For a lot of entrepreneurs, the primary half of 2025 summoned unwelcome parallels to the early days of the pandemic. The frenzy to batten down the hatches, trim budgets and alter media plans on the fly returned in power — and even included one other on-again, off-again TikTok ban — however this time the scramble got here in response to careening tariffs fairly than a public well being disaster.
That mentioned, entrepreneurs entered the newest bout of chaos with a number of years of navigating traditionally uneven waters below their belts. As some manufacturers went silent, others jumped on the chance to drive house resonant messages round pricing, inclusion or humor, higher girding themselves for the unsure months forward.
These methods, nevertheless well-executed, haven’t all the time resulted within the anticipated efficiency bump as tariffs rattle companies reliant on international commerce and shopper sentiment stays low. Regardless, they supply manufacturers with strong foundations to construct upon as soon as stability is again in play. For some, culturally tapped-in advertising and marketing has additionally helped enshrine class dominance whereas rivals flounder.
Under, Advertising Dive has introduced collectively essentially the most eye-catching advertising and marketing from H1 2025, spanning techniques together with experiential, rebranding, packaging and good old school TV advertisements. Assessing what labored about these efforts, lots of which pushed towards the business grain, might assist inform planning round an H2 that can carry excessive expectations and a robust have to differentiate amid a proliferation of generative synthetic intelligence and samey messaging.
Finest inventive comeback: Nike’s “So Win.”
Loads stays up within the air concerning Nike’s turnaround, however the sportswear icon proved it might recapture its outdated advertising and marketing magic at Tremendous Bowl LIX in February. Returning to the large recreation for the primary time in almost 30 years, the model and inventive company Wieden+Kennedy Portland delivered the kind of showstopping spot that has grow to be uncommon in an promoting slate that typically skews towards celeb cameos and humor.
“So Win.” not solely reduce by means of the muddle of TV’s largest night time, securing the Tremendous Clio Award, but in addition demonstrated Nike can stability leaning on legacy whereas providing shoppers one thing recent. That’s an necessary needle to string because the model appears to be like to appropriate course after years of overfocusing on efficiency advertising and marketing.
“It felt very harking back to the best way that Nike used to promote,” mentioned Devon Archbold, director of marketing campaign technique at Movers+Shakers.
The 60-second business, shot in cinematic black and white, stars athletes together with Jordan Chiles, Caitlin Clark and Sha’Carri Richardson as rapper Doechii rattles off all of the issues ladies supposedly “can’t” be and the defiant angle it takes to beat such adversity. “So Win.” capitalized on a groundswell of curiosity in ladies’s skilled sports activities, but in addition may very well be interpreted as a deeper rallying cry given the political local weather. As different entrepreneurs pump the brakes on goal in response to variety, fairness and inclusion backlash, Nike confirmed find out how to keep the course whereas remaining rooted in model fundamentals.
“What was actually cool was that Nike went all in, proving that goal and efficiency can coexist,” mentioned Archbold.
Chili’s Quick Meals Financing pop-up emulates an inexpensive payday mortgage retailer to knock the rising costs at quick meals rivals.
Courtesy of Chili’s Grill & Bar
Finest value-driven play: Chili’s Quick Meals Financing
Inviting comparisons to scuzzy payday mortgage retailers in all probability isn’t the wisest technique for many manufacturers looking for to advertise a message round worth. For Chili’s, the outside-the-box idea was an ingenious strategy to lengthen its battle towards quick meals titans.
In April, the dine-in chain opened a Quick Meals Financing pop-up subsequent to a McDonald’s location in Manhattan to herald the launch of its Huge QP burger, a rival to the Quarter Pounder. Movies styled after chintzy daytime TV advertisements helped elevate consciousness for the activation, which let guests fill out varieties to obtain present playing cards to cowl their meal prices and included a speakeasy serving up the beef-heavy menu addition. The expertise, which was executed with companies JM&D and M ss ng p eces, drew a three-hour line on the peak of its recognition whereas producing over 6 billion earned media impressions, in accordance with a consultant for Chili’s.
“Creativity should not be budget-constrained, and that is a tremendous instance of one thing that wasn’t grand on a big scale however was extremely considerate and ended up getting a number of buzz,” mentioned Nick Valenti, CEO at Mādin, of Quick Meals Financing.
Different entrepreneurs can take a web page from Chili’s, which has seen eye-popping gross sales development in an in any other case fallow interval for eating places. The model has tackled advertising and marketing round worth — a ubiquitous tactic for the time being — in an atypical vogue, hounding quick meals fairly than the businesses that make up its direct aggressive set, like Applebee’s. The strategy has resulted in one thing that feels extra distinctive than the standard tit-for-tat class squabbling, opening a chance for Chili’s to not solely drive house a pricing-focused message, but in addition its positioning as a 3rd place to assemble and luxuriate in meals.
“It’s a intelligent strategy to seize an viewers that’s in search of some other place to go, and they also’re offering that distinctive reply,” mentioned Valenti.
Finest case of brand name agility: State Farm’s “Batman vs. Bateman”
The quantity of funding that goes right into a Tremendous Bowl advert will be astronomical. What occurs when these plans should be overhauled on the fly? That’s the state of affairs State Farm discovered itself in at Tremendous Bowl LIX, when a superhero-inspired spot was placed on the again burner because the insurer handled fallout from California wildfires. Fairly than viewing its large recreation marketing campaign as a sunk price, State Farm known as an audible, shifting the advertisements to March Insanity in a standout instance of how manufacturers will be agile because the world round them is ceaselessly thrown into tumult.
“We’ve realized across the Tremendous Bowl to not have a one-size-fits all-mentality with it, and we’ve realized that you may pivot should you’re good and also you’re paying consideration,” mentioned Alyson Griffin, head of selling at State Farm.
“Batman vs. Bateman,” developed with company Highdive, bears a easy logline: One’s more likely to be disenchanted if wry comedic actor Jason Bateman exhibits as much as save the day as an alternative of The Darkish Knight of DC Comics fame. Past the anthem spot, further advertisements centered on villains just like the Joker and the Riddler, a storytelling strategy that aligned with the weekslong construction of the NCAA school basketball match.
“The narrative that we needed to start out telling to then develop upon over time was: ‘Having insurance coverage isn’t the identical as having State Farm,’” mentioned Griffin.
State Farm additionally leaned on Kai Cenat, a high Twitch streamer who seems within the marketing campaign, to assist the trouble on late night time TV as a late-breaking adjustment to its publicity plan. All informed, “Batman vs. Bateman” acquired greater than 16 million engagements, per a spokesperson, outpacing the highest three Tremendous Bowl advertisements ranked by USA As we speak’s Advert Meter. Perhaps a giant recreation advertising and marketing win doesn’t require a giant recreation media purchase.
Coors Mild’s monthlong advertising and marketing blitz across the Tremendous Bowl included stunts like a Chill Face Curler meant to assist shoppers push by means of the beginning of the week.
Courtesy of Coors Mild
Finest use of the Tremendous Bowl as a platform: Coors Mild
The Tremendous Bowl is usually handled because the flashiest night time of the yr for advertisers, however for Coors Mild, this yr’s occasion stretched past a single night time to incorporate a monthlong advertising and marketing blitz based mostly round a virtually common perception: Mondays are the worst.
The Molson Coors model kicked off its Tremendous Bowl marketing campaign on Monday, Jan. 13, with advertisements that deliberately misspelled “refreshment” as “refershment” in a nod to Monday morning mishaps. The stunt, which included an apology, spurred Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts and op-eds.
“There have been all of those articles by advertising and marketing consultants — my favourite was one which known as it a ‘lesson in humility,’” mentioned Marcelo Pascoa, vp of selling, Coors household of manufacturers.
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Days later, the model revealed limited-edition Mondays Mild packaging, a play on the idiom “a case of the Mondays.” The idea was impressed by analysis which discovered 41% of respondents name the Monday after the Tremendous Bowl one of many worst days of the yr. The perception supplied a chance to faucet into tradition whereas reinforcing Coors Mild’s “Select Chill” tagline.
“We needed to personal each single Monday and make it possible for we’re high of thoughts week after week,” mentioned Kevin Mulroy, founding accomplice and govt inventive director at Mischief @ No Fastened Tackle, the company behind the marketing campaign.
Subsequent got here the Coors Mild Chill Face Curler — which offered out in seven minutes — and a teaser to its large recreation advert starring actor Timothy Simons. The model’s 30-second business featured anthropomorphized sloths portraying what a case of the Mondays looks like.
Coors Mild continued its marketing campaign after the sport by means of a partnership with Peloton. In whole, the brewer created 1.8 million circumstances of its limited-edition packaging, and offered all of them. The model additionally garnered 12.6 billion earned impressions, and shoppers in January looked for “Coors Mild” greater than they did over the prior 12 months.
“Throughout all metrics we noticed efficiency past what we had anticipated,” mentioned Pascoa.
Brawny’s new 3-Ply Paper Towel product features a revamp of its iconic Brawny Man mascot to make the lumberjack extra approachable.
Courtesy of Georgia-Pacific
Finest model refresh: Brawny’s ‘Summon the Strongest’
Whereas model refreshes have saturated the advertising and marketing panorama of late, few have been as intentional as Brawny’s current identification overhaul. The trouble, joined by a brand new 3-Ply Paper Towel product and “Summon the Strongest” marketing campaign, included a revamp of the Brawny Man mascot to make the outsized lumberjack approachable for a brand new era of shoppers.
The Georgia-Pacific model launched its refresh in Could with two 30-second spots that reintroduce the Brawny Man, who first appeared over 50 years in the past, whereas holding true to his ethos as a determine prepared to lend a serving to hand. Social content material consists of influencer partnerships and movies that present Brawny Man in contexts native to the surroundings, like a “prepare with me” video and content material that sees the mascot pressured to make use of on-line slang like “goated.”
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The content material deliberately locations the Brawny Man in fashionable conditions to fulfill the second. Nevertheless, giving the Brawny Man a way of company — or the power to reject phrases like “goblin mode” — is what makes the revamp stand out, defined Jaime Robinson, chief inventive officer at Joan Artistic, the company behind the marketing campaign.
“[Brawny Man] is a legacy character that’s been round because the early ‘70s, so if he all of a sudden was like a cool skateboard man, it could really feel very off,” mentioned Robinson.
Brawny has garnered two billion earned impressions thus far because the launch of its 3-Ply product. Whereas strategizing its efforts, leisure was key, mentioned Brawny Paper Towels model director Amanda Earley.
“We knew that it is a class that’s very low engagement, and our shoppers store on autopilot, so the very first thing we needed to do is basically jolt them out of autopilot,” mentioned Earley.
The model iterated on its efforts with the 3-Ply Guys — a workforce of plaid-clad males that it made accessible for house cleanings in three cities for a sweepstakes that ran from Could to June. Throughout that point, there have been 30,000 visits to the reserving microsite and 265 sweepstakes sign-ups.
RXBar’s B.S. Blocker Truck toured New York Metropolis to dam advertisements across the New 12 months that buyers considered as poisonous.
Courtesy of Kellanova
Finest experiential play: RXBar’s B.S. Blocker Truck
Amid a sea of “New 12 months, New You” type advertisements, RXBar made a splash with its B.S. Blocker Truck that toured New York Metropolis to (actually) block out the noise. The trouble, a part of a “Proud Sponsor of No B.S.” platform, was meant to spotlight the model’s easy components by addressing cases that many would regard as “B.S.,” like manufacturers capitalizing on New 12 months’s resolutions.
“As advertisers, we have now to be self conscious — individuals don’t need each single facet of their lives to be was capitalism,” mentioned Avinash Baliga, chief inventive officer of Tombras, the Kellanova model’s inventive company. “Somebody’s acquired to do one thing about this, why not us?”
The B.S. Blocker Truck toured New York Metropolis on Jan. 3. For the trouble, native shoppers might textual content a chosen quantity to report “poisonous” advertisements, and the truck would seem to dam them. The truck itself might block billboards near the bottom, and an extension on high with two aspect panels allowed it to dam billboards as much as two tales excessive.
A social media call-to-action inspired shoppers to share what they deliberate to depart behind within the new yr to obtain a reduction code, whereas a partnership with social media character @dudettewithsign rounded out the trouble. In whole, the marketing campaign garnered 2.8 million out-of-home impressions and over two million influencer impressions. The marketing campaign additionally drove a 504% enhance in engagement on Instagram.
RXBar expanded on its efforts in June with a Google Chrome browser extension known as The B.S. Feed Filter that removes company jargon from social media. The no-nonsense technique intentionally aligns with RXBar’s ethos and is supposed to assist it stand out within the crowded protein and well being snack bar market.
“I believe a number of the finest manufacturers are manufacturers the place there is a very brief hole between the advertising and marketing and the product itself,” Baliga mentioned.
Coke’s revamp of its iconic “Share a Coke” program is focused at Gen Z shoppers.
Courtesy of The Coca-Cola Firm
Finest marketing campaign relaunch: Coke’s “Share a Coke”
Resurrecting an outdated advert marketing campaign runs an apparent danger: What if it’s not so good as the final go round? Coke’s “Share a Coke,” first launched in 2011, is a tough candidate to high, standing as a sterling instance of personalization at scale that drove gross sales throughout a interval when shoppers had been in any other case pulling again from sugary sodas.
Coke’s revamp of the platform, which debuted in April with a concentrate on Gen Z, succeeds in largely staying true to the unique idea, with the addition of some fashionable bells and whistles. Again within the combine are bubbly feel-good advertisements and bottles bearing completely different names and phrases of endearment, however this time the packaging can be outfitted with QR codes that align with Gen Z’s mobile-first habits.
“They proceed to evolve the ‘Share a Coke’ marketing campaign utilizing the newest know-how together with tapping into the everchanging fastidious mindset of the Gen Z goal [audience],” mentioned Jac Mansour, chief inventive officer at Pinnacle Promoting, over electronic mail. “Having the QR code to personalize the bottles helps everybody really feel included,” he added.
“Share a Coke” was created with WPP Open X, led by VML, with assist from Ogilvy PR, EssenceMediacom and Subvrsive.
A Reminiscence Maker expertise gives one other layer to the marketing campaign, permitting for the creation of personalised movies and memes that additional shore up the overarching theme round shareability. As different legacy CPGs attempt to align round Gen Z’s tastes, making the cohort really feel like creators generally is a highly effective software.
“The Reminiscence Maker element within the marketing campaign continues the user-generated content material development, which continues to be, in my view, the Holy Grail for entrepreneurs,” mentioned Mansour.
