Feb 3rd campaign highlights

The campaigns breaking through the digital noise.

3 FEBRUARY 2026

To wrap up the week of campaign highlights, it’s been amazing to see some truly bold physical activations popping up. While we’ve all spent so much of our lives lately focusing mostly on the small screen, these campaigns remind us that there's still a huge amount of creative power in the real, physical world.

Guinness x Smashing Plates – The Black Stuff Kebab

Guinness has teamed up with street food brand Smashing Plates and BOX Sports Bars to launch an official "Guinness Kebab" for the Six Nations. The dish is visually designed to mimic a pint, featuring stout-marinated beef topped with a white "head" of feta and cauliflower cream.

By translating its iconic look into food, the brand stays culturally relevant at a time when its audience is shifting from the digital feed to the physical sports bar. Have a read here.

Maltesers – 90 Years of Looking on the Light Side

To celebrate its 90th anniversary, Maltesers (via AMV BBDO) has launched a campaign exploring how women have used humor to "look on the light side" of life’s frustrations—from Victorian corsets to modern office life. It’s a lesson in "Heritage Modernization." Maltesers is using its long history to provide a sense of stability, proving that a lighthearted brand anchor remains powerful even after nine decades of cultural change. Read more here.

Pot Noodle – The Slurp of Satisfaction

Pot Noodle (via adam&eveDDB) is leaning into the polarizing sound of the "slurp" with a new "horror" campaign. Set in a cinema, the ad shows that while the sound might be terrifying to some, it’s the ultimate sign of satisfaction for the fan. By owning a sound that many find "visceral" or even annoying, Pot Noodle creates a strong emotional reaction that makes the brand unmissable compared to generic "lifestyle" ads. Read more.

Jaecoo – The Giant Compass

To mark its official UK launch, premium SUV newcomer Jaecoo (partnering with Uncommon Creative Studio) took over the BFI IMAX rooftop in London. They transformed the landmark into a functioning giant compass, using high-powered light beams to point toward adventure destinations like Snowdonia. In a sea of digital noise, this is a massive statement of intent. It uses architectural scale to build brand recognition, "landmark" OOH can still stop people in their tracks on top of thumb-scroll. Check out here.

Smart Energy GB – Ross Kemp as Albert Einstein

Ross Kemp has undergone a prosthetic transformation into Albert Einstein for Smart Energy GB (via AMV BBDO). The campaign uses Kemp’s "straight-talking" persona to deliver genius-level advice on how smart meters help manage energy tariffs. It uses "Humorous Cognitive Dissonance" to stop the scroll. The visual shock of a "hardman" in an Einstein wig makes a dry topic like energy meters suddenly engaging and highly shareable. Read more here.

Grant Thornton – A Brave New World

Grant Thornton UK has announced a major £500m investment to transform its client experience. The firm is moving toward a "Human + Digital" model that prioritizes faster access to human advisors and expert judgment over automated processes. As AI commoditizes basic professional advice, Grant Thornton is doubling down on the "Human Premium." They are positioning their consultants as the "un-automated" edge for growing businesses that need real judgment, not just data. Check out how they're doing it here.

Jaecoo took over the BFI IMAX rooftop in London

Let's talk insights, strategies and key moments

Solving the Influencer "Proof Problem"

Manchester-based agency Smoking Gun has just unveiled a new framework designed to tackle one of the industry's biggest headaches: proving the real-world impact of influencer marketing. The framework moves beyond "vanity metrics" (like likes and views) to help brands measure actual commercial outcomes and attribution. It’s a timely tool as marketing budgets face increased scrutiny and brands demand more than just "awareness" from their influencer spend. Read more here.

Report from AA/WARC: The £50bn Milestone

The latest Expenditure Report (released Jan 29, 2026) reveals that UK ad spend is officially on track to exceed £50 billion for the first time ever this year. While digital formats (Search and Online Display) now account for a staggering 83% of all spend, the report highlights a "polarized" market where cinema and high-impact "cultural moments" are the only non-digital areas seeing massive growth. We are in an "attribution arms race." While the move to digital is about efficiency, the surge in cinema and "event" marketing (like the Jaecoo and Guinness stunts above) shows that consumers are starved for experiences that actually interrupt their day rather than just flickering on a small screen. Give a read here.

This week's highlights raise an interesting question: in an industry racing toward a £50bn milestone, does the real "premium" now lie in what happens off-screen? Between architectural stunts and the push for harder influencer ROI, we may be seeing a growing tension between high-tech efficiency and human-led impact, an area that brands and agencies will likely need to fine-tune ongoingly as the year unfolds.