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A $1.44bn dividend reserve raises new concerns for shareholders of the bitcoin treasury company View the full article

Google's Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro is now available in AI Mode in 120 countries and territories in English. This expands it from Gemini 3 in AI Mode's initial launch just a couple of weeks ago.View the full article

Google's John Mueller said having a 100MB video file on your home page won't have a noticeable SEO effect. This was his response on a Reddit thread to the concern of having such a weighted-down file on your home page.View the full article

A strategic look at marketing measurement, bridging data, storytelling, and influence to turn performance reporting into organizational leverage. The post Signal Vs. Noise: Predicting Future Impact Of Content Marketing appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Despite fiscal tightening announced at the Budget, market trust in British governments remains lowView the full article

Back in October, we saw Google testing having the "Show more" button in the AI Overviews within Google Search jump you to AI Mode with follow-up questions. Well, Google's Robby Stein announced on X yesterday that this is being tested (after it was tested already) in the mobile search results.View the full article

Google Ads updated its gambling policy to disallow all promotion of online gambling-promoting content for horse racing targeting the United States. Google said this goes into effect as of December 1, 2025.View the full article

Kyiv admits striking ships to squeeze Moscow’s war revenues as peace talks enter new phaseView the full article

The modern workplace is being reshaped by its newest and fastest-growing cohort: Generation Z. Born roughly between 1997 and 2012, these digital natives are no longer just interns; they are managers, innovators, and essential contributors. As they enter the workforce in large numbers, their distinct expectations are driving an evolution in how we define and implement hybrid work. View the full article

Fast Company’s Brands That Matter is designed to honor the brands that plant their flags firmly at the intersection of business and culture in unique ways. But there are also bigger companies that manage to succeed in that task with multiple brands. The five 2025 Brands That Matter family of brands honorees didn’t just excel with a single brand—they’ve created cultural moments and sales momentum for multiple brands across their businesses. While being bespoke for each brand, the efforts are nonetheless able to drive solid results on engagement and overall business performance. Coca-Cola When you make the world’s top-selling soda, it might be easy to let the market share do all the talking, but that has never been the company’s style—and that’s especially true of its portfolio beyond the eponymous brand. One of Coca-Cola‘s biggest coups of the past year has been Sprite surpassing Pepsi as the U.S.’s number three best-selling soda, in part due to the revival of its “Obey Your Thirst” messaging and collaborations with athletes, including the addition of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. It took that momentum global with international Sprite ads focused on refreshment for its summer 2025 global “Turn Up Refreshment” campaign, which included signing on ambassadors from the world of K-pop and Chinese films. Stateside, the Coca-Cola brand partnered with South African pop star Tyla for a campaign encouraging Gen Z to live in the moment—using a cold Coke as a vehicle for them to reengage with the people around them. AB InBev As one of the world’s largest breweries, AB InBev‘s brand portfolio is extensive, and several of its brews notched marketing wins in the past year. Principal among them has been Corona. As the beer celebrated its 100th anniversary, it launched its Beach 100 guide to the world’s top beaches and grew the reach of its nonalcoholic Corona Cero (which will also be front and center at the 2026 Winter Olympics). And 2025 has also been about Michelob Ultra, which unseated fellow AB InBev brand Bud Light in September as the best-selling beer in America, highlighting renewed demand for a low-calorie and low-carb beer option. The brand showed up at the Super Bowl with a spot starring Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara playing pickleball against a younger doubles pair—showing off the beer as a choice for active drinkers. It was one of four ads at the big game from Ab InBev that were among the top seven most-watched from the event. The company also focused on impact through its brands, including a focus on local production globally and water efficiency, the latter of which is paired with support of Water.org through Stella Artois. Haleon Haleon—the spin-off of GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer health brands—may not be a known name, but its sub-brands are in the medicine cabinet of most of the world, each of them with unique and strong branding. For Emergen-C‘s Immune+ Crystals launch, the company built an ASMR pop-up that helped drive half a billion media impressions and double the product’s distribution goals. Sensodyne’s Clinical White launch focused on recyclable packaging, with strong sales that buoyed the brand’s overall 2024 sales and market share. In 2025, the company focused on conversations around wellness and self-care. To highlight Theraflu’s Nasal Mist, the brand focused on family and fitness influencers to underscore the product’s ability to prevent congestion from slowing them down. Hormel Foods By borrowing a phrase uttered by many a reluctant Super Bowl viewer, Hormel Foods combined its portfolio of brands into a single campaign—”Here for the Snacks.” Unlike a lot of Super Bowl fodder that focuses on celebrities and big-ticket spectacle, “Here for the Snacks” went practical, sharing a sports-themed assortment of recipes for many a gameday nosh. Informed by insights from the company’s in-house cultural anthropologist Dr. Tanya Rodriguez, the recipes showcased brands like Hormel pepperoni, Herdez salsa, Wholly guacamole, Planters, and Hormel Chili. The result was increased cross-purchase of Hormel brands and a 4% boost in sales, particularly among younger and more diverse shoppers. J.Crew Group As parent company to brands like J.Crew, Madewell, and J.Crew Factory, J.Crew Group leaders have spent the past year reviving its eponymous retail offering and finding new inspiration from longtime collaborators at Madewell. At J.Crew, the fall 2024 relaunch of the retailer’s physical catalog helped the brand lift its perception among shoppers by 11% and boosted its Google search activity by 30%, while bringing a 20% increase in reactivated shoppers. With buzzy collabs throughout 2025—including a collection with London’s Alex Eagle and a relaunch of a classic rollneck sweater starring up-and-coming actors like Dominic Sessa and Benito Skinner—J.Crew is setting its sights on 2026. In the first year of a three-year partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the brand’s presence will be a factor in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics. At Madewell, the brand launched its own Substack, Well Said, and its Well Said Collective—a brand ambassador program with content on social media, in stores, and on digital platforms. Since fall 2024, the brand has partnered with longtime collaborator Alexa Chung, launching three collections, most recently in November. Campaigns around the collections with Chung have brought in more than 7 billion social media impressions. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

As Fast Company‘s Brands That Matter marks its fifth year, the goal remains to honor globally recognized brands that inspire and resonate with audiences. This year’s honorees demonstrate the same qualities that have defined the program since its inception: a deep dedication to their core mission and meaningful connections with both their customers and the wider cultural landscape. While the recognized brands span diverse industries and achievements, they’re united by these fundamental commitments. METHODOLOGY With more than 1,200 entries, choosing Brands That Matter honorees requires months of researching and vetting applications, until finally landing on the best examples of what all brands should aspire to. Here is a behind-the-scenes peek into our three most important criteria: Cultural Relevance We look at the impact a brand has had on its industry and the culture at large. This is about what each brand has done that has influenced, impacted, or informed culture, which can range from pop culture, entertainment, and tech to how a company’s brand mission connects to larger societal issues. Ingenuity We aim to give credit to projects that exist at every stage of completion. While we do limit our consideration to brand actions in the past 12 months, those projects, strategies, or ideas can range from conceptual to just-launched to fully operational, as long as they’re bold, new, and innovative. Business Impact This is where the inspiration meets impact. We want to see the numbers, data, and performance indicators that demonstrate how a brand’s unique approach has affected its business, industry, and product category. The key is to share not just what a brand is doing to sell more product or connect with the culture but also the metrics and other data that prove how it’s increasing revenue while winning hearts and minds. “Brands That Matter applications are read and judged by a wide variety of writers and editors, each with expertise in each particular category and industry,” says Fast Company senior staff editor Jeff Beer. “After a first round of judging, there’s a period of discussion and debate in creating shortlists for each category and deciding which brands will ultimately make the overall main list. The process doesn’t just produce our honorees. Getting to know all the applicants helps fuel story ideas for the coming year.” MEET THE TEAM Judges: Jeff Beer, Joe Berkowitz, María José Gutiérrez Chávez, Amy Farley, Yasmin Gagne, Zachary Petit, David Salazar, Hunter Schwarz, Elizabeth Segran, Julia Selinger, Liz Stinson, Max Ufberg, Jay Woodruff Contributors: Jeff Beer, Joanne Camas, María José Gutiérrez Chávez, Jude Cramer, Amy Farley, Yasmin Gagne, Charissa Jones, David Salazar, Hunter Schwarz, Elizabeth Segran, Julia Selinger, Max Ufberg Coordinator: Shealon Calkins Design/Photo: Alice Alves, Jeanne Graves, Heda Hokschirr, Haewon Kye, Eric Perry, Sandra Riaño, Maja Saphir, Mike Schnaidt Development: J.J. Guaragno, Cayleigh Parrish, Luis David Gutierrez Velazquez View the full article

Aging gracefully is a tall order for any company, but the 2025 Brands That Matter heritage brands honorees have stuck around in style for decades—and in one case, even centuries. Along the way, they’ve adapted to the times and grown even stronger in the process, whether that means embracing design overhauls, creating innovative new technologies, or staying on the pulse of Gen Z trends. Here are the brands proving that age doesn’t necessarily make a brand old-fashioned in 2025. Bath & Body Works Bath & Body Works began as a mall staple in 1990, and 35 years later, it could easily have fallen by the wayside like so many of its peers. But instead, it is Gen Z’s number-one fragrance brand (per Piper Sandler’s Spring 2025 Teens survey), hopping on olfactory trends—hello, tomato-scented candles and Netflix collaborations—and rapidly responding to customer desires, like expanding its Everyday Luxuries collection of fragrances to include cleansers and moisturizers in just three months. The brand’s secret weapon isn’t just marketing, though: Its predominantly U.S.-based supply chain enables Bath & Body Works to manufacture new products quickly to be the first to big trends. Canada Goose In 2024, Canada Goose took a fashion-forward step. It named designer Haider Ackermann as its first ever creative director, and he quickly brought the nearly 70-year-old outerwear brand into the high-fashion world. Last fall, Ackermann released his first capsule collection under Canada Goose’s Snow Goose label, a sleek aesthetic combination of the brand’s past and future: extreme-weather outwear blended with bold colors and silhouettes. The collection garnered attention from the fashion world, with outlets including Vogue, GQ, and Elle covering the launch and helping drive a 240% increase in earned media impressions; from Canada Goose’s existing customer base, with two thirds of purchases coming from brand loyalists; and from curious newcomers, with U.S. brand search interest reaching a three-year high by December. Ackermann has since launched two more Snow Goose capsule collections, the latest starring singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, who paired one of his signature headbands with a tee touting Canada Goose’s tenet of environmental preservation. Clover Sonoma Brand impact isn’t dependent on the size of a company. Even small players can make a big difference, and California-based dairy company Clover Sonoma proves it. The beloved brand has been operating out of Sonoma County since 1916, and in 2024, it leveraged its power as a brand like never before to make a concrete impact on its local community. When Sonoma County voters considered Ballot Measure J in 2024—which the brand saw as potentially shutting down family farms—Clover Sonoma stepped in and urged its customers to oppose the measure via some prime advertising real estate: its milk cartons. The packaging educated its consumers on the impact Measure J would have on the local dairy industry, a move that paid off when the measure was struck down on election day. Meanwhile, Clover Sonoma is making sustainability a priority behind the scenes, from making a commitment to reduce its methane emissions by 10% over three years to switching its yogurt packaging from plastic to paper, saving 34,000 pounds of plastic annually. L’Oréal Paris L’Oréal Paris is on the cutting edge of the beauty industry, leveraging new innovations to set itself apart and give consumers a wholly new at-home salon experience. In 2024, the brand introduced Colorsonic, a novel at-home hair color device that had been in development for 10 years. The device’s more than 29 patents were put to good use: In its first six months, Colorsonic made major waves for L’Oréal Paris, earning the brand 25,000 new customers and 7 billion press impressions. The company’s tech-forward thinking continued with the launch of Beauty Genius, an AI-power assistant built on proprietary L’Oréal Paris knowledge, offering customers 24/7 support on everything from skincare to beauty tips to virtual try-ons. Lloyds Bank Even a 260-year-old company can reinvent itself, and over the past year, Lloyds Bank did exactly that. The British brand changed its philosophy from the outside in: First, it got a streamlined new design (one that pays homage to its classic black horse logo while incorporating modern pops of green) and moved to a new operating system. Second, it ensured that its operations matched the new image that Lloyds aimed to project: emotionally connected to its consumers, and wholly committed to helping them move forward through their banking. Customers started seeing Lloyds in a new light, while new members flocked to its redesigned app, which received 512,000 new downloads in Q4 of 2024 alone. Even as its peers dealt with declines, Lloyds saw a massive 450% year-over-year increase in net switching, proving the power of a well-timed rebrand. Sesame Workshop The U.S.’s biggest children’s media brand found a way to get even bigger: As of 2025, Elmo and friends have a new home on Netflix, thanks to a deal between the streamer and the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop. Now in its 56th season, Sesame Street has access to its largest-ever audience at more than 300 million worldwide—but rest assured, Elmo won’t live solely behind a paywall. New episodes will continue airing on PBS as well, maintaining the unbroken 57-year relationship the series has with the public broadcaster. Amid the changes, Sesame Street is still delivering the unparalleled entertainment and education for children that has made it an undeniably iconic part of pop culture: In the U.S., Sesame Workshop has achieved a staggering 96% brand awareness, and one in three children age five and under actively engage with Sesame Street. Topo Chico As 2025 marks Topo Chico’s 130th anniversary, the sparkling water brand is celebrating in style. Last year, the company expanded into the flavored sparkling water category with the launch of Topo Chico Sabores, then it supported the new drinks with an original variety show called Sabores TV, which featured taste tests, interviews, live performances, and more. The new products caused sales to soar by 42%, making Topo Chico among the top 15 growing beverage brands in the U.S. Earlier this year, Topo Chico launched a new campaign, “The Source of Legend,” that pulls back the curtain on more than a century of brand lore, secrets, and history, all while emphasizing the brand’s Mexican heritage and connection to fans. William Stout Architectural Books For William Stout Architectural Books, a visual overhaul didn’t mean sacrificing the San Francisco bookshop’s soul. Instead, the independent retailer’s 2025 renovation, a collaboration with design collective LoveFrom, unlocked Stout’s full potential. Its expanded retail offerings, which added items like exclusive editions and out-of-print acquisitions to the store’s existing catalog of books for architects and designers, doubled the store’s average transaction value. Its renewed focus on events, including lectures, workshops, and exhibitions with prominent figures from the design world, saw attendance triple to more than 3,500. And its redesigned digital storefront captured a new audience’s attention, with a 40% increase in engagement even before its full launch. Overall, in-store revenue rose by 18% year over year, demonstrating that even 50 years after first opening its doors, Stout’s legacy is only growing stronger. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

The early stages of building a brand are critical. Beyond identifying their audience, brands also have to connect with them while demonstrating their utility. For the five companies recognized as 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the on the rise category, in four years or less they have managed to do both those things with aplomb. Whether it’s Unrivaled’s unique NIL and athletic proposition for WNBA athletes, Scarlett Gasque’s ability to tap into underserved shoppers, or Alan-1’s efforts to give the arcade game an upgrade for avid players, these brands have proven their strengths. Alan-1 Alan-1 creates arcade and video game products inspired by the 1980s. In the past year, the company has brought back more modern versions of nostalgic games like Asteroids, Berzerk, and Missile Command through a partnership with Atari. In 2024, the company generated $2.1 million in arcade sales by placing them in Disney World and Dave and Buster’s locations. To promote its products, the company has adopted a YouTube strategy that showcases teaser trailers and gameplay breakdowns—to date, the channel has driven more than 500,000 organic views. It has also continued to meet fans where they are, engaging with them on Discord. Fine’ry Mass fragrance brand Fine’ry has made a name selling dupes for popular fragrances at a fraction of their price at retailers including Target. To tailor its appeal to customers, the company closely tracks the scents consumers want on social media and creates fragrances quickly based on that data. For example, over the summer, amid the rise of pistachio as a color and flavor, the brand released Pistachio Please, a scent with pistachio and vanilla notes. To appeal to digitally native consumers—who often purchase the fragrances without smelling them first—the brand uses generative AI to quickly create bold campaign imagery across physical and digital assets. Fine’ry also hosted two immersive pop-ups for fans to experience their scents and created digital pop-ups to meet their consumers where they spend time: on Roblox. As a result, one unit of Fine’ry fragrances was sold every 10 seconds in 2024. Scarlett Gasque Two-year-old lingerie company Scarlett Gasque creates lingerie and corsets. This year, the company expanded its model roster to include more plus-size and diverse bodies. The move led to a 45% increase in social engagement. The brand’s growing popularity on social media led to custom product requests from the likes of Kim Kardashian and Sabrina Carpenter. The brand’s Dorothy bra also made an appearance in Selena Gomez’s music video for her song “Sunset Blvd.” SirDavis American Whisky SirDavis, a whisky brand from megastar Beyoncé and Moët Hennessy, has marketed itself to women and people of color, demographics that are historically underrepresented in the luxury whisky category. Since its launch, the brand has associated itself with pop culture, retailing at venues like the Houston Rodeo to the Pegasus World Cup and California Crown, and of course, as the Official Spirit of the Cowboy Carter Tour. The brand also engaged and promoted blind tasting tests from experts, to assure customers that beyond being a celebrity brand, the product actually tastes good. Unrivaled Professional three-on-three women’s basketball league Unrivaled gives WNBA players more opportunities to compete during the offseason. Cofounded by players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, the company has raised $35 million. Last season, women accounted for more than half of Unrivaled’s televised viewership—a significantly higher percentage than every other televised woman’s sports property. Unrivaled also debuted an NIL program, showcasing college basketball stars Paige Bueckers of the University of Connecticut and Flau’jae Johnson of Louisiana State University. To stoke interest in the league, Unrivaled created a content strategy focused on behind-the-scenes storytelling. Unrivaled league and club social media accounts flooded the zone from January through March, together posting 3,804 times and averaging a combined 50 posts per day, which led to 589.1M social media impressions. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

After the initial sprint of getting a brand to last for five years, there’s always the possibility of hitting a wall. Companies that emerge during cultural moments might be tempted to shift. But the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees for established excellence, which have been in business for 5 to 14 years, have managed to stand out by finding new ways to hew to their original ethos. In doing so, they underscore what set them apart in the first place and position their brands for future growth. Actively Black Founded five years ago, activewear company Actively Black donates more than 10% of its profits to organizations focused on Black mental health, healthier food access, social justice, physical fitness, and HBCU athletics. The brand’s 2024 included designing the Nigerian Olympic team’s apparel and a collaboration with Civil Rights photographer Cecil Williams that benefited the South Carolina Civil Rights museum that bears his name. This year on Juneteenth, in a move that recast an industry historically built on enslaved Black workers, Actively Black released a collection made entirely with cotton from Black-owned farms—with the apparel proudly asserting it was “made from cotton grown by Black farmers.” It also brought its partnership with Mielle Organics to New York Fashion Week with Ruby Bridges, as well as the children of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton. Avaline Five-year-old wine brand Avaline—founded by actor Cameron Diaz and entrepreneur Katherine Power—has appealed to a demographic of women looking for “better for you” wines by meeting them where they are—the Hamptons. The effort started in summer 2024, when the company hosted pop-up experiences with fashion and lifestyle brands at Hamptons hot spots, and evolved this year: In June, the brand launched a wine with Stella McCartney, celebrating the limited-edition rosé with a cocktail party that had Drew Barrymore, Emma Roberts, and Andy Cohen in attendance. Those IRL moments have translated to social media—and especially Instagram, where Avaline is the most followed domestic wine brand on the platform (partially the result of 8% year over year follower growth in 2024). Babylist Digital baby registry Babylist launched an “open to secondhand” feature on its website in December 2024, letting users affected by rising inflation purchase essentials for less. To highlight the problem of the rising cost of living for parents, Babylist launched a campaign to show how the impact of tariffs and the resulting trade volatility spike the price of baby essentials. To do this, CEO Natalie Gordon worked with other CEOs to highlight the issue through ads in the Washington Post and billboards in Times Square. By speaking directly to parents’ concerns, the company gained more than 3 million followers across social channels, with 1.4 million on TikTok alone. BeatBox Beverages The resealable, recyclable Tetra Pak cartons are what make Beatbox instantly recognizable in the ready-to-drink alcoholic beverage space. What’s most striking about the brand, though, may be its stratospheric growth—in 2024, it nearly doubled its $100 million revenue from the previous year, and it’s reportedly on track to surpass $250 million in 2025. This year, it got a boost from Shaquille O’Neal in the form of an investment and a custom flavor for the basketball star/DJ—BeatBox blueberry lemonade. Shaq first encountered the brand via his DJing efforts, and music events have helped BeatBox find more customers. Its Tetra Paks have been at a growing roster of music festivals, including Outside Lands in August, where the brand debuted a Mystic Grape flavor. Danessa Myricks Beauty Founded by makeup artist Danessa Myricks, Danessa Myricks Beauty has gained a cult following by creating and marketing its products to underserved demographics, including women over 40, people of color, and nonbinary individuals. In the past year, the company has held two public model casting calls for everyday people. The initial effort in December 2024 saw more than 1,000 applicants—with 108 ultimately cast in the campaign. On social media, the company has focused on education, with free series like DMB University, a digital masterclass series. As a result, according to Creator IQ, the company generated 1.1 billion global impressions across all social platforms. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Once a brand hits its stride, it can be tempting to coast. As these 2025 Brands That Matter enduring impact honorees demonstrate, longevity (in this case, 15-plus years in business) can inspire innovation. That’s particularly true when it comes to finding fresh ways to engage longtime consumers—and court new ones. From Clinique leaning into its longstanding reputation among dermatologists to Lundberg Family Farms getting its shoppers to care about the cutest aspect of regenerative agriculture, there’s a wide range of ways these brands kept from resting on their laurels. Blumhouse As the horror film production studio marked 15 years, this past year, Blumhouse has worked to bring its horror movies to life via immersive experiences (Halfway to Halloween, NY Comic Con, Overnightmare, Halloween Horror Nights, CCXP Mexico), and capitalized on consumer loyalty by broadening its merch offerings. 2025 has been a year for tentpole sequels, including M3gan 2.0 and Black Phone 2, both of which leaned into superfans to get viewers in theaters. Though M3gan 2.0’s box office kept it in the realm of cult fandom, Black Phone 2 earned more than $123 million worldwide after a $27 million opening weekend. Clinique To reach new customers, 57-year-old Clinique went back to its roots as a brand created with dermatologists in 1968. To reach users on social media, the brand set up a Derm Creator Council that makes content focused on trending skincare topics. Content from the council fueled a 299% increase in video views and added more than 65,000 TikTok followers. To expand its role in growing the dermatology profession, Clinique funded a three-year scholarship with the Skin of Color Society Foundation to support medical students focused on skin health equity. It did so while churning out new products and reformulations, highlighting its ability to deliver “That Clinique Glow” with global pop-ups. Dirt Is Good Unilever’s laundry detergent brand Dirt Is Good collects various global product names—Persil, Skip, OMO, and Surf Excel—under a shared ethos: that stains are the mark of a life lived. In 2024, its Argentinian campaign “Stains of Glory”—in which the brand re-created grass and dirt stains from Argentina’s World Cup championship match and encouraged consumers to scan QR codes on ads for a chance to win one of the stained jerseys—reached 63% of the country in summer 2024. This year, it took up another, more taboo, topic in England—period stains. Using survey data showing 6 in 10 girls don’t play sports out of fear of period stains, Persil partnered with Arsenal women on a print and billboard campaign with athletes talking about how period stains are as much part of playing soccer as mud or grass stains. The campaign reached 34 countries and garnered 240 million earned impressions and 4.2 million social engagements in 10 days. Paired with tips on getting bloodstains out of clothes, the campaign lifted time spent on Persil’s site by 45%. Lundberg Family Farms Regenerative farming is still pretty opaque to the average person. To help customers understand its importance, rice-maker Lundberg Family Farms has launched campaigns to get customers to engage directly with its farming site. Every winter, Lundberg floods part of its fields to replicate the fast-disappearing California wetlands, which provide food for thousands of birds. The company also adopts other measures, like sequestering carbon, to give ducks a hospitable nesting environment. Though customers might find it difficult to engage with metrics around healthy soil, they can easily appreciate the value (and cuteness) of duckling rescue. After creating ads showcasing Lundberg’s duck rescue work, the company saw a 12.3% social media engagement rate. Lundberg also launched a Gold Shovel Ticket, giving one lucky entrant the chance to experience its rescue work firsthand—more than 20,000 customers entered the sweepstakes. Yahoo! Search engine Yahoo! went retro, launching the “Yahoo Yodel Button” in collaboration with film production company A24 to celebrate the movie Y2K. The novelty button made the iconic Yahoo! sound when pressed. The company further tapped into its nostalgic appeal by launching ads featuring Tae Bo creator Billy Blanks, and a Super Bowl ad where comedian Bill Murray encouraged the audience to send messages to his Yahoo! email address. These throwback efforts brought in a younger audience—millennials and Gen Z now make up almost 50% of the site’s visitors in the U.S. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

A brand that isn’t thinking globally is limiting its reach. The four 2025 Brands That Matter global honorees know that and have worked hard to make their messaging reach beyond their home countries. All based outside the United States, these brands demonstrated that good messaging and authentic connection have no nationality. 1Password People don’t like to think about their digital security, so Toronto-based 1Password has become an expert at making it fun, and doing so using sports as the backdrop. The brand used its sponsorship of the Presidents Cup golf tournament in fall 2024 to debut its “What Not to Do” campaign. With more than 12 million impressions, the spot drove a 14% increase in account creation during the tournament. Elsewhere, in 2025, the brand has partnered with Oracle Red Bull Racing’s F1 team, designing a custom car wrap for driver Alisha Palmowski, which debuted at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix in June. Babbel Berlin-based language learning company Babbel has been focused on meeting its users—who now include over 1 million Ukrainian refugees, connected with the brand via more than 70 NGOs—where they are. Babbel used Telegram to connect with 22,000-plus language learners via Welcome Alliance Germany, helping them practice their burgeoning skills. In 2025, the company also partnered with Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF, which began using its Babbel for Business offering for its players, coaches, and front office. The team became an early adopter of the brand’s AI-powered Babbel Speak tool, which debuted in September. Dreame Suzhou, China-based smart vacuum maker Dreame’s culturally attuned product strategy helped it capture up to 43% of the robotic vacuum market in Germany and Italy, with 2024 sales reaching 3.96 million units—a 60% year-over-year increase. By designing tech like eco-conscious smart lawnmowers for Europe and robotic vacuums with mop-detachment for cleanliness-focused markets, Dreame fused cultural insight with innovation. Campaigns such as “Reclaim Time for Family” and localized Amazon Prime Day activations fueled $9.05 million gross merchandise value in North America and a 540% surge in overseas direct sales. Marina Bay Sands In the past year, Singapore’s five-star resort Marina Bay Sands has undertaken a big transformation. As it fully renovated its lodgings, it also debuted its “Above Beyond” brand transformation. Initial response in fall 2024 included a 2.61% increase in brand equity, and average stay lengths have increased from 1.5 to 4 nights. That’s been helped by initiatives that include a cinematic campaign by filmmaker Celine Song and content featuring global brand ambassador David Beckham, which helped the brand reposition itself from a stopover to a destination. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

The 2025 Brands That Matter United States honorees aren’t just united by their shared geography—they are all identifying their target audience and meeting them exactly where they need to. Whether solving a uniquely American problem, as GoodRx does in addressing the cost of prescription drugs, or pioneering innovation that can help people globally like Owlet, these companies are showing how American brands can step up in authentic and impactful ways. GoodRx GoodRx has built its brand equity by being present where its customers need it—the pharmacy counter. Over the past year, the prescription savings platform introduced a feature that gets users to engage with it even earlier, offering an e-commerce portal for pharmacies that allows patients to validate their prescription and pay the discounted GoodRx price online before picking up their medication IRL. As it built consumer trust—and users documented their savings with social media posts—GoodRx this fall rolled out a new brand campaign. The ad push, which stars a character called the Savings Wrangler, capitalizes on growing interest in Westerns to highlight the platform’s ability to save people money. Owlet After becoming the first brand to launch an FDA-cleared, over-the-counter pulse oximeter for infants—its Dream Sock baby monitor—in 2024, Owlet took its messaging to parents. The brand garnered 42 million impressions by using a network of parent influencers sharing real-life stories of how the connected sock, which works as a baby monitor with a base station and app, gives them piece of mind. It drove an additional 202 million social impressions with its content on Instagram and TikTok, including 115 million organic video views. Texas A&M University Under CMO R. Ethan Braden, since fall 2024, Texas A&M has emphasized its commitment to serving its community—and the breadth of what it offers. With a constantly growing slate of YouTube videos, the university has become the most watched university online, racking up millions of views on videos about its commitment to veterans’ healthcare access, marine ecosystems research, and Alzheimer’s breakthroughs. It has paired content with community engagement, training first responders, educating Texans about hurricane season, and focusing on disaster preparedness. Understood.org The nonprofit focused on destigmatizing neurodiversity like ADHD, dyslexia, and learning disabilities leaned into being a resource for women with ADHD. Its MissUnderstood podcast network introduced ADHD AHA, which grew its audience via both audio and video. Over the course of the year, Understood.org and its podcasts reached nearly 11 million users through a revamped YouTube strategy. It turned that engagement into a study with Torrens University Australia that identified a positive correlation between people listening to the podcasts and having a better outlook on their ADHD diagnoses and self-esteem. https://open.spotify.com/show/6zHwhg9tavgvhlBKhHaEa3 This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Marketing leaders have always been vital to the long-term success of beloved brands. But never before has the CMO position been more complex—and more essential to driving business results. This year’s honorees come from a wide variety of product categories—from toys and games to media, beauty, and food—but all demonstrate remarkable skill in navigating a diverse media landscape with platforms and campaigns that deepen their brands’ cultural impact, strengthen audience relationships, and achieve meaningful business outcomes. These leaders were selected based on the ambition, sophistication, innovation, and performance of their brand initiatives throughout the year. Here are Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter CMOs of the year. Kristyn Cook, State Farm One of State Farm’s best brand insights is that nobody cares about insurance until they need it. So CMO Kristyn Cook and her team help people care by creating advertising that is as entertaining as possible. Cook is strategic and ambitious. That means creating a hilarious tie-in with Apple’s hit show Severance, enlisting Jason Bateman to be his own, less-than-ideal version of Batman for March Madness, and pitting gaming creators like Kai Cenat, Ludwig, Mark Phillips, and Berleezy against each other in a combination of gaming and IRL challenges for Gamerhood. The show’s third season from last summer attracted more than 23 million views, and in September, season four landed on Prime Video after getting more than 27 million views on YouTube and Twitch. As she told us back in March, “We like to move at the pace of culture.” George Felix, Chili’s Read about how CMO George Felix has helped make the restaurant chain relevant again through a combination of viral moments and marketing that emphasizes value. Tamera Ferro, Sol de Janeiro Tamera Ferro may have departed her role as chief marketing and growth officer at skincare and fragrance brand Sol de Janeiro in September 2025. But her work during her six-year tenure—in which she helped Sol de Janeiro grow from $38 million in sales to more than $1 billion—earned her a spot as a CMO of the year. Her success at the helm of the brand was due largely to Ferro and her team’s ability to identify the best places to reach its fans. While those places include TikTok and Instagram—where the brand has 6 million collective followers—Ferro also worked to expand the platforms where fans could encounter the brand, from Roblox to Coachella. Her approach to social media turned the brand into one of the internet’s buzziest, driving a 94% increase in social conversation and generating more than $330 million in earned media value. In May, Ferro oversaw the global Sephora launch of Body Badalada, Sol de Janeiro’s vitamin-infused lotion designed to cater to Gen Z by offering scent and hydration. The product campaign included a spot starring model Juliana Nalú; an original “Badalada Anthem” from producer Honey Dijon; and a traveling Brazilian street fair–inspired celebration called the Badalada Bloco. It was a campaign that distilled Ferro’s philosophy for reaching people, as she summed it up to TikTok in June: “Stop chasing trends and just start liking people. Figure out what they want, what you can do for them, and how to talk to them.” Morgan Flatley, McDonald’s Morgan Flatley has revolutionized how the world’s most famous fast-food brand shows up in culture, starting way back in 2020 with Travis Scott’s Famous Order. Over this past year, Flatley has taken her fan-led approach around the world. The Chicken Big Mac campaign featuring Kai Cenat on Twitch was McDonald’s first completely unscripted campaign and saw fans tune in for 3.5 hours of brand content. With 30 million streams and 500 million views, it was Twitch’s most successful QSR campaign ever, generating 35 billion earned impressions. The brand’s Minecraft Movie Meal, featuring both kid and adult happy meals, dropped in March 2025, and its 36 million collectibles sold out in nearly all 100 markets within two weeks. In France, a collab with Hot Ones brought the iconic YouTube show’s spicy sauces to the country, selling more than 6 million sauces and boosting sales by more than 80%. Diana Frost, Kraft Heinz Read about the Kraft Heinz chief growth officer’s work putting the company’s flagship condiment brand at the center of cultural conversations—and courting fans internationally. Jackie Jantos, Hinge Read about how Hinge president and CMO Jackie Jantos is centering real-life success stories to court new users for the dating app. Marian Lee, Netflix Read about how CMO Marian Lee is taking Netflix’s most popular shows into the world to meet fans beyond the binge. Victoria Lozano, Crayola As someone who’s been at Crayola since 2009 in various marketing capacities, CMO Victoria Lozano knows what the core of the 122-year-old brand is and has made it her job to find organic ways to grow its presence in people’s lives. That has meant finding areas for the brand to be more than just about art supplies and about fostering creativity among children—whether digitally through the brand’s top-downloaded Crayola Create and Play app or IRL in the libraries of elementary schools during Crayola Creativity Week. In 2025, Lozano more than doubled the number of children reached by Crayola Creativity Week, reaching students in more than 120 countries. She also grew the brand’s app to more than 3 million monthly active users. Lozano has expanded the company’s activations, generating $100 million in earned media value and 11.4 billion impressions. Her work is proof that established brands can innovate on their central product to meet the times—while still excelling on product. Crayola’s Marker Airbrush, introduced in February 2025, is a 2026 Toy of the Year Awards finalist in the Creative Toy of the Year category. Marcel Marcondes, AB InBev As the global chief marketing officer for AB InBev, Marcel Marcondes oversees more than 500 beer brands around the world, and Corona is arguably the company’s most famous. This past year was the brand’s 100th anniversary, and it was celebrated in style. For the Paris Games, nonalcoholic Corona Cero became the lead brand for AB InBev’s first-ever global beer sponsor of the Olympic Games. Corona also launched the Beach 100, a guide of the top 100 beaches in the world, and a multiyear sponsorship of a renowned concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. This year it was headlined by Lady Gaga and gathered more than 2 million people, becoming among the top five most-attended concerts ever. And in September, Marcondes struck an unprecedented, wide-ranging partnership deal with Netflix, getting Corona and its other brands front and center in Netflix’s push into live sports, as well as early access to placement and integration into other Netflix programming, such as shows and movies. Lisa McKnight, Mattel It’s one thing for a person’s brand work to become standard for a single brand, but Lisa McKnight’s work for Barbie—which doubled its sales between 2016 and 2021, helped along by a hit movie—has become the playbook for every brand at Mattel, where McKnight wrapped her 27-year tenure this fall. In the past year, McKnight and her team put that playbook to work on Uno and Hot Wheels, both of which are 2025 Brands That Matter honorees. With Uno, McKnight and her team positioned the decades-old card game as a social media star, partnering with content creator Legendary Jay for a series of TikToks and opening pop-up Uno Social Clubs throughout the U.S. to underscore the IRL appeal of the game. It even appeared at Pharrell Williams’s post–Met Gala party and got a special-edition makeover from pop star and Uno fan Billie Eilish, showing that even the cool kids are not immune to the joys of a well-played reverse card. Hot Wheels, meanwhile, became a brand canvas for the likes of Gucci, MSCHF, and Daniel Arsham. The brand also showed up in fans’ towns via the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, which broke records in 2024 and sold more than 60,000 of the brand’s die-cast cars. McKnight’s Hot Wheels work put the brand in a position of strength for its forthcoming film adaptation, which brought on Wicked‘s Jon M. Chu as its director over the summer. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Whether talking about underwear brands hand-selecting the perfect models to break the internet or the endless wooing of Gen Z and its style sensibilities, there was no shortage of creativity among the fashion brands that set the trends over the past year. Here are the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the fashion space that innovated on how style showed up for consumers in the past year. Bogg Bag When the function of a tote bag meets the versatility and kitschy-cute style of Crocs, the possibilities are endless. So proves Bogg Bag, a brand that’s constantly riffing to create collector’s items and limited-time variants of its signature design by switching up the bags’ colors, their patterns, and even the shapes of their cutouts. In late 2024, one of the brand’s most popular variants launched: a Bogg Bag sold only at Target emblazoned with the store’s bull’s-eye logo. The Target bag, which had 82% of its sales come from new Bogg shoppers, was just one of several retailer-exclusive designs launched in the past year. Bogg’s collaborations didn’t stop there: The brand also partnered with Fanatics to launch a line of sports-inspired bags featuring the logos and colors of 33 popular NFL and college teams. Most recently, Bogg released a new version designed to make the tote more upscale. Calvin Klein Few brands have the power to break the internet like Calvin Klein does. The underwear brand’s choice of models certainly has something to do with it—in the past year, celebrities like Jeremy Allen White and Bad Bunny in nothing but tighty-whities had fans flocking to take pictures with their billboards—but it’s the Calvin Klein lens that creates viral moment after viral moment. It all translates to massive media impact value for the brand, which reports that White’s campaign generated more than $12 million in media value in its first 48 hours and drove upwards of 30% growth in Calvin Klein’s underwear sales in the U.S. alone within its first week. That success was surpassed by Bad Bunny, whose underwear campaign earned $15 million in media impact value and drove a 25% increase in sales of the brand’s core styles. Coach Coach is courting Gen Z from every angle. The luxury fashion brand is proving that despite its high price tags, it’s not totally (or even remotely) out of touch. Through ethnographic research and in-person engagements, Coach has placed its finger firmly on the pulse: The brand’s collaboration with the WNBA demonstrates a savvy for what’s hot in sports. Its Coachtopia sub-brand appeals to Gen Z’s environmental concerns with a focus on circularity and upcycled materials, even putting consumers in the driver’s seat with the Coachtopia Beta Community, a network of Gen Zers who provide feedback and their own ideas for Coachtopia products. Next, the brand is also branching out into hospitality with the launch of Coach Coffee Shops, where Coach is less an aesthetic and more an experience. Already popular internationally, the brand has opened four of the coffee shops in the U.S., featuring bags with the coffee shop logo, an anthropomorphic coffee mug named Miss Jo. Gap Read about how Gap is using celeb partnerships to make its denim a go-to for Gen Z—one viral dance at a time. H&M In 2024, Charli xcx was the zeitgeist incarnate—and at her peak of popularity, she was wearing H&M. The fashion retailer understands how to make its target customer pay attention, with artists including Troye Sivan, Caroline Polachek, Arca, Offset, and Kaytranada all performing at H&M events in 2024 alone. Charli, meanwhile, was the campaign star of H&M’s AW2024 collection, which she capped off with a surprise concert in New York City’s Times Square. Her star power translated to her fans’ purchasing power, with a coat Charli wore in one of the campaign images selling out in most markets within days of launch. In 2025, H&M kept its music momentum going with its H&M&LA Festival, a celebration of the brand’s spring/summer 2025 collection featuring performances from still more of-the-moment artists like Doechii and PinkPantheress. Even after its major investments in brand-building initiatives and product offering, H&M achieved an increase in full-year profits in 2024—music to any retailer’s ears. Levi’s Beyoncé. Need we say more? Probably not, but here goes nothing. Levi’s has maintained its place as the world’s leading denim brand, seizing every opportunity to remind the world that when they think jeans, they’re probably thinking Levi’s. That meant jumping at the chance to embrace Beyoncé’s re-spelling of its brand name as “Levii’s” on Cowboy Carter, temporarily using the new spelling for its socials (and, naturally, going mega viral). It also meant developing a full campaign with Beyoncé that lasted into summer 2025 and was so successful that Levi’s dubbed its decade-high 8% holiday growth in 2024 “the Beyoncé effect.” Beyond all things Queen Bey, Levi’s also collaborated with the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, helping to costume the film and highlighting the brand’s place in the legacy of music history. New Balance From celebrity collabs to high fashion, New Balance can do it all. The sneaker brand has successfully positioned itself as a cultural catch-all, able to blend its aesthetic seamlessly with anyone and everyone: athletes like the 2025 Naismith College Player of the Year Cooper Flagg, artists like Jack Harlow, and fashion brands like Ganni, each bringing their own audiences to New Balance’s storefronts. The brand’s extensive collabs with tennis superstar Coco Gauff reached new heights when fashion house Miu Miu also entered the mix, creating a collection for Gauff to wear at several tournaments this summer. New Balance’s chameleon-like collaborations have enabled the brand to keep growing at a remarkable pace: 20% year over year for the past four years. Nike Nike knows women’s sports aren’t the future, they’re the present—and its campaigns over the past year make that crystal clear. Its “So Win” anthem premiered during Super Bowl LIX, celebrating icons of women’s sports who dominate in their field, like Sabrina Ionescu and Jordan Chiles. Its Breaking4 moonshot this summer ensured all eyes were on Faith Kipyegon during her historic attempt to become the first woman to run a sub-four-minute mile. Its A’One collection, a collaboration with A’ja Wilson, encourages young athletes to see themselves in her journey and dream just as big. And beyond products and campaigns, Nike puts its money where its mouth is, supporting access to sports through global initiatives like Play Academy with Naomi Osaka, which aims to increase girls’ participation in sports in Japan, Haiti, and Los Angeles. Savage x Fenty Savage x Fenty not only taps into pop culture, it creates it, unconcerned with what the world has to say. Take the lingerie brand’s Valentine’s Day campaign for 2025, “Love Your Way.” Featuring Love Island winners Serena Page and Kordell Beckham, TikTok stars Hayley and Jules LeBlanc, and the founder and icon herself, Rihanna, the campaign was a must-watch for every internet native. But it also broke from the mold, redefining the kinds of love we ought to celebrate on Valentine’s, highlighting self-love, friendship, and sisterhood alongside romance, and all without any caveats about gender or orientation. The campaign got the world talking, sparking more than 100 editorial features and reaching over a billion unique monthly visitors. Just a month later, Savage x Fenty did it again, announcing Grammy-nominated artist GloRilla as the first-ever exclusive ambassador for all four of Rihanna’s Fenty brands. The announcement and accompanying campaign again set the internet ablaze, this time with more than 2 billion unique monthly visitors and nearly 60 digital stories. Skims It’s impossible to deny the cultural staying power of Skims. Everywhere we’ve looked for the past year, there it was, on Team USA athletes at the Olympics, on Charli xcx at the height of Brat summer. . . Then there was the brand’s heartfelt campaign with Olivia Munn, who in fall 2024 shared her journey with breast cancer and recontextualized the purpose of Skims’s controversial Ultimate Nipple Bra, which—though designed to be a statement in reclamation of women’s bodies—proved an unexpected source of comfort and confidence for women who had undergone mastectomies. In 2025, Skims also released the first collection from NikeSkims, a new stand-alone brand combining Nike’s athletic expertise with Skims’s shapewear sensibilities. Through it all, Skims maintains its commitment to inclusive sizing and shades, a testament to its slogan of providing “solutions for every body.” True Religion Twenty-three years after its founding, True Religion is back with a vengeance (and just in time for the Y2K renaissance). The iconic denim brand of the early aughts is now more profitable than ever—it generated more than $370 million in revenue in 2024, a massive jump from $280 million the year before. The key to its comeback? The right celebrity collaborations at just the right times. That includes a multiplatform campaign starring Anitta, performances from YG and Sexyy Red at Rolling Loud, and a set from Megan Thee Stallion at Coachella 2025, where she and all her dancers wore head-to-toe True Religion. Along the way, the brand launched its “Own Your True” campaign, encouraging consumers to boldly be themselves. Urban Outfitters To corner the market on Gen Z, you have to meet them where they are. In 2024, Urban Outfitters took that advice literally, transforming four of their stores in college towns during move-in to create one-of-a-kind concert experiences for students. These pop-up events, called UO Live On Campus, featured trending artists including Tinashe, Towa Bird, Quavo, and The Marías. The campaign also included the launch of 20 pop-up shops featuring curated college essentials, helping students make the transition from high school to college. Altogether, the campaign generated more than 1.2 billion PR impressions, 2.7 million social impressions, and over a thousand in-person attendees. Urban Outfitters has kept the college-themed campaigns coming: This spring, it launched UO Haul, an experience in New York City where participants competed to find “Gen Z dorm rooms” on glass-walled trucks around the city, with the chance to unlock them and win tickets to an exclusive Katseye concert. And this past summer, the retailer launched UO Haul: Special Delivery, sending surprise care packages to incoming college freshmen across America. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Increasingly, the media and entertainment brands that thrive are ones that can build on their core business in creative ways. Two of the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the media and entertainment world—Ebony and Essence—are legacy Black publications that have grown their audiences and cultural cachet by building events around their flagship editorial product. Overtime is partially a sport brand, but it’s also a company that knows how to engage with younger consumers around sports—that’s how it’s gotten noticed by major brands and other sports leagues. Those three examples of the six outlined below, are just some of the ways companies are rethinking what a media brand can—and should—be. Afropunk In its 20 years of existence, Afropunk has expanded beyond just being a festival organizer. It’s a brand that engages with issues facing the Black community globally and bakes that into everything from its social media to its live programming. That global focus has helped it catch on in Brazil, where Afropunk reaches the largest Black audience outside of Africa. Meanwhile, Afropunk Bahia has become a key event for the brand, and a moment for bringing the global Black diaspora together in Salvador, Bahia. More than 60,000 people attended in 2024, and the 2025 edition, held in early November, also listed artists’ countries of origin on the lineup announcements. The two-day event was headlined by American singer Coco Jones on day 1 and Nigerian singer/songwriter Tems on day 2. Ebony As the preeminent magazine for Black news, culture, and entertainment celebrates its 80th anniversary, Ebony is making clear that it has grown into a modern media brand. Its annual Power 100 list has grown in visibility, and its 2024 iteration was the brand’s most-covered installment, with coverage of its gala bringing in 7 billion media impressions. This year, the Power 100 Gala, held in early November, took on a new format, with honorees focused on past, present, and future, including Tracee Ellis Ross as this year’s Pathbreaker of the Year. As it builds out the gala, Ebony also keeps its journalism in focus, bringing on longtime Essence writer and former deputy editor Cori Murray as its executive vice president of editorial content, adding a veteran Black journalist onboard to grow its storytelling capabilities. Essence With its editorial focus on lifestyle and culture for Black women, Essence has turned two of its flagship events—the Essence Festival of Culture and the Black Women in Hollywood Awards—into cultural moments unto themselves. Though the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture saw lower ticket sales and fewer vendors than the record-breaking 30th anniversary edition in 2024, it remained a tentpole event for New Orleans over July 4th weekend. And this year’s 18th installment of the Black Women in Hollywood Awards honored the likes of Cynthia Erivo, Teyana Taylor, and Marla Gibbs. Overtime With four of its own sports leagues (men’s basketball, women’s basketball, 7v7 football, and boxing) and a TikTok following of more than 60 million across its accounts, sports media brand Overtime has provided brands, athletes, and leagues a major platform for reaching generations Z and Alpha. In 2024, the brand logged more than 115 million social media followers across platforms and over 3 billion engagements coming from 30 billion-plus views of its content. That was enough to get the National Women’s Soccer League on board for Overtime’s first partnership with a women’s league ahead of the football clubs’ 2025 season. Overtime got NWSL footage and behind-the-scenes access to players, and the league got the eyeballs of the 3 million people following OvertimeFC on TikTok, plus access to its broader audience. In 2025, major brands have continued to take notice of Overtime’s reach, with Therabody’s fall 2025 national ad-buy including Overtime alongside networks like NBC Sports, Peacock, and ESPN. Revolt When Revolt cofounder Sean “Diddy” Combs departed the television and media company in 2024, selling his majority stake, the brand knew exactly who its new owners should be: its employees. In its year-plus as an employee-owned company, Revolt has continued its focus on hip-hop and youth culture, including a record-breaking weekend for the 2024 edition of its flagship Revolt World festival. In 2025, it has worked to capitalize on youth interest in sports, launching its Revolt Sports vertical with a podcast hosted by former NFL player Brandon Marshall and cultural commentator Kayla Nicole. The brand has also grown its podcast network, launching more than 20 new shows in the past year, including The People’s Brief from social media personality Lynae Vanee, in which she explores news, culture, and history. USAFacts In a golden age of misinformation, USAFacts has positioned itself as a brand that audiences can turn to for one thing reliably: the unvarnished truth. That resource was particularly needed as the 2024 election ramped up, which was why USAFacts worked with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for its “Just the Facts” campaign. The series saw Ballmer breaking down topics like immigration, federal spending, and healthcare in explainer videos. The brand found an appetite for the content, racking up 40 million video engagements, which helped bring in 367,000 new subscribers to the USAFacts newsletter. The partnership has continued throughout 2025, with Ballmer explaining issues on everyone’s mind: tariffs, government assistance, and federal spending. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Health and wellness is a product category littered with broken promises and bad pitches. These Brands That Matter honorees have created work for products that aim to uplift, help, and encourage across a wide range of challenges and issues, big and small. Bobbie Many new mothers feel pressured to breastfeed their children but cannot for a variety of reasons. Bobbie has been working to change the narrative around using formula through advocacy and education efforts, while offering an organic product that still meets the FDA’s nutrition requirements. Its “Ask for Help” campaign with Meghan Trainor revealed that 86% of mothers felt frequent or constant negative emotions postpartum, and 63% of mothers experienced extreme or moderate stress over feeding choices in their baby’s first year. And 61% of mothers felt shame, anxiety, or discomfort in turning to their support systems about feeding choices. The brand encouraged new parents to ask for the help and support they need, sharing Trainor’s relatable and raw postpartum mental health struggles as inspiration. Dame Products Committed to fighting taboo and living up to its goals for creating products and awareness around sexual pleasure and wellness, Dame Products had a big year in both products and advocacy. It launched its most affordable vibrator to date, Zig, in over 1,000 Walmart stores. Though designed specifically for this retail partnership, Zig retains the same medical-grade silicone and thoughtful design as Dame’s premium products—underscoring its belief that everyone deserves quality pleasure tools, regardless of income or geography. The Walmart launch marked a pivotal step in destigmatizing sexual wellness in mainstream spaces and bringing its mission to more communities. It’s not often you see a brand have a partnership with Planned Parenthood and appear on Fox News to talk about what tariffs mean for its business. At a time when companies are backing off from politics, Dame Products has found a way to effectively engage in the issues it cares about. Eli Lilly This past year, Eli Lilly and Company doubled down on its efforts to reach audiences through marketing campaigns crafted around breast cancer awareness and prevention, obesity, and Alzheimer’s. This work built maximum reach with thoughtful and unique media placements across culturally relevant moments like the women’s NCAA tournament, the Grammys, and impactful partnerships, including with Team USA. The Olympics campaign made people think differently about Lilly, with an 81% increase in unaided brand awareness, a 30% boost in brand favorability, and a 30% lift in brand trust. The brand’s Grammys spot—raising awareness about checking for early signs of breast cancer—was a highly visible moment that came amid a strong lineup of women performers. Home Instead Figuring out how to help aging relatives is a heavy topic, but it’s one that in-home elder care brand Home Instead has managed to demystify with its marketing. the brand’s “A Better What’s Next” campaign reframes the idea of hiring home aides around family empowerment rather than a loved one’s decline. With two spots, “A Better What’s Next” achieved 585.7 million impressions and 25.8 million full video views, which drove 1.9 million clicks to the Home Instead landing page. The campaign’s launch event, held in New York City with celebrity chef Joy Bauer received 7.5 million social impressions and more than 300 million media impressions. The Honor Technology brand’s latest ad stars Macauley Culkin reprising his character from Home Alone and grappling with how to help his aging mom. Liquid I.V. Following a brand refresh in 2024, hydration company Liquid I.V. made inroads at music festivals and F1 events, while centering social responsibility focused on bringing water to more people around the world. Its fall 2024 “Water Is Basic” campaign picked up more than 4.5 million TikTok views and become its highest-scoring commercial among consumers, helping fuel Unilever’s 6.5% growth in beauty and well-being sales. In 2025, it underscored its role as a recovery product and took over Times Square for a Liquid I.V. O’clock promotion, rolling out delivery robots full of its electrolyte mixes to the busy tourist hub. The brand also expanded its Confluence platform, investing $1.89 million across 10 organizations, accelerating sustainable clean water solutions. Listerine How does the world’s first mouthwash, and century-old brand, remain relevant in 2025? Start by kicking off the year. The brand sponsored CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, with branded moments and the Listerine countdown clock getting viewers to midnight. Once 2025 kicked off, the brand expanded its Clinical Solutions line—developed with dental professionals to address specific oral health conditions—with a product for sensitive teeth. To promote it, Listerine partnered with Food Network star Esther Choi, who talked about tooth sensitivity. Its influencer strategy also delivered millions of earned media impressions, with standout content from celebrities like  Jessica Simpson and creators such as  Danielle Carolan and Noelle Simpson. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

In a crowded field like food and beverage, companies must do all they can to stay ahead of the pack. The 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the space used inventive campaigns, celebrity influence, and nostalgic throwbacks to stand apart. Corona brought its product to Olympian heights, and Sprite reinvigorated a classic slogan with a new generation of talent. Sometimes achieving brand relevance is as easy, as Heinz proved, as putting a little mustard on it. Califia Farms A recognizable presence in the plant-based dairy aisle, Califia Farms spent the past year recommitting itself to values of health and sustainability. In response to consumer demands for more organic options, the brand expanded its Simple & Organic line to include Organic Coconutmilk, Organic Vanilla Almondmilk, and a selection of Organic Almond Creamers. Califia also completed its transition from using virgin plastic in its signature curvy containers to 100% recycled plastic (rPET) bottles across the U.S. and Canada. The brand’s efforts to go green extend beyond environmentally friendly packaging. In February, Califia released The Green Album, a compilation of feel-good ambient tunes and meditations narrated by actor Chris O’Dowd. For every stream of the album on Spotify, Califia and the nonprofit One Tree Planted will plant a tree. The nondairy giant has found other avenues to engage with pop culture too. Upon releasing Creamy Refreshers, a line of beverages made with real fruit juice and coconut cream, Califia Farms partnered with Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila to serve an exclusive cocktail at Coachella. California Pizza Kitchen For California Pizza Kitchen’s 40th anniversary, the Beverly Hills–born pizza chain teased a bold, fresh rebrand, replete with an all-black colorway and EDM soundtrack. Even CPK’s CMO, Dawn Keller, touted the company’s rebrand on LinkedIn. The attempt to appeal to a newer, younger crowd had an unfortunate stink of “How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?” about it. Luckily for skeptical CPK fans, the whole thing was a ruse. On CPK’s birthday in March, the brand launched a funny, self-aware campaign titled “We’re 40 & Fine With It!” Starring actress and former CPK hostess Busy Philipps, the mockumentary-style video shows the brand going through a faux midlife crisis. “Ever since they turned 40,” says Philipps, “they’ve been acting insane.” She convinces a corporate rep to abandon the edgy “disrupter” facade and focus on why customers fell in love with CPK in the first place: the food. As part of the anniversary campaign, CPK rolled out a nostalgic limited-time menu with classics like Waldorf Chicken Salad and Tortilla Spring Rolls. Chili’s In an era increasingly defined by rising food costs, Chili’s reiterated to customers that it is the go-to dining establishment for getting the best bang for your buck. For $10.99, diners can get bottomless chips and salsa, a drink with unlimited refills, and a Big Smasher—a burger with, notably, twice as much beef as a Big Mac. In April, Chili’s clapped back at high fast food prices with a cheeky two-day pop-up in New York City. At the immersive “Fast Food Financing Store,” guests were “approved” for a gift card to offset the cost of a fast food combo meal before being escorted into a Chili’s speakeasy. CEO Kevin Hochman and CMO George Felix recognize that Chili’s deftly balances its cheeky branding and red-booth nostalgia. At the intersection of playful irreverence and the creature comforts of hospitality sits Chili’s secret weapon: alcohol. Chili’s has become a hub for margarita drinkers, selling over 24 million of the tequila libations in 2024—more than any other restaurant brand. Chili’s capitalized on its diners’ preferred drink by launching $10 Patrón-based margaritas in June. Despite being $4 more than the chain’s other margaritas, the drinks doubled sales projections in their first three months. Coca-Cola Since its humble beginnings in 1886, Coca-Cola has become a global phenomenon enjoyed in more than 200 countries and territories. This past year, the beloved beverage leaned into its status as an international icon with a number of regionally specific campaigns. In the Middle East, “Ramadan Made by” showed families connecting over a Coke during the monthlong holiday; “Lunar New Year” embraced festive packaging and scenes of celebration across Asia; and in Mexico, “Shades of Red” showcased tienditas and their signature red awnings as a cornerstone of community. Coca-Cola recognizes that it’s a personal brand as much as a global one. In March, the soda giant relaunched its “Share a Coke” campaign with personalized packaging and a digital rollout aimed at Gen Z, including a QR code–powered digital hub. It’s part of an overall effort to reach younger consumers; in 2024, more than half of Coca-Cola’s global media strategy was spent on digital media, with emphasis shifted toward social platforms and influencers. Dr Pepper Read about how the soda brand capitalized on buzz around “dirty soda” to release its most popular limited-edition flavor ever. Corona As big beer brands expand into the nonalcoholic beverage market, Corona went where no N/A beer has gone before: the Olympics. In 2024, Corona Cero was the leading brand at the Paris Olympics, thanks to savvy maneuvering by AB InBev’s CMO Marcel Marcondes and his team. With alcoholic beverages verboten for regular ticket holders at the Paris games, Corona Cero was a rule-abiding workaround, and AB InBev served as the event’s first global beer sponsor. The sponsorship was accompanied by the “For Every Golden Moment” campaign, which highlighted the celebratory spirit of the games—and will be revived for the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games in 2026. In 2025, Corona’s flagship beer has been the star as the brand celebrates its 100th birthday. As part of the festivities, the beer giant launched the “Beach 100,” a curated list of the world’s most iconic beaches. By purchasing the special-edition 100th Anniversary pack and scanning the QR code, consumers could win a trip to one of the crowned oases. Gozney When Tom Gozney switched his business model from commercial pizza ovens to portable, compact ones in 2016, he leveraged the influence of celebrated chefs to bring his product to the masses. It’s a business philosophy that Gozney has sustained into 2025. This past year, the brand tapped longtime partner Matty Matheson—chef, YouTube sensation, and producer and actor on The Bear—to head up its “Cook Different” campaign. For the project, Matheson channeled old-school infomercial hosts, all while bringing his signature frenetic energy to the videos. The campaign teed up Matheson for a proper product release: The Matty Matheson Signature Tread. Released in June, the orange ovens are bold and whimsical, just like Matheson himself. Key to Gozney’s cultural impact is its embrace of long-form YouTube content—its most recent series is Pizza With Frank, starring pizzaiola Frank Pinello of Vice fame. The brand has a booming YouTube presence. As of late November, Gozney had more than 383,000 YouTube followers and a subscriber growth rate in the top 10% of all YouTube channels. Heinz Super Bowl LIX proved to be a catalyzing cultural moment for Heinz to create brand buzz—all without having its own big-game ad. The condiment company lent its fan-favorite brigade of wiener dogs to Instacart’s Super Bowl commercial, catapulting them to being the second-most-mentioned brand on X during the game. But it was the half-time show’s inclusion of Mustard—Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” producer—that set the stage for Kraft Heinz global chief growth officer (and CMOs of the Year honoree) Diana Frost and her team. About two minutes into the track “TV Off,” Kendrick yells out a long and guttural “Mustaaaaaard!” The yawp became a meme unto itself, beloved by fans and even parodied by The Minions. Heinz jumped at the opportunity to be involved. In February, the same month as the Super Bowl, Heinz released a 30-second spot teasing a forthcoming collaboration with DJ Mustard (born Dijon Isaiah McFarlane). The limited-edition Heinz Mustaaaaaard, a piquant honey mustard with jalapeños and chipotle, dropped in June at Buffalo Wild Wings, followed by a retail rollout. The new condiment hit shelves on the heels of a banner 2024 for Heinz, when the 150-plus-year-old company generated more than 3.6 billion earned media impressions. McDonald’s How does a brand as big as McDonald’s stay relevant? By embracing nostalgia and emerging markets in equal measure. In summer 2024, McDonald’s relaunched its collectible cups after 20 years. Spotlighting brands like Beanie Babies, Barbie, and Hot Wheels, the collection sold 15.8 million cups, with nearly all 33 markets sold out within 14 days and resale values spiking on eBay and Grailed. Another brand throwback, the cult favorite McRib, first introduced in 1981, found a spot back on the menu in time for the 2024 holiday season. Half-gallon jugs of the signature sauce were available online as well. The McDonald’s marketing team, helmed by CMO Morgan Flatley, worked to attract younger consumers as well. For its Chicken Big Mac campaign, the chain hosted an unscripted Twitch livestream with superstar influencer Kai Cenat. Cenat invited a few famous friends, including John Cena and Fanum, to debate an age-old question: Is a Big Mac with chicken still a Big Mac? The campaign—the brand’s first on Twitch—racked up 30 million streams and 500 million views, and generated 35 billion earned impressions for McDonald’s. Oatly Alt-milk purveyor Oatly wanted would-be customers to know that its creamers are actually their ideal coffee companion—they just don’t know it yet. The brand conjured up a faux medical condition, DOMP (Dormant Oatmilk Preference), and an accompanying ad spoofing pharmaceutical commercials. “You might already prefer the taste of Oatly over cow milk, but don’t know it yet,” says actor Chris Parnell in voice-over. As part of the broader “Blind Love” campaign—and to diagnose DOMP—Oatly embarked on a sampling tour across the U.S., passing out thousands of cups of coffee to create an opportunity to try Oatly. For the “Fanciest Parking Lot Coffee” campaign, Oatly tapped into a similarly silly and provocative marketing strategy: To promote the packaging overhaul of its oat milk creamers, Oatly staged a low-brow meets high-brow mashup at different grocery store parking lots. There, shoppers were treated to white-glove coffee service, replete with gold-tinged carts, an Oatly Creamer ice sculpture, and live classical music. Patrón Tequila Patrón has leaned into its ethos of being an ideal companion for a good time by reinforcing its connection to live entertainment—and positioning concerts as the perfect environment to enjoy its newest offering, Patrón Cristalino. When it launched the tequila in fall 2024, the band partnered with acclaimed Latin artist Becky G for a Los Angeles showcase. It rolled into 2025 festival season with a Live Nation partnership that made Patrón’s products mainstays for music fans nationwide. The brand made its festival debut in April at the Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, followed by stops at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and EDC Orlando. At Raleigh’s Dreamville alone, Patrón poured more than 27,000 cocktails in two days. A fixture of the partnership is Hacienda Patrón—a music festival activation created by Live Nation’s experiential team, featuring immersive, multistory bars inspired by the company’s Jalisco distillery. Poppi Poppi isn’t like other sodas. It’s part of what the brand calls the “modern soda set”—a prebiotic, functional pop that earned its own dedicated retail destination. Stores like Walmart and Target have adopted the initiative, unveiling entire sections for the drink category. Poppi further elevated its partnership with Target by launching an exclusive Cream Soda flavor as well as a 20-piece limited-edition apparel collection. Efforts like these have helped Poppi break out beyond beverage to full-fledged lifestyle brand. It’s achieving that goal with the help of influencers: For its “Soda Thoughts” Super Bowl campaign, Poppi enlisted popular creators like Jake Shane, Alix Earle, and Love Island’s Rob Rausch. In the ad, a bevy of young consumers are wracked with beverage indecision. The narrator asks, “What if there were a better soda?” before making the case for Poppi as a compelling low-sugar alternative. The Gen Z–centric approach helped keep its place as Amazon’s top-selling soft drink for the third year running. In 2024, Poppi netted more than 299 million TikTok views. Sprite This past year, Sprite climbed up the soda ranks, surpassing Pepsi as the #3 soft drink in the United States in April. It did that by embracing a tried and true strategy—tapping athletes as influential cultural ambassadors—with stars from a younger generation. Since Sprite first launched the “Obey Your Thirst” campaign in the 1990s, NBA athletes like Grant Hill and Kobe Bryant have lent their talents to the beverage behemoth. In 2024, the brand revived the iconic tagline with help from Minnesota Timberwolf Anthony Edwards and Olympic Gold Medalist Sha’Carri Richardson—Sprite’s first female athlete partner. The lead spot brings back Hill—the star of the original ‘94 campaign—as the narrator. The revamped campaign also signed its first NFL player, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. Athletes made their marks across other Sprite campaigns. Edwards is the face of “Anta Claus,” which promotes Sprite’s seasonal Winter Spiced Cranberry flavor, and Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young riffs on his nickname “Ice Trae” in promos for the limited-edition Sprite Chill. The drink—outfitted with a unique cooling sensation—became a top seller in 2024, generating $40 million in a 13-week window. Sweetgreen Steak isn’t a food that screams “salad chain.” But the eatery proved that even indulgent options could get the Sweetgreen treatment. In response to growing consumer demands for more protein-rich choices, Sweetgreen introduced its first-ever steak option to be added to salads, grain bowls, and plates—caramelized-garlic steak, with pasture-raised, grass-fed beef. It’s a recipe befitting the chain’s focus on thoughtful sourcing and farm-fresh ingredients. In celebration of National Farmer’s Day, Sweetgreen partnered with digital fashion brand MNTGE on a work-wear jacket, with proceeds benefiting the National Young Farmers Coalition. Other farm-forward initiatives included a partnership with the nonprofit Food Access L.A. and “The Faces of the Farm,” a storytelling campaign to shine a light on Sweetgreen’s seasonal summer ingredients. In addition to farmers, Sweetgreen also celebrates the industry-shaking chefs that transform their products. This past year, the brand launched its first-ever Korean-inspired menu in collaboration with the Michelin-starred steakhouse Cote. Violife Who better to beat your brand’s drum than Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker? In 2024, he teamed up with dairy-alternative purveyor Violife to promote its new cream cheese block. As part of the social media campaign, Barker called the lineup of cheeses—free of lactose, gluten, soy, and nuts—the “last step in cutting cheese from my diet” (and, to use his punk rock parlance, “fucking awesome”). The musician’s Violife reel on Instagram garnered over 4 million views and 73,000 likes. In 2025, the company has gone wide with its lentil-based coffee creamers, which launched in January at Walmart, and got a nationwide campaign and retail expansion in March. The brand’s “Creamy Confessions” effort brought in reality stars and coffee influencers to get people who dabble in the dairy-free lifestyle to commit. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

It’s all fun and games, until there are billions of dollars involved. But these Brands That Matter honorees manage to tap into our love for sports and entertainment in ways that only help boost that passion. BritBox Read about how BritBox’s first major brand campaign showcased the craftsmanship of British TV. NBA Read about how the NBA made its app a destination for fans by building a network of creators it equipped with editing tools and 25,000 hours of game footage. State Farm As crazy as it sounds, this is an insurance company steeped in culture. This past year, State Farm pushed its Super Bowl ad to March Madness, due to sensitivity around the L.A. wildfires, but it still landed a hit. Creator star Kai Cenat broke the news on Jimmy Fallon’s show, and the hilarious spot starred Jason Bateman attempting to save the day rather than America’s favorite Caped Crusader. It led to a total of 358 traditional and earned social media placements, resulting in 2.5B earned media impressions. The brand also continued its popular reality game show called The Gamerhood. These campaigns and others leveraged the pervasive pop culture power of Jake from State Farm, driving more than 1 million new policies in 2024, and raising preference among ages 26 to 39 (millennials) by 4.5 percentage points and ages 18 to 25 (Gen Z) by 6.8 percentage points compared to a 2022 baseline. Togethxr Read about how the media and merch brand’s Nike partnership and growing slate of podcasts and shows is manifesting its motto, Everyone Watches Women’s Sports Uno Read about how the card game used TikTok and pop-up Uno parlors to bring fresh interest to the 52-year-old brand. Netflix It was a massive year for Netflix hits, with highly anticipated seasons for homegrown hits like Squid Game, Wednesday, and Stranger Things. Each of these is a cultural phenomenon in its own right, boosted by Netflix’s strategic brand partnerships strategy, elevating product collabs into fan moments themselves. From Duolingo for a “Learn Korean or Else” campaign, to Cheetos teaming with Wednesday’s Thing, and Stranger Things infiltrating everything from Nike to Williams Sonoma to Eggos, Netflix managed to bring each show to life in unique ways. For the award-winning show Adolescence, Netflix worked with charities in various countries to develop educational materials to help advocate for the growing movement to make schools phone-free zones. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Consumer products is perhaps one of the broadest, most competitive arenas for marketers, always facing the constant question: “Why should anyone care or pay attention?” These Brands That Matter honorees are answering that question. Brawny To launch its new three-ply paper towels, the brand decided to breathe new life into its lumberjack mascot, to help the Brawny Man stand out on store shelves and in culture. The brand puts its new heartthrob mascot into a partnership with Bachelor Nation‘s Rachael Kirkconnell to tap into a real-life messy moment—her high-profile breakup—and flip it into a story of strength and humor. In a video posted to TikTok and Instagram, Rachael references the chaos of her past relationship as pizza sauce spills across the counter. Enter the Brawny Man, who cleans up the mess—both literal and metaphorical. The wink to pop culture and strong visual tie to product benefit generated 4.3 million-plus organic views and a 5.5% lift in purchase intent. Engagement soared across platforms (14% on TikTok and 5.7% on Instagram, well above industry benchmarks), while earned media drove more than 269 million impressions in The Wall Street Journal and on E!, TMZ, and more. Crayola In 2024, Crayola launched its Campaign for Creativity with the goal of shifting parents’ understanding and behaviors around childhood creativity. Brand research, conducted with the Ad Council Research Institute, found that parents value creativity but don’t fully understand the profound role it plays in their children’s growth and development. Crayola started collecting children’s artwork in the 1980s, and this year it unlocked its time capsule and began reuniting adults across the U.S. with the artwork they had created when they were kids. The brand created a series of short films, titled #StayCreative, featuring the stories of three adults who participated in a Crayola art program as kids and are reunited with their childhood artwork. Now the adults reflect on how creativity impacted their lives and the importance of nurturing creativity in their own children. This year, the campaign delivered 4.7 billion impressions, with more than 85% earned, for an estimated media value of over $100 million. Hot Wheels Hot Wheels is successfully tapping into the adult audience while maintaining its core appeal to children, creating a unique ecosystem where parents and kids share play and collecting experiences together. Under Mattel chief brand officer Lisa McKnight (who departed the company this fall), the brand has expanded its cultural footprint through premium collector lines using authentic details from partners like Formula 1, Ferrari, Mercedez-Benz, and much more. Beyond toys, adults can now engage with Hot Wheels via fashion collaborations like Wrangler and Maje. The brand also helps nurture community through its global Hot Wheels Legends Tour, where car culture fans come together to celebrate their love of cars. Starting in 2018, the annual events saw record-number attendees at each stop worldwide—more than 700,000 across 16 countries—including more than 18,000 attendees at the final stop in El Segundo, California. JLab Read more about how JLab is turning to college athletes—with followings of all sizes—to gain ground on TikTok and among Gen Z. Squishmallows In the past year, Squishmallows collaborated with a range of best-in-class brands for product collaborations, including McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Puma, Baked by Melissa, Crocs, H&M, See’s Candies, and others. Squishmallows was also tapped as a must-have partner by the world’s biggest IPs, bringing fans lovable Squishmallows plush based on some of their favorite properties, from Harry Potter and Disney to Stranger Things and The Lord of the Rings. Through Jazwares Cares, Jazwares’s philanthropic arm, Squishmallows partnered with Make-A-Wish to help fulfill 11-year-old Olive’s dream of designing a Squishmallows. She spent a day at Jazwares in 2024, designing a character inspired by her beloved dog Liberty, and earlier this year, the final product was revealed, with hundreds of the Liberty plush donated to children who are receiving treatment at local children’s hospitals. Timex For a watch brand, Timex has become nearly timeless, but it isn’t resting on its laurels. It continues to expand its “Analog Life: Make Time Yours” campaign, which aims to celebrate the power of simplicity, urging people to take control of their time to focus on what truly matters. The brand turned its organic inclusion in the HBO hit The White Lotus into social moments that helped see a direct increase in the Q Timex watch—and that was just a piece of the more than 50 billion earned media impressions it had in 2024. That was alongside a push on TikTok that helped more than double its followers on the platform and ongoing promotion of its Timex ReWound takeback/resale platform that has processed more than 16,000 watches in 18 months. Owala Late last year, a new coffee shop appeared up on Los Angeles’s Sunset Boulevard, but it was only temporary. Owala opened a pop-up called The Drip Stop to celebrate the launch of the Owala SmoothSip Slider coffee cup. The shop had more than 3,500 visitors over two days and featured giveaways, games, and a 1.5-mile-long line lasting up to five hours. This is what brand fandom looks like. Outside its pop-ups, Owala keeps its fans on the hook with limited-edition colors and retailer-exclusive designs—and is seemingly omnipresent on social media. Over the past year, the brand’s social following increased 250%, with more than 384 million Instagram impression and about 70 million video views on TikTok. This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process. View the full article

Conducting foreign policy, let alone war, by meme is dangerous and foolishView the full article