If you’ve been hanging with me for a while you know I have a love/hate relationship with using big brands as marketing inspiration. Mostly because the campaigns these brands create cost a shit ton of money and have a huge team of people behind them, and also because they have an insanely large customer base that even with the smallest percentage uptick in performance can lead to huge dollar amounts.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything we can learn from them. I think the important thing is that we’re smart about cherry picking the things that translate well to small brands, are reasonable for us to execute, and that truly do have the power to make a measurable difference in our bottom line vs. chasing things that sound cool but likely won’t make enough of an impact with our traffic and customer numbers.
All that rambling to say, I came across an article from Marketing Dive where they covered the best brand campaigns so far in 2026. And it wasn’t just “in our opinion” these were the best, but the success of these campaigns were clearly tied back to reported results from the companies themselves. Gotta love public companies and their earning calls, right?
While I won’t be going into the specifics of the numbers, check the show notes for a link to the original article, I wanted to share the underlying takeaways that you can translate into your business, no multi-million dollar marketing budget needed.
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Why Brand Values Matter: How to Turn Your Beliefs Into Marketing
This one can be exceptionally difficult for smaller businesses, many of us want to stay as neutral as possible to avoid repelling people. And depending on your unique business, sometimes that is the right move.
But for some brands, the opportunity is actually in the opposite direction: leading with what you believe so the right people can find you.
Aerie is a great example of this. They launched their “100% Aerie Real” campaign, which included a pledge not to use AI to represent women in their ads — a move Dove made a few years earlier with their own commitment to real beauty. More on them in a bit.
In a world where consumers are increasingly surrounded by AI-generated images, influencers, music, content, and customer service… human connection has become a differentiator.
Whether it’s a commitment to not use AI-generated content or just that customers can actually talk to a human when they need to, consumers want to know there are real humans behind the brands they support.
Your values don’t need to become a political statement (unless you want them to) or a marketing gimmick. But if there is something your brand genuinely believes in, don’t hide it. The right customers are often looking for those signals that tell them, “This brand gets me.”
Now, a quick caveat: when it comes to leading with values, remember that they’re only going to be a deciding factor for the people who really care about that particular thing. For everyone else, those values might make them feel good about their purchase, but they probably won’t be the reason they choose your brand.
The weight those values carry will be different depending on the customer. So don’t put all your eggs in the values basket… they should strengthen your brand, not replace having a product people actually want, great customer experience, and all the other things that go into having a successful product brand.
Turn Customers Into Contributors: How to Build a More Engaged Brand Community
This next lesson comes from Coach, a brand that had a bit of a rough ride after the early 2000s era of logo saturation and outlet malls. But over the last few years they’ve made a pretty impressive comeback by focusing on their position of attainable luxury and accessible pricing, viral social media trends, and a bit of nostalgia.
In their continuing effort to connect with Gen Z, they launched their “Explore Your Story” campaign. In all honesty, the campaign is a little convoluted for my taste, but the goal of the campaign is to position themselves as a brand that is part of consumers’ individual identities vs. a status symbol.
But it’s not really the actual campaign or the goal of that campaign that I want to highlight. It’s who they brought to help develop it, actual Gen Z consumers. They talked directly to their target audience and co-created the campaign with them.
Bringing your customers into the process is one of the most powerful things you can do as a marketer to build loyalty and long-term relationships. That can be as simple as showing them behind the scenes of a new product you’re creating, having them vote on certain variants, or just giving them an opportunity to share their feedback.
How to Create Better Influencer Marketing Partnerships for Your Brand
One of the things you’ll hear me say all the time is to create deeper relationships with fewer people and give them as much creative freedom as possible.
Expedia did exactly that back in April when it partnered with IShowSpeed, a creator with 150 million followers who named the brand his official travel partner.
The activation included a 12-hour livestream, a branded hub, and a sweepstakes with an extended campaign later in June. The livestream, which followed this creator as he traveled across 5 countries in a single day, spurred surges in search demands for the island destinations the creator visited.
And this is a format he’s done before – at least according to his wikipedia because as an elder millennial I had no idea who this person was until I read about this collaboration.
Whether it was Expedia’s idea or his, I’m confident one of the reasons this worked so well is because it was a format his audience was already familiar with so it likely didn’t feel like a random brand placement.
The entire point of working with content creators and influencers, is to tap into the audience they have built. And the best way to make sure the content they create for you resonates, is to let them naturally work your product into the content their audience has come to expect from them. That’s what makes it feel authentic and genuine.
A creator on TikTok was recently talking about this too. The more creative freedom he’s given, the better that campaign will perform because if it’s too out of the ordinary for his personal brand, not only will it not get the reach of his typical content, but it won’t connect with his audience either.
Why Small Brands Should Admit Their Mistakes (And How It Builds Customer Trust)
The example in the article revolved around Burger King and their latest campaign, there’s a New King In Town, and it’s You. Moving away from their King mascot, that a lot of people didn’t like, and putting the focus back on their customers. More than just the king though, the campaign they created really focused on how the quality of fast food has “fallen off”, and what they’re doing about it.
Eric Bandholz of beard brand has done this well too. I know I talked about it at some point on the podcast, I think it was related to packaging, or something. I don’t remember all the details.
EOS did this recently as well for their body lotion products. Tons of customers were complaining on social media about the pump not allowing them to get the product out of the bottle and ultimately having to cut the bottle open to get out the remaining product. To combat the problem, EOS switched to a traditional squeeze bottle top.
That’s not to say you should take every criticism to heart or constantly be trying to respond to every negative piece of feedback you receive. One-off complaints usually have little to do with you and you need to let them roll off your back.
If you’re getting a similar response from multiple customers about something, it might be time to make a change.
Even if you can’t win them all back, the mere act of owning your mistake and showing people you’re trying to do better will make people want to choose you.
I’ve always found just admitting when you fuck up to be the easiest option. Because once you admit that fault, what are people gonna do; continue to berate you for it? Unlikely. And if they do, that’s a them problem, not a you problem.
Stop Hiding Negative Reviews: How Honest Customer Feedback Builds Trust
Dove recently did a campaign called r/eal reviews where it took the first 50 reddit reviews of one of their products and turned it into ad creative regardless of what it said. A representative of Dove said “ we took a shot because we had a lot of confidence in the product itself. We’re not going to please everyone, but we will hopefully please a majority of people.”
And after reading through the reviews, they were right. Most people did seem to love the product.
There were a handful of negative comments too, mostly centered around the fragrance. Some people felt the scent was too powerful or just didn’t like it. Of course, there were just as many, if not more people who loved the smell.
But regardless of the sentiment of the review, it gave potential customers the information they needed to make a buying decision. And just like one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, one user’s negative might be a positive for someone else.
There were two reviews specifically that really stood out to me because even though there was a negative-ish sentiment, it would still sell the product to the right customer.
The first review specifically talked about how they hated the smell, but the product performed as well as the more expensive brands. Another review mentioned the smell as well, but noted that it didn’t linger after their hair was dry. So, for a customer who hates spending a lot of money on higher-end brands, but might have been turned away because of the negative feedback on the smell, being assured that it doesn’t linger after the hair is dry, might be enough to convert them.
My point is, looking at all those reviews together… the good, the bad, and the ugly… gives the customer a much fuller picture. And if the goal is to help customers self-select whether or not the product is right for them vs. tricking them into buying a product they’re gonna hate, then these reviews will do their job.
And that’s how I want you to think about the reviews on your website.
I know a lot of us are compelled to filter out negative reviews. But the truth is, a store or product that only has positive reviews can often be perceived as fake, or curated. Most people aren’t going to believe that there isn’t one customer who was disappointed by their experience with your product or brand.
And that’s why I always recommend that you leave negative reviews, and provide a response. Even if the customer is being completely ridiculous and over the top. Truth is, the average customer will see through the ridiculousness of it anyway.
Plus, when they see responses from you, whether it’s gently explaining the user error or acknowledging whatever it is that you need to do better, it will show potential customers that you actually give a shit and are listening, which can be enough to get them to convert.
Another lesson from Dove, and of course my favorite of the day is that Consistency Beats Reinvention
Your Customers Need More Repetition Than You Think: Why Consistency Wins
Dove’s real reviews campaign was an extension of their “Real Beauty” campaign they launched in 2004. The Real Beauty campaign launched to challenge media-driven beauty standards and start featuring everyday women in their campaigns.
From that initial Real Beauty initiative, they have launched a number of other campaigns and projects including the real beauty sketches, the self-esteem project, and a commitment to never using AI or digital distortion to replace or misrepresent real women in its advertising. But they all tie back to the original purpose of Real Beauty.
This is such a great example of how you can deliver your branding and marketing in unique ways without changing the underlying message. Real Beauty is clear enough that people know what Dove stands for, but leaves room to connect with people in multiple different ways, across different generations, cultural moments, etc.
What Small eCommerce Brands Can Learn From Big Brand Campaigns
So, what’s the big takeaway from all of this?
It’s not that you need to run a Super Bowl ad, partner with a celebrity creator, or launch some massive brand campaign. That’s not the point.
The point is that even the biggest brands are winning by doing a lot of the same things that smaller brands can do really well: knowing what they stand for, listening to their customers, building real relationships, and being willing to show up like actual humans instead of faceless companies.
You don’t need a million-dollar marketing budget to admit when you’ve made a mistake. You don’t need a huge team to bring customers into your process. You don’t need a massive following to build deeper relationships with the right people.
The advantage small brands have is that you can actually do these things in a way that feels personal — because it is.
So instead of looking at these campaigns and thinking, “Well, that’s great, but I could never do that,” I want you to ask yourself: what’s the underlying strategy here, and how can I translate that into something that makes sense for my brand, my customers, and my resources?
Because the brands that win aren’t always the ones doing the most. They’re the ones doing the things that matter most, consistently.
