Nike: full-year (30.6.26)
What’s the topline? Nike reported flat full-year revenue of $46.4bn and a 3% decline in net income to $3.11bn. Marketing spend was broadly steady, with demand creation up 1% to $4.8bn for the year, while Q4 marketing spend fell 4% to $1.2bn. Gross margin rose 8.9% in the quarter, but mostly because of a $986m tariff-related refund. Nike’s stock fell around 4% after the earnings call and is down more than 35% in 2026 so far, reflecting investor concerns around weakening performance in China and soft demand in other key markets.
Any interesting insights? Nike’s move towards a ‘lots of littles’ marketing strategy, where instead of relying on a single big campaign, it builds continuous storytelling across micro-communities. The World Cup was a clear test case: rather than one hero film, Nike is running a 12-week programme of content, collaborations and drops, still anchored by a traditional star-led spot but driven by multiple smaller cultural moments.
As CEO Elliott Hill put it, Nike is ‘rewriting our own marketing playbook’ and no longer treating major tournaments as single moments, instead using them to build sustained engagement over time. He said the aim is to engage different communities in relevant ways, with ‘every beat, every story’ acting as a doorway into the brand, reflecting how younger audiences engage with sport ‘on their terms’. Nike also highlighted early traction, pointing to 1.5 billion views in the first week of its World Cup storytelling as evidence of scale being built through multiple connected touchpoints rather than one dominant campaign.
Jet2 Plc: Full year (8.7.26)
What’s the top line? Revenue up 4.3% to a record £7.5bn, costs up 4.5%, operating profit margin stable at 5.9%. Smiles all round.
Any interesting insights? Marketing spend fell by 9% to £259m, reflecting a lower cost per customer acquisition as the company moved money ‘into pricing to attract later bookings in a competitive marketplace.’
The ‘Nothing Beats’ campaign that took on a life of its own in 2025, and which will haunt Jess Glynne for the rest of her career, was credited with increasing awareness and consideration among the under-35s by five percentage points. In the coming year, Jet2 wants to increase brand awareness in the south of England, where it is less well-known, using ‘targeted, personalised customer activity’ and ‘greater media weighting’.
According to CEO Steve Heapy, 80% of Jet2’s bookings are direct, and 43% of direct bookings came from customers who have travelled with the brand more than six times — a 23% compound annual growth-rate in three years.
As such, Heapy talked a lot about deepening customer relationships with data and technology, and personalised messages. Adobe enjoyed a few shout-outs during the earnings call.
LLMs haven’t had a discernable impact on the business yet, in terms of how people search and plan holidays, but the company is monitoring the trend ‘very closely’.
Levi Strauss & Co: Half-year (8.7.26)
What’s the topline? Levi Strauss & Co. reported second-quarter revenue of $1.56 billion, up 8% year-on-year, with organic revenue growth of 6%. Operating margin improved to 7.8%, and the company raised its full-year 2026 outlook.Levi Strauss & Co
Any interesting insights? The brand is stretching beyond its denim-trouser heritage, positioning itself as a ‘denim lifestyle’ company. CEO Michelle Gass said categories outside denim bottoms contributed around one-third of top-line growth, as it expands into areas such as tops, dresses and seasonal apparel, and evolving into ‘a head-to-toe denim lifestyle destination’.
Gass also pointed to Levi’s World Cup stunt, where a stadium logo restriction was turned into a viral marketing moment by covering up the Levi’s logo, generating around 1 billion press impressions and becoming the most-viewed social post in the brand’s history.
The company is set to have a more disciplined approach to promotion in the rest of the year, as CFO Harmit Singh said lower advertising and promotion spending in the second half, alongside distribution savings, would help drive further margin expansion. It spent $437m on advertising in the full-year ending 30 November 2025.
PepsiCo: Half-year (9.7.26)
What’s the topline? Q2 revenue was about $200m ahead of expectations, at $24.18bn, while adjusted EPS narrowly missed the $2.21 forecast. The softer earnings performance reflected margin pressure in North America, with higher costs and weaker consumer traffic weighing on results.
Any interesting insights? CEO Ramon Laguarta said PepsiCo is playing with price and portions to ‘get volume back into our categories’ as household budgets get tighter.
PepsiCo also pointed to the continued growth of its ‘permissible’ portfolio, including functional beverages, portion-controlled snacks and better-for-you options designed to appeal to more health concerned buyers. The company also noted a decline in ‘impulse’ purchases in channels such as petrol stations and convenience stores, while it continues to ‘accelerate’ away-from-home occasions as a growth opportunity.
Netflix: Half-year (16.7.26)
What’s the top-line? Second-quarter revenue was $12.56bn, narrowly missing analyst expectations, while earnings per share of $0.80 came in a cent ahead of forecasts. More importantly, management is predicting 11% FX-neutral revenue growth in the third quarter, a slight slowdown from Q2, prompting investors to question whether growth is beginning to moderate.
Any interesting insights? One of the more revealing moments came when co-CEO Greg Peters pushed back on the industry’s obsession with viewing hours. ‘All hours are not created equal,’ he said, arguing that live programming delivers disproportionate value despite accounting for only a fraction of total viewing. Netflix expects live content to represent around 5% of its content budget this year but only 1% of viewing hours. Yet, Peters noted, six of the company’s ten biggest subscriber sign-up days over the past five years have been driven by live events.
Peters also suggested Netflix is moving away from viewing hours as its primary measure of engagement. Instead, he said the company evaluates a combination of viewing ‘quality, variety and quantity’, arguing these are better indicators of subscriber satisfaction, retention and advertising performance.
The company also sounded increasingly confident that its expansion beyond traditional TV is paying off. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Netflix’s fledgling video podcast strategy is generating ‘incremental’ viewing, particularly on mobile and during the daytime. ‘The definition of TV has broadened, and our definition has changed along with it,’ he said, framing podcasts, vertical video and games as a natural extension of the service rather than a change in direction.
Advertising was discussed largely in terms of execution rather than new product launches, but Netflix reiterated that it sees significant headroom in its ad business. Peters said the gap between revenue generated by ad-supported subscribers and those on the standard plan is ‘narrowing’, describing it as an opportunity for future growth. He pointed to continued investment in the company’s advertising technology, including ‘more ads products’, expanded measurement and making it ‘easier for folks to transact with us’.
