Signals

UK – At the annual MAD//Fest marketing festival, which continued today in Shoreditch, London, entertainment emerged as a powerful tool for building relevance in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

Using the 60th anniversary of wine brand Casillero del Diablo as a case study for how heritage brands can stay relevant, Claire Raine, head of brand marketing at VCT Europe, urged the audience to ‘resist the temptation to put all of your marketing budget into point of sale’, instead encouraging brands to develop long-term entertainment-focused strategies.  

Echoing themes explored in our macrotrend report The Future of Discovery, the talk illuminated how, for heritage brands, entertainment is becoming a powerful tool for keeping legacy alive – by creating moments people want to watch, share and return to. 

Elsewhere, Harriet McDonald, head of commercial partnerships at Transport for London, made the case for the transport network as a creative platform. Describing London as ‘the world’s biggest stage’, McDonald unpacked how brands can turn everyday journeys into cultural moments, pointing to activations such as Warburtons’ takeover of Baker Street station in March 2026.

In the two-day campaign to mark the bakery brand’s 150th anniversary, Morgan Freeman’s voice took over the Tannoy system with bakery-themed twists on familiar Tube announcements – asking passengers to ‘mind the bap’ and ‘stand behind the buttery yellow line’ – while the northbound Jubilee line platform was rebranded Bakers Street and its roundels transformed into giant crumpets.

The talk was a lesson in how to treat everyday environments as media channels, using entertainment, place and public platforms to keep brands discoverable.