In no particular order, these campaigns are our picks of the year, either because they demonstrated smart media thinking, were inordinately effective, or because they pleased the MediaCat UK editorial team for other, more nebulous reasons.
Kikkoman’s Grand Sumo Tournament Sponsorship
Kikkoman couldn’t have anticipated that the wrestlers visiting London for the Grand Sumo Tournament would go viral posting tourist-y pictures of themselves enjoying the city. And the soy-sauce brand probably only dreamed that national newspapers would cover the winner of the tournament being awarded an inflatable bottle of Kikkoman the size of a small child. But both of those things happened, and the marketers responsible for the sponsorship must have looked like geniuses as a result.
ChatGPT’s Everyday Magic
OpenAI’s first international brand campaign probably won’t have made it into our list on the strength of the creative and the media plan alone. But we’ve included it because it’s just so delicious that an AI company chose to build its brand with a TV ad featuring human beings. MediaCat wonders if they consulted their own LLM on the strategy.
Agencies: PHD, Isle of Any
Vaseline Verified
Hands down the most innovative influencer campaign of the year. The brand presented awards to creators who had posted videos about Vaseline ‘hacks’ — like using the jelly to achieve fuller-looking eyelashes — which it deemed safe and effective. These creators were also given affiliate links, to sell Vaseline as official brand ambassadors, and featured in the brand’s own ads. As well as highlighting a huge number of new consumption occasions for the product, the campaign shrewdly included Vaseline in conversations that creators were already having online, rather than trying to start its own.
Agencies: Mindshare, Ogilvy
Ziploc’s Preserved Promos
Preserved Promos was one of the most well thought-out campaigns entered into the Media category at Cannes this year. Ziploc got 80,000 retailers to honour shoppers’ expired food coupons — as long as they also bought one of its own products. Not only did the campaign help people save money while giving them an incentive to buy Ziploc’s products, it did so in a way that reinforced the purpose of the brand — to keep food fresh. More importantly, Preserved Promos sought to turn a ubiquitous item (food coupons) into a cue for people to think about Ziploc. As media becomes increasingly fragmented, this could become an effective way for brands to reach beyond platforms and silos. Not easy to pull off, though.
Agency: VML
Apple TV+’s Severance pop-up
Apple TV’s Severance installation may or may not have been the most talked about campaign of the year, but it was probably the one that was most positively talked about — if the activation had any detractors, we didn’t notice them. To promote the new season of the Severance, Apple stuck its actors inside a glass office cubicle at Grand Central Station on 14 January, and had them carry on like they were in the show. It worked so well because it created a spectacle that people wanted to witness and then post about online — so everybody else knew they witnessed it.
Agency: Kamp Grizzly
Zohran Mamdani’s New York Mayoral campaign
Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign was one of 2025’s defining marketing moments. A young democratic socialist and Muslim, Mamdani faced billionaire-funded opposition, racist smears, and his own party machine that tried to shut him out. His victory came from an expert use of TikTok, Instagram and X. Humour, sincerity and grassroots energy combined with viral stunts, multilingual explainers and influencer collaborations to convert online momentum into real-world turnout. Of course, Mamdani himself was a factor. He’s camera-confident, personable, and fluent in internet culture — a rare mix in politics. But he also demonstrated good message discipline, with every post, joke and video returning to the same promises of lower rents, free buses and fairer taxes.
Duolingo’s Duo Is Dead
In a year when almost every brand aspired to be deranged on social media, Duolingo out-weirded them all. On 11 February, users opening the app found the language-learning app’s owl mascot lifeless — a dramatic stunt that immediately went viral. TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube hosted posts that invited users to speculate about Duo’s fate before revealing that a Cybertruck was the culprit. Follow-up content included a eulogy set to Sarah McLachlan’s Angel, and playful social media replies. Duolingo also used Duo’s ‘death’ to encourage users to engage more with the app.
Agency: Edelman
Walmart’s Who Knew?
Walmart mined discussions on Reddit for authentic customer quotes praising the retailer, and gave those quotes top billing in a digital and out-of-home campaign, which featured cameos from celebrities like Paris Hilton and Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress Stephanie Beatriz. According to Brandwatch, 51% of all online buying discussions take place on Reddit, and brands are increasingly utilising this dynamic for their own ends. Adidas’ Ask Me Anything series and Nordstrom’s newly launched official subreddit — both created by Superside — are other good examples. For brands that know how to turn people power into creative vision, Reddit can offer opportunities brands can’t get anywhere else.
Agency: Superside
Sabrina Carpenter x Dunkin’
Following a successful collaboration in 2024, Sabrina Carpenter reunited with Dunkin’ this summer for Shake That Ess. The launch spot became the most viewed, liked, and commented-on organic post in Dunkin’s history, with 27.8 million Instagram views alone. Introducing Dunkin’s new shaken espresso into a busy category dominated by Starbucks, the campaign leveraged Carpenter’s popularity with Gen Z women, appealing to them with saucy humour (admittedly, very similar to Kmart’s Ship My Pants ad) and limited-edition merchandise. The 250 espresso shakers available in the first merch drop sold out in just 90 seconds, and the second wave of 2,000 lasted only a little longer at 17 minutes. It’s a great example of how brands can work with a celebrity’s existing fandom to make a partnership more than just a name attached to their product.
Agency: Artists Equity
Waitrose’s The Perfect Gift
Waitrose’s entry into this year’s Christmas battle royale was a four-minute mini-movie starring Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson. The Perfect Gift — which leans hard into classic rom-com tropes, with meet-cute awkwardness, escalating charm, and the idea that food is its own ‘love language’ — was announced as a first-of-its-kind Christmas centrepiece. We’re always sceptical of claims that something is a ‘first’, but if another Christmas ad has been listed and made available to watch as an actual film on ITV’s on-demand platform, we’re not aware of it. The spoof behind-the-scenes excerpts with Wilkinson were a nice touch, too, reinforcing the idea that this was proper film. Waitrose’s willingness to think big looks like it will pay off, and not for the first time. Its Christmas 2024 campaign — a multi-stage whodunnit story — was heralded as a great success for the brand. Waitrose is establishing itself as one of the most media-savvy brands around.
Agencies: MG OMD, Wonderhood Studios