Friday 19 December 2025: PR & Marketing News Round‑Up | Christmas Classics, Dazzling Drones, Cult Buzz & Retail Rivalry
With Christmas just days away, Visible PR is back with the final festive edition of our Friday PR & Marketing News Round-Up for 2025. This week’s stories span nostalgia-fuelled Christmas advertising, jaw-dropping live spectacles, emerging crazes, and brands using year-end data to tell more human stories, all reminding us why December remains marketing’s most competitive (and creative) month in the calendar.
Check out our festive finale round-up below…
The Drum Reveals The Greatest Christmas Ad Of All Time
The Drum has crowned what it calls the ‘best Christmas ad ever,’ celebrating Apple’s festive campaign that has shaped public affection, cultural memory and brand legacy. Taken to a family living room on Christmas morning, Apple cleverly highlights the AirPods hearing aid feature with distorted sound for the first half of the advert. The Drum revisits why certain Christmas ads transcend their original airtime, becoming part of the seasonal ritual itself.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: Christmas advertising remains one of the few moments when brands are actively invited into people’s emotional lives. We’ve seen it more and more, and it was a clear winner amongst this year's festive array of ads (we’re looking at you John Lewis!) This retrospective reinforces the long-term brand value of emotionally led storytelling, and why the most successful festive campaigns prioritise feelings over format.
Aldi Trolls M&S With Giant Christmas Cuthbert Sculpture
This week, Aldi has, once again, been poking fun at Marks & Spencer during an ongoing retail rivalry over caterpillar cakes. The budget supermarket rolled a giant Cuthbert the Caterpillar sculpture in his Christmas best right outside an M&S store in Brighton - genius! Leaning into its historic social media trolling of M&S and the iconic Colin the Caterpillar cake dispute, Aldi has used the rivalry as a cheeky brand moment, drawing on a well-known product feud to generate attention.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: When done well, playful rivalry and brand banter can create media momentum and social engagement that goes far beyond any regular campaign results. Aldi’s approach shows how leaning into an existing narrative with humour and spectacle can keep a story alive and differentiate a brand during the crowded festive period. Bravo Aldi!
World’s Biggest Game Of Tetris Played Using 2,000 Drones In Esports Final
An esports final took spectacle to new heights this week, as organisers staged the world’s largest-ever game of Tetris using 2,000 synchronised drones in the night sky. The large-scale display blended live competition, cutting-edge technology and mass-participation entertainment, quickly going viral across social platforms.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: This is experiential marketing at its most ambitious, and drones are becoming a much more common use for launch events and nighttime entertainment. You only have to look at any Disney theme park of late, and the shift to drones from fireworks is remarkable! Large-scale stunts that merge gaming, technology and live performance demonstrate how brands and organisers can engineer memorable moments designed specifically for earned media and global shareability.
Are Buzzbagz The Next Labubus? Drink Trend Sparks Cult-Like Following
BuzzBagz, novelty bags to hold the infamous BuzzBalls that have taken the globe by storm this year, are being tipped as the next big obsession, following in the footsteps of viral cult treats like Labubus. The release has generated queues, resale chatter and social hype, and this trend highlights how scarcity, aesthetics and TikTok-driven discovery are shaping modern food and drink campaigns.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: Food and drink brands no longer need national ad budgets to break through. When product design, community buzz and social storytelling align, hype can be manufactured organically, often faster than traditional campaign cycles allow.
Monzo Visualises Account Holders Year in Review
Not one to be outshone at Christmas, digital bank Monzo has jumped on the bandwagon of Wrapped-style annual reports and released a playful, data-driven round-up for its account holders. The fun and brand heavy interactive session in the app highlights spending habits and which retailers or brands the user has spent the most at in 2025. American comedy show Saturday Night Live did a skit imagining what an Uber Eats Wrapped would look like a few weeks back, so it seems like Monzo might have taken the bait and turned it into a reality!
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: Annual reviews are very much brand rituals these days, and when data is presented creatively, it arguably becomes engaging content, reframing operational data as a shareable lifestyle story. We’re not completely sold on Monzo’s take, but it certainly is a great way at highlighting favourite brands and retailers to users, and also helps tap into overlapping audiences in a way that feels somewhat useful, and not promotional.
Final Thoughts
This week’s stories reflect how great PR and marketing blends nostalgia, spectacle, cultural relevance, and even a bit of mischief, especially as we reach the end of the year. From celebrating iconic festive ads to drone-powered game displays, cult food and drink ‘buzz’ and playful retail rivalries, the brands earning attention are those that understand the power of creativity paired with cultural context.
And as we wrap up 2025, it’s clear the campaigns that resonated most weren’t simply chasing short-term metrics - they invited connection, sparked conversation, or leaned into emotion and community. That’s the creative shorthand that cuts through in a crowded calendar and sets brands up for a strong start in 2026.
We’ll see you next year, but for now, that’s a wrap on 2025!
Looking to go to the next level with your PR and marketing goals in 2026? Speak to the Visible PR today! hello@visiblepr.co.uk