Fortnite brings in a new weapon, the Metos Fizzooka. A beautifully designed rocket launcher, resembling a giant roll of Mentos shoved into a cola bottle. Anyone who’s tried to get a gaming idea away knows how long even a simple addition like this can take… for that alone I’m impressed. Mainly this appeals to my nostalgic, child-like joy at shoving a Mento in some *unbranded* rola-cola (IYKYK), watching the resulting explosion cascade onto my mum’s net curtains and awaiting my honorary chemistry doctorate in return.

Not technically a campaign… but also kind of the biggest campaign they never meant to happen? The jingle that escaped the UK, got on a plane by itself, and started soundtracking every holiday fail from Ayia Napa to camping in the Isle of Wright. And honestly, the chaos of it all is why it worked. People warned it would hurt the brand — too much banter, too many memes, too close to looking like a PR crisis waiting to happen. But, Jet2 leaned into it, and suddenly they weren’t just an airline, they were a cultural moment and so was the voiceover lady… oh and Jess Glynn. The tune is permanently lodged in our brains . Now whenever I see someone dragging a broken suitcase up a hotel hill, I hear it. A beautifully accidental masterclass: sometimes letting the internet have its fun is the campaign.

Thanks to the artist formerly known as Prince Andrew, it’s been a bad news year for Royals acting like pigs - but a good news year for pig royalty. The arrival of Evie Pig — younger sister to Peppa and George and third child of Mummy and Daddy Pig — was an absolute tour de force in porky publicity.

The iconic interview with Mummy Pig on Good Morning Britain was the jewel in the crown, but this campaign was full of gems. A pre-baby interview in Grazia, a birth announcement outside the Lindo Wing and a post-baby cover shoot in Hello was both innovative and subversive, but also delightfully old school.

Props to Pretty Green and Hasbro for bringing home the bacon.

The reason this stunt really stood out to me was that it was daring and bold, some very overused words in the industry, but putting something at the top of the tallest building in the UK, big and bold, not only logistically would it have been a feat, but the picture looked killer and done the work for the story itself. It also signalled that big stunts still work and get you more eyeballs than a clever billboard ever could. It really brought to life childlike wonder.

Another reason things stick in your mind? Because they are so bloody simple. M&S launched a strawberries and cream sandwich in the run up to Wimbledon and it’s safe to say it achieved the V word - it went viral. Even better, Subway launched a strawberry and cream sub days later, sparking a sarnie war. It was proof (quite literally, in pudding-like sandwich form) that when an idea is simple, timely and instantly understood, it can travel further than a tennis serve.

Where to even start… after the most famous kiss-cam gate of all time, whereby two of their top (married… not to each other) execs were caught embracing at a Coldplay concert, data company Astronomer absolutely slam-dunked the response, hiring Chris Martin’s ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow to (kind of) answer burning questions as a spokesperson. I’m not sure I’d have even dared ‘and finally’ this one, so thrilled to find they have such a sense of humour about it all.

I’ve always been someone whose face turns tomato-red at the lightest hint of exercise. It doesn’t bother me now, but it certainly did at school - which is why ASICS’ Undropped Kit stuck with me. With research showing that 64% of girls in the UK drop out of sport before the age of 16 due to feeling self-conscious, ASICS tackled that head-on with a reimagined school sports kit designed to make girls feel more comfortable staying active.

Lego didn’t just show up at the Miami Grand Prix with a typical sponsorship of putting big logo on a wall. They deployed full-size Lego F1 cars on the grid, built from thousands of actual Lego bricks that actually drove, like really drove and the drivers zipped them round the track. It feels like something you’d imagine doing as a kid and that’s why it’s one if my top stunts of the year. This is something that brought pure joy and exactly the kind of stunt that gave us that “I wish i’d done that” moment.

Aldi + Lewis Capaldi + a rooftop = one giant dad joke come to life. “Lewis Cap-ALDI” is the kind of pun your uncle makes at Christmas… except this time it actually slapped. No overthinking, no 65-page strategy deck, just a supermarket saying, “Let’s keep it real and have a laugh.” And consumers loved it because that’s literally all we want sometimes — a bit of pure, harmless bants we can join in on and simply get. Lewis looked like he was having a time with his CapALDI sign, Aldi got the nation laughing, and the whole thing felt human in a way most celebrity tie-ins just… don’t. Proof that when the gag is good, simple wins.