Barclays Helps Investors Strike It Lucky
Barclays Direct Investing and VCCP have launched Good Move, a campaign promoting Barclays’ investing platform and its new no-monthly-fee offer. The idea tackles a common barrier to investing: the fear of making the wrong move.
In the film Bumpers, a bowler faces an almost impossible split. After checking his Barclays investing app, bumper rails rise along the lane, helping him land the shot. The bowling safety net becomes a playful way to show how Barclays aims to make investing feel less daunting. The campaign runs across TV, social, print, OOH, radio and digital.
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P&O Cruises Gets on Board with Your Dreams
P&O Cruises and Pablo have launched Britain’s Bucket List, inviting people to share the experiences they’ve always dreamed of - from big adventures to personal ambitions. The campaign turns those wishes into public spectacle, projecting them across locations including streets, pubs and coastal paths, with selected entries set to appear at major sites such as Tate Modern and Liverpool’s Lime Street.
People can submit their own bucket-list dreams online for the chance to win a cruise. By making the public’s aspirations the campaign’s content, P&O moves beyond selling destinations and taps into the emotional reason people travel: to make memories and tick off lifelong ambitions.
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PETA Goes Ham on Horror
PETA’s horror-film-style ad introduces Hamface, a terrifying villain representing processed meat. Set in a family home, the film turns an ordinary ham sandwich into a sinister threat, highlighting the link between processed meat and cancer.
By using the familiar tropes of horror, the ad makes a hidden health risk feel immediate and unsettling. Hamface also gives the message a memorable character that can extend beyond the film, including through OOH imagery.
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Rival Train Companies Bring All Aboard
In an unusual move, rival rail operators Greater Anglia and c2c have joined forces for their first-ever joint campaign, Drop the Robot. The film follows a family of robots stuck in a repetitive cycle of scrolling and screen time, until a train journey to London takes them out exploring, gradually bringing them back to life.
Rather than competing for passengers, the two brands have united around a shared objective: getting more people to travel by train for leisure. The campaign uses humour and animation to bring this message to life, while showing how competitors can benefit from pooling their marketing efforts when they have a common audience and purpose.
first direct Blows Its Own Trumpet
first direct is celebrating being named Which? Banking Brand of the Year 2026 by taking ‘blowing your own trumpet’ literally. A giant inflatable trumpet inside a branded glass-sided van is touring London landmarks, supported by an AR filter, influencer activity and a social competition inviting people to share their own achievements.
By turning a familiar saying into a physical stunt, first direct creates something eye-catching and shareable, while using its award as a springboard for wider public engagement.
Duolingo Takes a Bite Out of Apple
Duolingo has gatecrashed Apple's iPhone Duo launch, sending its famous green owl mascot outside an Apple Store in New York with a cart of free green apples. Playing on the shared name, the stunt was captioned “I heard they're selling me today?”, with each apple carrying a Duo sticker, a “Do your lesson” reminder and a QR code linking to the app.
By jumping on Apple's launch-day buzz, Duolingo turns a simple naming coincidence into a playful PR stunt. It's a smart example of reactive marketing: using another brand's big moment to grab attention, while keeping its own distinctive personality at the centre.
Kwik Fit Calls for a Mental MOT
Kwik Fit has launched Kwik Chats, a mental wellbeing campaign encouraging drivers to call a friend or loved one while waiting for their car's MOT or service. Created in partnership with ITV, the campaign features a deadpan mechanic gliding around the garage on a workshop trolley, reminding customers to make time for a conversation rather than scrolling on their phones.
The idea turns an otherwise wasted waiting period into an opportunity for connection, linking Kwik Fit's everyday service to a wider social issue. With over a million MOTs and services carried out annually, the brand is using its existing customer touchpoints to make a difference at scale.
Columbia Builds Its Case for Survival
Columbia Sportswear has launched the Don’t Panic Room, giving away a fully stocked underground survival bunker complete with outdoor gear, tools and supplies. To enter, hopeful survivalists must submit videos showing off their survival skills.
Taking a swipe at wealthy tech executives building private doomsday bunkers, the campaign uses humour to reinforce Columbia’s ‘Engineered for Whatever’ positioning. The stunt extends across social media, influencer activity, print and billboards, turning a tongue-in-cheek giveaway into a memorable expression of the brand’s outdoor credentials.
Audible Brings Dracula Back to Life With NHS
Audible has partnered with NHS Blood and Transplant on Give Blood with Dracula, a Halloween campaign encouraging people to donate blood while listening to an extract from Audible’s new Dracula audio production. The activation brings the story into donation centres, with digital adverts and partnerships helping direct people to nearby clinics.
The collaboration gives Audible a creative way to bring its content to life, while the NHS benefits from a memorable seasonal hook to encourage donations. By pairing Dracula’s famous thirst for blood with the real need for blood donors, the partners turn a familiar Halloween character into an unexpected force for good.
Tate Makes Frida Kahlo the Face of London
To promote Frida: The Making of an Icon, Tate Modern turned London into a celebration of Frida Kahlo. Teaser ads revealed fragments of her face before unveiling a collage portrait blending her self-portrait with art inspired by her. The creative appeared across 1,000+ outdoor sites, social, digital and TV, alongside murals, a Carnaby Street installation and a public paint-by-numbers artwork.
By taking Kahlo’s image beyond the gallery and inviting people to participate, the campaign brought her influence to life across the city. It helped make the exhibition Tate’s highest pre-selling show ever, with over 50,000 tickets sold before opening.
ASICS Helps Girls Stay in the Game
ASICS’ The Undropped Kit tackles uncomfortable PE uniforms as a barrier to girls’ participation in sport. Working with teenage girls, the brand co-created a kit focused on comfort, choice and confidence, responding to the fact that 64% of UK girls drop out of sport before 16.
Rather than simply encouraging girls to play more, ASICS addresses a practical obstacle holding them back. The campaign turns their experiences into a tangible product idea, linking the brand’s focus on movement and wellbeing with more inclusive sportswear.
TikTok Turns Scrolls into Supper
TikTok is trialling Must Eat, an in-app restaurant guide in the US, built from over 40 million posts and comments. Users can browse community-recommended spots by cuisine, price and location, with some restaurants bookable through OpenTable. By turning food content into a practical discovery tool, TikTok could help restaurants convert viral attention into real-world visits.
Facebook Lets Users Talk Back to the Algorithm
Facebook is introducing Your Algorithm, an AI-powered tool that lets users tell the platform what they want to see more or less of in Feed and Reels, with recommendations updating in real time. As users gain more control over their content mix, brands will need to keep posts relevant to the interests audiences actively choose.
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