Beyond the Big Idea: What Makes A Great Brand Platform?

Throughout 'the golden age of advertising' a memorable 60-second television ad could captivate the nation – but that was when advertisers had the luxury of millions of people viewing the same thing simultaneously. Fast forward to 2025 and, with over 5 billion social media users dispersed across countless platforms, capturing attention has never been more complicated.

Tirelessly supporting that aim to stand out and tie together a company's communication is the brand platform – the glue that ties together long-running campaigns, and explains its purpose and culture, while differentiating it from the competition.

One of the earliest examples of a brand platform is Nike’s 'Just Do It' conceived by Wieden and Kennedy in 1988. The sportswear firm’s first television ad showed 80-year-old Walt Stack running across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. “People ask me how I keep my teeth from shattering in the winter, I leave them in my locker,” he says. Then the slogan 'Just Do It' appears on the screen.

“The core idea behind the [Nike] platform is that if you’ve got a body, you’re an athlete. But that hadn’t necessarily appeared in consumer-facing comms,” explains FCB London chief strategy officer Ben Jaffé.

Likewise, both Dove’s 'Real Beauty' brand platform, around since 2004, and Apple’s 'Think Different', which ran from 1997 until 2002, drew on philosophies rather than products. In the case of Dove, the message was about body positivity while Apple’s showed off how intuitive technology could symbolise aspirational creativity.

Today, brand platforms are more vital than ever to marketers across their brand-building efforts.

“Prior to the digital revolution we generally talked about the 'Big Idea' and we had four bits of media: TV, cinema, posters and radio. Once the digital revolution took hold, we realised that there’s so much more to it than that,” explains TBWA\London chief creative officer Andy Jex.

The social media climate (in which an app such as TikTok can be banned one minute and back the next, or popular one minute and polemic the next) only accentuates this reality: “When you’ve got this proliferation of stuff everywhere you need something to hold it all together,” explains Jex.

But how can brands stay focused and avoid messaging that’s as fragmented as the media landscape? For Jaffé, even though AI can speed individual programmatic campaigns up, “having a very strong idea of what you’re fighting for and what you’re fighting against” is crucial.

From grocery staples like McVitie’s and Andrex, to challengers like Lucky Saint, and tech-forward businesses like Deliveroo and Rightmove, today’s brands aim to keep their messaging on point.

‘Now Just Got Even Better,’ Deliveroo

In the last quarter of 2024, food delivery firm Deliveroo has seen a 5 per cent uptick in orders in the UK and Ireland and a 9 per cent increase in gross transaction value. This growth is partly attributed to its brand platform ‘Now Just Got Even Better’, which transformed its unique selling point into a central focus for the business.

“We launched the platform last year, following our expansion beyond food and groceries into non-food retail, welcoming several major retailers and independent platforms across DIY, gifts, homeware, fashion, and more,” explains Deliveroo’s global marketing VP Caroline Harris. She adds that a key factor in the brief given to its agency-of-record Pablo was the need for “a platform that puts the customer at the centre, moving away from a product-first approach to one that reflects how Deliveroo adds genuine value to people’s everyday lives.”

Mark Sng, chief strategy officer at Pablo, explains that a key insight behind the platform is that “the only time you ever notice delivery apps and logistics is when they go wrong. What we wanted to do was focus on the thing that got people emotional and passionate.”

To ensure longevity and distinguish its approach from competitors, Deliveroo has chosen to use fictional characters rather than celebrities (notably the maverick vampire and its recent Octoman).

According to Pablo’s deputy CSO Lisa Stoney: “We needed something that would feel different. Rather than borrowing credibility from celebrities, we wanted to create our own characters that would be ours and start to create a world around that.”

Believe It’, Rightmove

During his two-and-a-half-year tenure, Matt Bushby, chief marketing officer at Rightmove, has witnessed the property website reach an impressive 2.2 billion annual visits in the UK. Its ‘Believe It’ platform, launched in 2023, is designed to inspire users with the belief that they can turn their ideal home into a reality.

It has drawn on key moments including Boxing Day 2024 to capitalise on annual spikes in search. Meanwhile, its recent work uses humour to tap into the common experience of browsing others’ homes with a touch of envy (for example its latest advert features reality TV star Charlotte Crosby) – and leverages that emotion to highlight to users that similar properties are attainable for them.

Bushby highlights that targeting a wider range of users, including younger users, was key to the platform's creation. “That’s the interesting evolution of the brand platform – starting to say how do we take it and make it relevant for a much bigger sweep of the audience,” he says.

He also believes that the brand platform will stretch into different areas for the years to come. “If I can put it in its simplest form [Rightmove] is the one place where you can find everything. You can go there and see the whole of the market”.

‘Get Comfortable’, Andrex

Another platform that has used humour in its own way is the toilet paper brand Andrex. Its ‘Get Comfortable’ tagline created by FCB London, was inspired by a set of striking statistics: over a quarter of bowel cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed at Stage 4, far later than in other high-income countries.

During a stint in the Netherlands, its CSO Jaffé learned that in northern European countries, looking at poo as an indicator of your health is normalised. “[In the UK] we have this prudish Victorian awkwardness that was drilled into us by our parents and grandparents,” he claims.

For Andrex, it was a way to create a distinction in an increasingly commoditised category. The result was two-fold – a unique angle, showcased with a humorous campaign, and a purpose-driven message that tied into the product. “Because it’s a market leader in the category – with Andrex we felt that we had a responsibility to our culture and our society as a whole,” explains Jaffé.

He adds that the use of toilet humour was also driven by the insight that it’s often used as a defence mechanism to mask insecurities (particularly by young children) and feels that humour is a “very powerful tool” when used correctly. “Depending on what your platform is and what you’re trying to achieve, you should think about it, but it isn’t mandatory.”

‘True Originals’, McVitie’s

TBWA\London has also breathed fresh life into McVitie’s through its ‘True Originals’ platform, live since 2023. The concept seeks to tie the biscuit to its status in the British cultural canon. Jex points out that the heritage of the biscuit goes back 200 years. “There is currency around them, and they are important to people’s lives, certainly in the UK,” he says.

Its first campaign tapped into Sir Trevor McDonald, with a misleading narrator speaking about iconic figures, only for the real deal – the broadcaster himself – to take over.

Even the humour behind McVitie’s-owned Jaffa Cake’s summer 2024 out-of-home campaign ‘We’re Cake, You Biscuit’ draws on history. In 1927, a challenge from Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise claimed that a Jaffa Cake is a biscuit and therefore subject to VAT. However, McVitie’s has successfully proved to the court that a Jaffa Cake is a cake. Jex says it is unusual to “see humour directly inform a platform” but sees it as a powerful tool to convey a brand truth.

For a brand platform to work, it is essential, Jex believes, to tap into a distinguishing factor that is simultaneously valued in the business. “Most CMOs will come in and work with a platform that’s in existence if it’s a good one.”

He adds that when TBWA\London creates brand platforms, it ensures that it acts as a tool for multiple functions. McVitie’s has displayed this from the product (the biscuits say “original” on them), to creating provocative OOH and TV ads.

'You're not you when you're hungry', Snickers

Another brand that has tapped into humour is Snickers with jits 'You're not you when you're hungry' platform. It was conceived by AMV BBDO back in 2009 and has stood strong for fifteen years..

Snickers originally tasked the agency with rejuvenating the classic brand (which had been known as Marathon before 1990).

The long-running campaign proved an audience favourite for the brand running in a number of territories featuring appearances from the late actress and comedian Betty White and A-Team legend Mr T among others. It saw the agency create a series of ads based on the insight that hunger can transform a person's personality.

‘Drink Religiously’, Lucky Saint

Low-alcohol beer brand Lucky Saint is known not just for its high-quality product but also for its irreverent humour and stylish out-of-home campaigns, with photography from Rankin. Since its foundation in 2018, the beer brand operates under a guiding principle: ‘Break rules, honour traditions,’ which has helped it become the UK’s most popular dedicated alcohol-free brand.

“We lean into a religious tonal voice that goes back to the brewing heritage of beer in monasteries, and it links to our name,” says Lucky Saint marketing and e-commerce director Kerttu Inkeroinen.

This year’s posters read ‘Drink Religiously,’ showcasing the brand's commitment to distinctive advertising. “The ambition was to create something reminiscent of 90s beer advertising and to stand out from the typical lifestyle adverts that beer brands often produce,” says Inkeroinen.

And the feeling created by an experience is at the heart of what differentiates a brand platform from a Big Idea. A good brand platform will be “emotional and less functional,” says Jex.

Jaffé adds, “Lots of brands talk about coming up with platforms, but they’re really talking about a communications platform. A true brand platform has the ability to shape and define the future of a business.”

As businesses navigate an increasingly competitive scrap for attention in the digital world, robust brand platforms have become a life-line. They provide meaning and help brands stay relevant in a cut-throat economy.

Ultimately, a strong brand platform has a reach that goes far beyond a single product or campaign. As Jex puts it: “A brand can be in ten places at once, but you need something that connects and holds them all together.”