Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.
This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”
Today’s newsletter includes: Depop taps Zara Larsson to celebrate a more personal, creativity-driven approach to fashion; Miu Miu redefines contemporary femininity with Hailey Bieber and Xiao Wen Ju; Coca-Cola concludes its Feel It All campaign; adidas debuts Originals Sport; Hollister turns Lollapalooza into a branded experience; UPDATE puts Kim Kardashian at the center of a campaign highlighting the role of founders in brand building; TRESemmé unveils Hot Curl Summer starring Belmont Cameli; and Dove Men+Care uses football to promote a more authentic representation of masculinity.
Depop unveils its new global campaign starring Zara Larsson, featuring a four-part content series directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dave Meyers.
The campaign is built around the idea that life can be complicated, but getting dressed shouldn’t be.
Through four short films, the brand shows how discovering, buying, and selling fashion on Depop can be an intuitive and enjoyable experience.
"Zara has an incredible eye for style because she approaches fashion with curiosity rather than rules," said Steve Dool, Brand and Creative Director at Depop. "Her mix of vintage, emerging designers and personal treasures feels effortless, and that's exactly the spirit of Depop. This campaign isn't just about people mimicking what Zara wears. It's a celebration of the creativity and individuality that comes from discovering fashion that's uniquely your own, and having a little fun with it."
For its Fall/Winter 2026 campaign, Miu Miu has enlisted Hailey Bieber and Xiao Wen Ju to embody a contemporary vision of femininity, captured by Zoe Ghertner against a suspended nocturnal landscape.
The campaign centers on a fluid, self-defined femininity, balancing vulnerability and control, innocence and awareness, intimacy and detachment.
Clothing becomes the medium through which these tensions are expressed: the garments are presented not merely as objects of desire, but as tools of personal expression, capable of both protecting and revealing the wearer.
With the final bringing the FIFA World Cup 26™ to a close, Feel It All, the global platform through which Coca-Cola accompanied the entire tournament, also comes to an end.
The campaign’s final film, No Better Feeling, captures the emotions every football fan knows all too well: the wait before a VAR check, the tension, the disappointment that feels inevitable and, just a few moments later, the explosion of joy when everything changes. Coca-Cola therefore chooses to tell the story of what football makes people feel, positioning itself as the brand that accompanies every moment of the match.
Most conversations around sponsorship focus on the visibility generated during the competition. But the more interesting question is: what remains after the final whistle?
Our partner Tracksuit monitored the leading FIFA World Cup sponsors throughout the tournament, tracking changes in awareness, consideration and preference.
One finding stands out: Coca-Cola, Adidas and McDonald's are the only three sponsors to rank in the top three across all three metrics.
This isn’t simply a reflection of their size. It’s a reminder that the world’s biggest brands continue investing in brand building long after they’ve achieved mass awareness. Coca-Cola has been a FIFA partner since 1978, Adidas since 1970, and McDonald’s since 1994.
Iconic brands continue investing to defend their mental availability, maintaining the strong presence in consumers’ minds that they have built over decades.
This is the kind of insight Tracksuit shares fortnightly in their newsletter, Shorts: brand tracking analysis, consumer insights and case studies designed to understand what is really driving brand growth.
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