Friday 12 December 2025: PR & Marketing News Round‑Up | New Guinness Brewery, Aus U16 Social Ban, TUI’s AI Ads, Lidl’s Croissant Perfume & Travelodge Wrapping Rooms
With less than two weeks until Christmas, Team Visible is back with another festive edition of our Friday PR & Marketing News Round-Up. It’s been another week of creative offerings from brands using everything from grand experiential openings and product stunts, to AI creative tools and policy-led conversation to command attention and spark debate.
Read on for our picks of the week…
Guinness (Finally) Opens £73m Brewery In Covent Garden
Diageo owned Guinness has finally unveiled its long-awaited London Open Gate Brewery in Covent Garden. The 54,000 sq ft venue, combining a micro-brewery, restaurants, retail space and tours, has been designed to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and also act as a London hub for hospitality training. But a word of warning to the stout purists amongst you… the Guinness isn’t actually brewed on-site, it’s shipped in from Dublin!
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: With its new large-scale ‘brand home’, Guinness has cleverly created endless talkability beyond a single launch day. Between high-impact experiential programming, chef-led food pairings, plus training and community initiatives, Guinness now has a year-round platform for storytelling, VIP hospitality and influencer and trade engagement right in the heart of the capital. The tickets for the festive period have already sold out, which is proof that it’s a brand immersed in culture and loved by many!
Australia’s Under-16s Social-Media Ban: Parents Report Early Effects
This week saw Australia bring in groundbreaking new legal restrictions on under-16s using major social platforms, and it's already prompting reactions from parents and carers, who report changes in children’s screen time, wellbeing and family rhythms. Of course, it’s dividing opinion, with some parents opposing the enforcement, especially its potential to drive usage underground. The policy will continue to generate wide public and policy debate about youth safety, platform responsibility and how enforcement will work in practice.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: Regulatory shifts like this completely reshape the media landscape that marketers rely on. Where youth online access is restricted, brands must rethink audience strategies, creative targeting and platform selection, and lean more heavily on family-facing channels, community partnerships and privacy-forward storytelling. Communications teams also need clear positions on youth safety to protect brand reputation. It’ll be interesting to watch how this plays out, and of course, if any other countries follow suit.
TUI Experiments With AI To Create ‘Inspirational’ Travel Films
Is the travel ad you’re watching real or AI? Travel operator TUI puts its stake in the ground as another big player to begin using artificial intelligence to help produce short, inspirational travel videos, intended to drive consideration and cut production times. The approach mixes human creative direction with AI-generated elements to scale content for multiple markets and audience segments.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: It’s evident that AI is shifting the economics of content across the board, and brands that have adopted AI responsibly are already seeing the rewards of personalisation at scale. For PR and marketing teams, it’s time to prepare to explain AI use transparently, emphasising quality control, data and IP considerations, while harnessing speed and localisation benefits for campaign roll-outs.
Read the full story here
Lidl Launches A Croissant-Scented Perfume For Christmas Competition
In a bid to bag more shoppers this Christmas, and spread some merry cheer, Lidl’s stunts won’t disappoint. Currently on offer is a croissant-scented perfume launched to drive press coverage and social engagement around the supermarket’s in-store bakery offer. The novelty product plays into foodie culture, shareability and the brand’s value positioning, particularly through the festive shopping period.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: It feels like a week doesn’t go by where one of the big supermarkets isn’t launching an eye-catching campaign - which actually says more about the current state of retail right now! For Lidl, this light-touch, novelty activation is an inexpensive way to achieve cut-through at scale this Christmas. The stunt is media-friendly and lends itself to influencer content, sitting naturally on lifestyle verticals and national news columns - a useful template for retailers wanting high attention without big media spends.
Travelodge Helps Parents Keep Christmas Surprises With ‘Wrapping Rooms’
Responding to research showing that 40% of parents worry about their children discovering gifts before Christmas morning, budget hotel giant Travelodge launches ‘Christmas wrapping rooms’, offering parents a private space to wrap presents away from home to help preserve the magic of Christmas. The initiative is intended as a service benefit for families during the busy festive season and is a great PR hook that highlights practical empathy for everyday consumer pain points.
Why it matters for PR & Marketing: Travelodge have smashed it with this one, making use of unoccupied hotel rooms whilst offering an audience-focused service. Travelodge’s move also demonstrates how hospitality brands can leverage physical assets for seasonal storytelling, whilst directly connecting with the lives of its customers across the country. PR stunts like this solve small but meaningful consumer problems that are authentic, relatable and shareable
Final Thoughts
This week’s highlights underline two clear industry trends. From Guinness’s new flagship venue to Travelodge’s wrapping rooms, the continued appetite for physical brand moments that create repeatable, on-brand experiences are getting more popular. Second, we continue to see the value of clever, low-cost stunts and product ideas, like Lidl’s croissant perfume, that generate immediate coverage and social chatter.
Meanwhile, wider forces at play in the industry like AI in creative production and regulatory action on youth social media are forcing marketers and PR teams to think in brave new ways, adapting content strategies and governance frameworks to capture and drive attention. In short, the brands that win this season (and beyond) will combine showstopping experiences with adaptable, reputation-aware comms.
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