Almost 80% of ad spend now flows into retail media, paid search and social. The rest of the industry shares what is left. Attention is getting harder to earn.
The best advertising grabs attention the hard way. It makes something people want to watch, then turns that attention into a result that outlasts the media buy.
This list of the best advertising campaigns right now judges each on one question: did people choose to watch it? Don't Panic London made two of the five below, and we've marked each clearly.
The best advertising campaigns at a glance
- "I Know": Restraint carries the greatest weight when the subject is grave.
- "The Perfect Gift": Entertainment is a strategy in its own right.
- "It's How You Show Up": Awareness only counts once people know what to do with it.
- "Educating Yorkshire: School's Back": Hand an ad to the people it is about, and the truth comes built in.
- "We're Made in Scotland from Girders": Know an audience well enough to laugh with them, and they will sing the line back to you.
What makes a great advertising campaign?
Reaching people is only the start. What matters is whether they respond.
For us at Don't Panic London, the best work comes down to three questions:
- Craft: Is the film or idea good enough that people watch it to the end?
- Truth: Does it sit on a human insight the audience recognises?
- Mark: Did it leave a measurable trace, from coverage and awards to trust, donations, enquiries or sales?
An ad that manages all three, craft, truth and mark, gets and keeps people watching.
The best advertising campaigns
Five recent campaigns, in no particular order, each garnering attention a different way: emotional precision, craft, timing, or proof the work travelled beyond the media buy.
"I Know" (Medical Aid for Palestinians / Don't Panic London, 2025)
One doctor. One take. Sixty seconds inside a Gaza hospital.
Directed by Billy Boyd Cape of Academy Films, "I Know" puts a Palestinian doctor at the centre of a healthcare system under collapse.
What made it work
The dialogue drew on accounts shared by MAP colleagues and the lived reality of Palestinian doctors, and the set was rebuilt in a disused South London hospital. The film stays with one injured doctor as she is wheeled into surgery, and lets the scale of the crisis land through a single face.
Results
The film won a British Arrows Craft Bronze for Sound Design and was shortlisted for Best Public Awareness Cause Campaign at the Purpose Awards EMEA 2026.
The lesson
When the subject is grave, restraint carries the weight.
"The Perfect Gift" (Waitrose / Wonderhood Studios, 2025)
Directed by Molly Manners of Biscuit Filmworks, "The Perfect Gift" is a four-minute rom-com with Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson at the Waitrose cheese counter.
What made it work
It borrows the beats of the genre: the meet-cute, the awkward chemistry, the payoff. The cheese counter is where the story begins, so the product earns its place in the film.
Results
System1 scored it the top supermarket Christmas ad of 2025 at a maximum 5.9 stars, and it won multiple British Arrows in 2026, including Gold for Seasonal Celebrations and Best Over 90 Second Commercial.
The lesson
Entertainment is a strategy in its own right.
"It's How You Show Up" (National Autistic Society / Don't Panic London, 2025)
Nine in ten autistic people have experienced poor mental health because of public attitudes, a figure from the National Autistic Society's 2024 Autism Awareness Survey.
"It's How You Show Up" follows autistic father and daughter Chris and nine-year-old Penny Wakeman through an ordinary day, directed by Sasha Nathwani and produced by Caviar.
What made it work
The film moves awareness into behaviour. People already know autism exists; the harder question is how they listen, react and make space. The Wakemans make the gap between good intentions and everyday behaviour visible.
Results
The film was named Ad of the Day by The Drum.
The lesson
Awareness counts once people know what to do with it.
"Educating Yorkshire: School's Back" (Channel 4 / 4creative, 2025)
Channel 4 handed one of its biggest ads of the year to the people in it. Directed by Dougal Wilson of Blink Productions, "Educating Yorkshire: School's Back" is a single-take film that tours a real Yorkshire school with the pupils who star in it.
What made it work
More than 400 students built the campaign across a dozen workshops, writing the script, acting, shooting, composing the music and even buying the media. The one-take film moves through science experiments, a school-band set and a child fired from a cannon, and pupil voiceovers replaced Channel 4's usual announcements for the run.
Results
It was named Commercial of the Year at the British Arrows 2026, one of six Arrows for the campaign, including a Gold for Dougal Wilson as director.
The lesson
Hand an ad to the people it is about, and the truth comes built in.
"We're Made in Scotland from Girders" (Irn-Bru / Lucky Generals, 2026)
Scotland reached its first World Cup in 28 years, and Irn-Bru met the moment by reviving its 1980s "Made in Scotland from Girders" slogan. Directed by GRANDMAS through Academy Films, the ad turns a nation's nerves into a singalong.
What made it work
The film reads the room perfectly, self-deprecating and euphoric at once. Cameos from Susan Boyle, Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, comedian Paul Black and midfielder John McGinn stack up around a line built for the terraces: "what we lack in flair is made up with McGinn". It plays like something the fans made themselves.
Results
It topped System1's 2026 World Cup ad study with the maximum 5.9 stars, beating some of the world's biggest sportswear and drinks brands.
The lesson
Know your audience well enough to laugh with them, and they will sing your line back to you.
FAQs
What is earned media in the context of advertising?
Earned media is the attention a campaign attracts on its own merit: press coverage, social shares, industry awards and word of mouth. It is what turns one film into a wider conversation.
What is the difference between an advertising campaign and a marketing campaign?
An advertising campaign centres on the ads themselves: the film, the poster, the idea people see. A marketing campaign is wider, spanning pricing, product, distribution and channels. For the wider field, read our best marketing campaigns right now.
Where the best advertising goes from here
Trust pays. The IPA Effectiveness Databank found that 93% of for-profit campaigns with very large increases in brand trust also produced at least one very large business effect, against an average of 66% across all for-profit campaigns.
Craft is how that trust gets built. The ads on this list captured attention first by being good enough to sit through, and the business results followed the trust they built.
Our best PR campaigns round-up sits alongside this one, for work that deserved its coverage in a different arena.
We make earned media advertising built to travel further than the spend behind it. If your next campaign needs that kind of pull, Don't Panic can build it.