Cramond’s first spectacles because the model’s trend, house and wonder advertising and marketing director.
Taking a YouTube-first, episodic strategy, the marketing campaign, launched at the beginning of September and nonetheless operating now, includes of 48 episodes serving to consumers with trend and elegance. It’s hosted by “relatable” celeb stylist Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe and Capital Breakfast hosts Jordan North, Siân Welby and Chris Stark.
From one episode, M&S noticed a complete attain of 1 million individuals throughout seven natural property within the first week, a constructive sentiment score of 100%, which Cramond known as a “first”, and YouTube content material surpassing 13,000 views in 5 days.
The leather-based shoulder bag featured within the video additionally noticed a 482% improve in visits in comparison with the 4 days earlier than the episode was launched, with over 6,000 visits to the product web page.
The push into longform content material was to point out the function M&S can play in trend recommendation and provide a “behind the scenes” take a look at the corporate and its merchandise. It mirrors a wider trade development of YouTube changing into a main channel for a lot of manufacturers.
This collection additionally coincided with the launch of the ‘M&S Man’ Instagram account, tailor-made to menswear. It enhances the retailer’s present social presence, together with the M&S Insiders ambassadors scheme, with its purpose to succeed in new audiences, particularly youthful ones, by means of 600 store-based accounts on TikTok.
All of this, tied along with the model’s resolution to maneuver away from having one hero advert and take a “up to date” strategy with mini content material drops for trend this Christmas, indicators a brand new path for advertising and marketing for the division, because it adapts to its consumers transferring to buy in “phases”. AV
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