The online bank first direct has introduced a mascot to their brand, as they refresh their platform, reaching out to a younger audience to help with their financial situations. To introduce their new mascot, named Skunk, to the public, they have created a campaign showcasing the puppet skunk! The campaign draws attention to the current cost of living crisis looking at fuel prices, rising bills and food costs. To introduce ‘Skunk’, they have created a film in which, “a skunk visits a cafe and talks about the situation being an “absolute stinker”, and when leaving the café, finds a poster which reads – “Skint stinks! Find out how we’re helping.” To accompany the VOD film, they will also use out of home formats and later in the month they will feature on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming platform.

Read more here

Outvertising, a company which aids organisations to be more inclusive towards the LGBTQ+ community. To drive awareness to the LQBTQ+ history month, Outvertising has created an out of home campaign which looks at revisiting famous advertising scenarios and rewriting them to be more inclusive. “Running on sites across the UK, including in London, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield, Coventry and Hull, the work calls on LGBT+ ad people and their allies to join the Outvertising community.” They have altered copy from older advertising campaigns to be more gender neutral, changing words such as ‘man’ and ‘his’ to, ‘people’ and ‘their’, evening changing the wording of, ‘mum and dad’, to ‘his two mums’. So far the campaign has had such positive feedback and hopefully will continue to drive people to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.

Read more here.

McDonald’s suggest that their “brand is in the strongest position it’s been in years” following their #Raiseyourarches campaign launched at the beginning of 2023. The CEO, Chris Kempczinski, has credited the role in which their marketing has been able to add to their brand, “ telling investors the brand’s strength is “attributable in part to our best in class marketing machine”. The launch of their latest campaign has created excitement amongst McDonalds, and even though the campaign doesn’t feature their name, food products or restaurants, it is still so recognisable, needing no introduction to the powerful brand.

Read more here