We are delighted to announce the shortlist for our Brand of the Year 2026

The Marketing Society Brand of the Year award, in partnership with Sky and in association with Campaign, celebrates the brands that have innovated and adapted to the social and economic challenges in yet another challenging year.

Last year’s winner was Domino's Pizza UK & Ireland with previous recipients of the accolade including Monzo, Lucky Saint, Dove, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, The Guardian, Cancer Research, Channel 4 and O2.

We launched the Award in 2009 and 2026's celebration will be held at The Leadership Dinner on 24 November at City Central at The HAC, where our audience will have the chance to vote and crown the winner via a live vote.

The online vote is now open

The online vote remains open until 17 November at midnight - we will have a final live vote on the night at The Leadership Dinner

Judging for the award considered factors including brands’ ability to adapt to changing customer needs, the creativity and originality of campaigns, commercial impact, and the brand’s wider impact on the plant.

THE SHORTLIST

Boots

This very British high street name took on one of retail’s toughest challenges in the past year: turning deep trust into genuine emotional connection. Recognising that trust alone doesn’t guarantee loyalty, Boots reset the business around the human year, planning around customer missions rather than commercial targets. The ‘Pharmacists Everywhere’ campaign used humour to encourage people to seek help at Boots rather than using the NHS, driving a significant increase in consultations. Timely, attention-grabbing work followed, from sponsoring England defender Dan Burn’s neck as ‘Dan Won’t Burn’ to turning the solar eclipse into a skincare moment, which lifted mole scanning appointments. The ‘Give it Some Boots’ campaign brought health, beauty and wellness together around life’s ‘brutiful’ moments, set to ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’’ and featuring a real customer living with cancer supported by a Macmillan-trained beauty adviser. Consideration, buzz and customer satisfaction all rose, alongside continued growth in sales. The bravery to modernise a heritage brand has made Boots feel more relevant and valued.

Currys

Currys took on the most fundamental threat facing many physical retailers today: as technology shopping moved online, what reason was left to visit a store? Rather than compete on price or convenience, Currys identified a ‘crisis of unassisted selling’ and made its human expertise the reason to exist. Beyond Techspectations turned colleagues into the heroes, using humour to show the absurd lengths they go to for customers, and keeping that idea consistent across TV, social and in-store. The Sunday Times named it the UK’s best major retail employer, a sign that the people at the heart of the strategy are valued. Smart, TikTok-native social content shifted perceptions among younger audiences, while ‘Sigh of Relief’, developed through Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising initiative, put accessibility at the heart of the creative, and ‘The Superpower In-store’ won the IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix with substantial incremental revenue, market share gains and a rise in perceptions of expertise. Growth has continued in a subdued market, and Currys holds a commanding share of the AI-enabled laptop category while it introduced its repair and recycling offer to tackle e-waste.

KitKat

With the same tagline for almost 70 years, KitKat shows how an enduring idea can stay fresh. ‘Have a Break, Have a KitKat’ is among the most recognised lines in British advertising, and in 2026 it proved newly relevant in a culture obsessed with productivity and self-optimisation and where taking a break is even more important. One consistent idea shows up differently in every context, from encouraging proper breaks at work last year to finding quiet moments on bustling high streets this year. The KitKat Heist was the standout, an unexpected moment turned into activation, PR and social. Its playful, digitally native Stolen KitKat tracker rewarded participation without feeling over-engineered. It generated significant earned media globally in just 10 days and helped KitKat win a second consecutive Cannes Lions Grand Prix. Overall marketing activities supported strengthening of holistic brand and commercial KPI’s.

Lucky Saint

Lucky Saint didn’t just respond to changing drinking habits, it helped shape them. Built on the belief that people shouldn’t have to choose between social connection and not drinking, it championed alcohol-free beer as a positive choice. Its distinctive brand with bold monochrome imagery and a confident tone has stayed consistent across OOH, social and partnerships. The brand is the UK’s number one dedicated alcohol-free beer brand, with huge year-on-year growth, which is also reflected in distribution with thousands more pubs, bars and restaurants stocking it. These impressive results have been driven by long-term brand building rather than short-term promotions. Recent campaigns include its ‘Thou Shalt Go To The Pub’ initiative, which encouraged people to continue socialising during Dry January while opening its own pub was one of its boldest moves in recent years. In April, Lucky Saint challenged expectations of alcohol-free beer with the launch of Lime & Sea Salt Electrolyte Lager, taking the brand into functional beer to reach new consumers and unlock new drinking occasions. As a certified B Corp, it backs community partnerships and volunteering and offers mental health first-aid training to employees and hospitality professionals.

McDonald's

McDonald’s has stayed relevant by balancing everyday value with new reasons to visit, in a climate of tight household budgets. The World Menu Heist turned a menu launch into a cultural moment which significantly beat its target, while the Secret Menu made an official offer out of how customers already used the brand. ‘Make It Yours’ spoke to younger audiences in their own language with the app and personalised communications reaching millions more customers. The judges praised its ‘Making it Happen at McDonald’s’ campaign which pushed back against negative stereotypes and showcased the skills, resilience and work ethic of its Gen Z employees. Meanwhile the Ronald McDonald House UK support helped accommodate thousands of families with children receiving hospital care, the first UK McHappy Day launched in September 2026, and ‘Draw How You Feel’ with BBC Children in Need used Happy Meal packaging to start conversations about children’s emotions. Alongside this, it continues to support young people, skills and franchise owners.
 

Monzo

Over the past decade, Monzo has grown from a challenger bank to a household name while keeping the customer at the heart of everything it does. Today, customers can budget, save, borrow, invest, manage their mortgage, and consolidate their pensions - all within the Monzo app. The bank now counts over 16 million UK personal customers and 1 million business customers, continuing to welcome millions more each year, largely through word of mouth. As active users climb, a substantial share now rely on Monzo as their primary bank.

Earlier this year, Monzo launched its boldest global campaign yet: ‘Get busy living’. Narrated by Olivia Colman, the campaign redefined modern financial marketing with warmth, humour, and relatable everyday moments that show how seamless banking empowers daily life - all anchored by a distinctive new sonic identity built from the brand name. With a mission to make money work for everyone, Monzo continues to transform how modern banking looks and feels through jargon-free communication, an approachable tone of voice, and customer-first design that builds financial confidence. Customers also benefit from industry-first features like Undo Payments, advanced fraud prevention tools such as Added Security and Call Status, the viral 1p Saving Challenge and Making Tax Digital for business owners. The bank also continued to delight customers through creative activations. Highlights included the Coventry City FC ‘1p Shop’ - which offered official football kits for a penny to kickstart saving habits - alongside live experiences across the UK that encouraged people to finally pursue ambitions they had put on hold, held in partnership with Davina McCall’s podcast, Begin Again. 

Nationwide

Nationwide took on a category where brands blur together and trust is low and made being a mutual the whole story. Rather than relying on messaging, it backed the idea with action: keeping its branches open, paying members a Fairer Share for the fourth year running, and absorbing Virgin Money without diluting the brand. The A.N.Y. Bank campaign, starring Dominic West, made mutuality funny and easy to grasp, and has stayed consistent through an agency change and seven instalments. The judges praised the boldness of using comedy in finance and noted it got people talking. The impact is independently proven: a Gold and the Channon Prize for Best New Learning at the IPA Effectiveness Awards for its work on marketing and finance partnering, plus BrandZ UK Brand of the Year. It was also the most switched-to current account provider, with big uplifts in awareness and student account openings. Its wider contribution can be seen in its branches which serve as community spaces, many hosting dementia support clinics and digital skills sessions. Non-customers can also access cash, which in some locations is the only option remaining while its Scam Checker protects customers from fraud – a major cause for concern for UK consumers.

Specsavers

Specsavers shows what a confident, consistent brand platform can do. ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ has stayed central for years, and that clarity gives the brand freedom within its guidelines to respond to cultural moments, such as its timely, witty response to the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in the UK, which the judges called gold. Specsavers demonstrates that a consumer brand can use its market position to help address a major public-service challenge, most recently by expanding its clinical offering in audiology and advanced ophthalmology to help relieve pressure on the NHS. The service and experience match the promise in the communications. The evidence is independently proven: at the IPA Effectiveness Awards it won the Broadbent Prize for Best Dedication to Effectiveness and a Gold in the Global Market category for ‘The serious value of humour’. It also delivered strong growth across optical, audiology and ophthalmology.

Tony's Chocolonely

Tony’s Chocolonely makes its mission part of an everyday purchase: chocolate can be enjoyable while the business works to end exploitation in cocoa. In 2026 it moved into TV for the first time with ‘There’s Fight in Every Bite’, using wrestling to give a complex supply-chain issue a visible opponent. The campaign was supported by airtime awarded through Sky’s Zero Footprint Fund, which recognises brands doing good work on sustainability. The judges praised its distinctive brand identity and its habit of reinventing product formats, from advent calendars to egg boxes, while the smaller bar helped bring new customers into a premium brand. Sales and market share reached record highs while its wider contribution is strong: Tony’s Open Chain lets other companies adopt its approach of traceability, higher prices and longer-term relationships for farmers while being open that there is still much to be done in this area.

Waitrose

Waitrose has made ‘food loving’ a behaviour rather than just a brand line, and in doing so has successfully differentiated itself from close rivals. Its ‘Home of Food Lovers’ strategy spans advertising, podcasts, creators, recipes, loyalty and stores, and it responded to the cost-of-living squeeze with further investment in lower prices without abandoning quality. Gastronaut, its cinematic brand relaunch, used science-fiction storytelling and a Piccadilly Lights takeover to create real cultural intrigue, and independent testing rated it the strongest supermarket ad outside Christmas. The Dish podcast, hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, is the only branded podcast to feature in the Apple and Spotify global charts, and listeners say it encourages them to shop more often. The judges loved that growth came across the whole range, not just reduced-price lines, and praised its value proposition on ready meals and its clever ‘dining in’ campaign. Sales, customer numbers and advocacy all reached new highs. Beyond marketing, Farming for Nature supports British farmers moving to regenerative practices. As the judges put it, it’s not just that they grow, it’s how they grow.

Join us at The Leadership Dinner on 24 November to crown the winner via live vote and to celebrate the ingenuity, passion and drive of our industry.

The online vote is now open

How the winner is decided: the online vote will be counted and those votes will be carried forward to the night with each brand given a weighted score which will be added to the results of the live vote. 

Shortlist announced first in Campaign, with permission to share content.