Strategy and creativity are celebrated in equal measures at The Drum Awards. Across the board, there are plenty of examples of fantastic and innovative work produced by agencies, brands and individuals each year. But what makes a winner? How do you shout from the rooftops that your campaigns are brilliant? At The Drum, there are 22 awards that celebrate the finest work produced globally. Following are seven examples of the best of the best of The Drum Awards 2017 winners.
Every minuscule detail of the logo was meticulously planned and tweaked. From the exact shade of blue to the balance between the bird, baseball, and maple leaf, the design feels intentional in a way few expansion teams manage to pull off. The pleasant colour scheme paired with a slightly cartoonish blue jay gave the logo warmth and approachability, without sacrificing legitimacy or seriousness.
As UK businesses enter 2026, many small and medium-sized enterprises are taking time to review the systems that support their day-to-day operations. Staffing, compliance, budgeting and customer experience are often top of the agenda, particularly for companies operating in competitive or regulated sectors. One area that is frequently overlooked, however, is workwear. Despite being a daily necessity for many teams, workwear is rarely treated as a strategic consideration. Yet the right work uniform can directly influence professionalism, safety, staff confidence and onboarding speed.
Imagine a scenario where you've developed some ingenious new widget that costs millions of dollars to design, produce and bring to market. You could have quit numerous times. You probably wanted to, because there's a new season of The Traitors and you have to catch up. But you never surrendered. You persevered, and your brilliant invention is ready for the world. All you have to do now is convince a society besieged by a nonstop cavalcade of crises to care.
Crocs unveiled its first new global brand platform in nearly a decade to better appeal to a younger generation of consumers, according to a press release. "Wonderfully Unordinary" centers on self-expression and real-world experiences in a culture "saturated in imitation and algorithmic sameness," Crocs said. The titular anthem spot depicts a pair of featureless store mannequins as they come alive and grow increasingly human after being outfitted in Crocs' signature porous clogs.
A few weeks ago, a notice quietly appeared on the Scottish Register of Tartans authorising a train company to commission its very own tartan design - the corporate equivalent of being knighted, but in wool. The company in question is low-cost train operator Lumo, which can now officially claim to be the proud owner of an officially official tartan. The design was first shown off last month when Lumo launched its Glasgow-London services,
At SXSW, everything is exclusive or badge-only and you always need to be on a list or checked-in. Our bus is a very open, communal space. We're really about being open and having a conversation around our audience and that is the brand you see on the channel and you see in our marketing. We're having a conversation with our audience and we want them to feel like they are a part of us, there's are no rules in this space.
China's market is crowded with many EV brands, many of them not turning a profit. Nio says that focusing on branding and customer experience is the way to stand out in a very crowded market. There are a lot of car brands in Chinatoo many of them. Despite the scale of China's car market and its level of innovation, a reset is bound to happen soon.
A self-described "rat pack" of five "food-loving journalists" just bought the trademark to the defunct food magazine Gourmet, updated it for the modern reader, and brought it back as an online newsletter-all without consulting the magazine's former publisher, Condé Nast. And if you didn't know that already, you might've been able to guess it from the publication's new wordmark. The logo looks nothing like what you'd expect from the magazine that shuttered in 2009.
The "Silver Bullet" (as it's known to fans) first hit shelves in 1978 as part of the "light beer wars" of the era, when competitors like Miller Lite and Natty Light also broke onto the scene. But, inventor Bill Coors was workshopping what would become Coors Light as early as 1941. It was honed for decades before its debut, and today, Coors Light boasts an Instagram profile with hundreds of thousands of followers.
Cadillac's response was to design specifically for that liminal space. The testing livery features what they call "the Cadillac precision geometric pattern" in gloss and matte sequences, turning functional camouflage into brand vocabulary. They're using the constraint of secrecy to communicate design philosophy, establishing that their approach blends automotive prototype discipline with motorsport theater. The giant Cadillac crest draped across the engine cover isn't trying to hide anything. It's declaring that the space between stealth and spectacle is itself worth designing for.
Those he saw as "most successful" had a "bold typographic and/or illustrative treatment" which in turn "countered the dominance" of the branding strip that ran down the side. "This realisation led me to define some rules for the designs of the individual covers that tried to ensure that the covers would never feel overwhelmed by the branding system," says Pete. "The core rule was that the Editions would essentially be typographic covers, or typographically-led covers in terms of the hierarchy between type and image."
There was a Marathon gas station at the end of the street I lived on as a kid. Its big, glowing sign was a landmark for me-when I could see it from the window of my mom's car, I knew we were about to be home. Its iconic 'M'-on the rare occasion I encounter one these days-still brings up that old feeling, the familiarity of homecoming, and a twinge of nostalgia.
The piece cites anecdotal evidence like empty parking lots, more staff than customers during a December visit, removed novelty items, like Optimus robot popcorn service and certain menu items, the departure of celebrity chef Eric Greenspan in November 2025, slow service, high prices, and a shift in recent Google/Yelp reviews toward disappointment. The piece frames this as part of broader Tesla struggles, including sales figures and Elon Musk's polarizing image, calling it a failed branding exercise rather than a sustainable restaurant.
You'd probably recognize the brand by its high-pitched harmonica intro, or the iconic image of a man in a cowboy hat smiling like he doesn't have a care in the world, but Jimmy Dean didn't set out to be known solely by his breakfast foods. The sausage mogul was perhaps most well known for his country music and TV show appearances, as well as being a Billboard chart home-runner and face in the Country Music Hall of Fame,
Day Job cofounder Rion Harmon described the vision: a "cacophony of logos" slapped all over the screen (a nod to Formula 1 racecars), a "country club" forest green, and a VHS visual effect.
Creative automation offers a fast and efficient way for brands to scale their content production without compromising on creative quality. The technology enables the generation of thousands of campaign asset versions across formats, languages, and touchpoints in a fraction of the time of traditional methods. So, with the demand for content at an all-time high, why are many brands still reluctant to embrace this technology?
The Special Criminal Court has warned a man that he could be imprisoned if he refuses to give evidence or answer questions regarding his allegation that he was beaten, waterboarded, threatened with rape and had the word 'Rat' branded on his face and body in a shed at the back of a Dublin home.
Seeking a new brand system that would reposition Foam and stretch across all of the museum's platforms and initiatives, the team reached out to Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam to develop a cohesive new visual identity that channels the pioneering space Foam has carved out. The main challenge of the brief, according to Alex, design director at W+K Amsterdam, "was to join the dots between all platforms (museum, magazine and digital) so Foam could be more visible without detracting from the photography".
Lawyers don't typically earn the title "beloved," but Anh Phoong isn't your typical lawyer. The Sacramento-based personal injury attorney has become a cherished minor celebrity around the Bay Area for her ubiquitous presence on billboards adorned with the cheeky slogan "Something wrong? Call Anh Phoong." The clever rhyme, along with Phoong's playful social media presence, has earned her invites to appear at club nights at the Stud in San Francisco and inspired countless Halloween costumes.
According to a recent blog post, the San Francisco-based a16z launched an internal branding and marketing arm called the "New Media team" several months ago in order to provide founders with "the legitimacy, taste, brandbuilding, expertise, and momentum they need to win the narrative battle online." This team will embed itself within portfolio companies when necessary, per the blog post.
That uniform wasn't just a coincidence; it was a deliberate part of the experience. It likely projected competence, professionalism, and trust before the employee ever said a word. In today's competitive market, a company's image is one of its most valuable assets. We spend thousands on branding, websites, and marketing, but often overlook one of the most powerful and consistent brand touchpoints: our own team.
The name is Mamdani: M.A.M.D.A.N.I. When Zohran Mamdani corrected Andrew Cuomo for mispronouncing his name at the New York City mayoral debate, it was immediately turned into a viral TikTok sound: remixed with Gwen Stefani's " Hollaback Girl." The sound has been featured in user-generated content surpassing 100 million views on TikTok. Remarkably, Mamdani was polling at 1% a year ago, and few New Yorkers recognized him. By the end of the campaign, Zohan Mamdani had mobilized a grassroots movement of 100,000 volunteers.
The streaming services have duked it out on several fronts over the years - battling to put out countless movies and TV shows, grow subscribers domestically and internationally, gain live sports and television, and deliver ad-supported tiers to customers. But these streamers are just as defined by how often they reinvent themselves, as with the rebranding of HBO Max a.k.a. Max a.k.a. HBO Max and Apple TV's recent choice to drop the plus.
In today's hyper-competitive marketplace, businesses are no longer judged solely by the quality of their products or services. Instead, they're evaluated on how they make people feel. This emotional connection - built through clear, consistent, and compelling branding - can mean the difference between fleeting visibility and lasting impact. Modern consumers want more than transactions; they seek meaningful experiences. They're increasingly drawn to brands that align with their values and offer authenticity over perfection.
These skulls, though, are only the latest in a decades-long trend that, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office records, saw the rate of skulls and skeletons in American logos increase by a factor of almost seven from the 1980s to the 2010s. Throughout the last decade, skulls and skeletons appeared in nearly one of every 200 new U.S. logos, a number that has dipped only slightly in the 2020s.
