Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the companys stock price surged a massive 36.4% yesterday.
As of the time of this writing, BYND is up an additional 12.6% in trading before the bell. But is anything more than another round of meme stock mania driving the rising price? Heres what you need to know.
A volatile December
The first day of asset trading for December kicked off yesterday, and already the final month of the year looks to be shaping up to be a volatile one.
Yesterday, cryptocurrencies plunged across the board as nervous investors sold off the digital tokens amid ongoing uncertainty about next weeks potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and growing fears of an AI bubble.
The broader markets seemed to be impacted by the same concerns, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending yesterday down 0.9%, the Nasdaq down 0.38%, and the S&P 500 down 0.53% according to data compiled by Reuters.
Yet despite the risk-averse stance taken by many investors yesterday, some traders in so-called meme stocks seemed to be throwing caution to the wind.
Meme stock investors go crazy for Beyond Meat
While cryptocurrencies and the broader markets were selling off yesterday as mainstream investors appetite for risk diminished, meme stock investors were bullish on their latest stock darling, Beyond Meat.
BYND shares surged 36.48% yesterday, closing at $1.34 per share. Thats a level that Beyond Meats stock has not traded at since November 11, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Its also just the latest surge for Beyond Meat shares in the latter part of this year.
In October, the companys stock price surged from $0.52 per share to $7.69 per share over about a week after it signed a partnership agreement with Walmart.
However, as the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meats stock price surge seemed to have been primarily driven by meme stock traders who had found a new favorite stock.
After its quick rise, BYND shares sank back down to well below $1 per share in the final weeks of November.
Now the shares are soaring again.
Yesterday, the companys stock price was up 36.4% and today, in pre-market trading, as of the time of this writing, BYND shares are up another 12.6%but why?
As the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meat did not have any material changes to its business or financials in the past day. That means speculation among meme stock traders is likely the main driver of the stock’s higher price. This speculation also suggests that, unlike cryptocurrency traders, not all investors are risk-averse right now.
Beyond Meat has still had a horrible 2025
Despite Beyond Meats December stock price surge, investors in the alternative meat company have not seen great returns this year.
As of yesterdays close, BYND shares were still down more than 64% year to date. In November, the company reported its Q3 2025 results, and they left much to be desired.
For the quarter, net revenues were down 13.3% year-over-year to $70.2 million. The companys gross profit was $7.2 millionnearly half of the $14.3 million in gross profit it brought in the same quarter a year earlier.
The disconnect between these fundamentals and this week’s surging stock price suggests that risk-taking by meme-stock traders is the primary driver of BYNDs most recent advance.
Beyond Meat isnt the only meme stock to have gained over the past several days.
Other meme stock favorites have also risen over the past five days, including
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME)up 13%
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC)up 6.8%
Opendoor Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: OPEN)up 5.7%.
Update Tuesday, 12:15 p.m.:
Alternative meat company Beyond Meat saw its stock drop almost 5% in early trading on Tuesday after a significant rally had pushed shares up a day earlier and into premarket trading.
As of around noon, the stock was trading at $1.28 a share after opening at $1.40. The volatility is another sign that the heavily shorted stock is being embraced by meme stock traders, with some seeking to lock in profits after shares rise. As of this writing, the stock is still up over 47% over the past five days.
Original story:
Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the companys stock price surged a massive 36.4% yesterday.
As of the time of this writing, BYND is up an additional 12.6% in trading before the bell. But is anything more than another round of meme stock mania driving the rising price? Heres what you need to know.
A volatile December
The first day of asset trading for December kicked off yesterday, and already the final month of the year looks to be shaping up to be a volatile one.
Yesterday, cryptocurrencies plunged across the board as nervous investors sold off the digital tokens amid ongoing uncertainty about next weeks potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and growing fears of an AI bubble.
The broader markets seemed to be impacted by the same concerns, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending yesterday down 0.9%, the Nasdaq down 0.38%, and the S&P 500 down 0.53% according to data compiled by Reuters.
Yet despite the risk-averse stance taken by many investors yesterday, some traders in so-called meme stocks seemed to be throwing caution to the wind.
Meme stock investors go crazy for Beyond Meat
While cryptocurrencies and the broader markets were selling off yesterday as mainstream investors appetite for risk diminished, meme stock investors were bullish on their latest stock darling, Beyond Meat.
BYND shares surged 36.48% yesterday, closing at $1.34 per share. Thats a level that Beyond Meats stock has not traded at since November 11, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Its also just the latest surge for Beyond Meat shares in the latter part of this year.
In October, the companys stock price surged from $0.52 per share to $7.69 per share over about a week after it signed a partnership agreement with Walmart.
However, as the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meats stock price surge seemed to have been primarily driven by meme stock traders who had found a new favorite stock.
After its quick rise, BYND shares sank back down to well below $1 per share in the final weeks of November.
Now the shares are soaring again.
Yesterday, the companys stock price was up 36.4% and today, in premarket trading, as of the time of this writing, BYND shares are up another 12.6%but why?
As the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meat did not have any material changes to its business or financials in the past day. That means speculation among meme stock traders is likely the main driver of the stock’s higher price. This speculation also suggests that, unlike cryptocurrency traders, not all investors are risk-averse right now.
Beyond Meat has still had a horrible 2025
Despite Beyond Meats December stock price surge, investors in the alternative meat company have not seen great returns this year.
As of yesterdays close, BYND shares were still down more than 64% year to date. In November, the company reported its Q3 2025 results, and they left much to be desired.
For the quarter, net revenues were down 13.3% year-over-year to $70.2 million. The companys gross profit was $7.2 millionnearly half of the $14.3 million in gross profit it brought in the same quarter a year earlier.
The disconnect between these fundamentals and this week’s surging stock price suggests that risk-taking by meme-stock traders is the primary driver of BYNDs most recent advance.
Beyond Meat isnt the only meme stock to have gained over the past several days.
Other meme stock favorites have also risen over the past five days, including
GameStop (NYSE: GME)up 13%
AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC)up 6.8%
Opendoor Technologies (Nasdaq: OPEN)up 5.7%.
Amazon Music just dropped its 2025 Delivered, an annual recap of your most streamed songs, artists, podcasts, and audiobooks, and the platform’s answer to the popular Spotify Wrapped.
Here’s what to know, and how to access the feature.
What is Amazon Music’s 2025 Delivered?
2025 Delivered transforms your streaming history on Amazon Music into a virtual music festival poster with your “dream lineup of artists. Users are given special Trendsetter and Headliner badges for being an early album adopter or an artist’s top listener, respectively.
From the moment you snap on your virtual festival wristband, 2025 Delivered will share personal insights from the year, including your most-played artists, tracks, and genres.
Who is eligible for 2025 Delivered?
2025 Delivered is available for eligible Amazon Music customers with a few hours of listening history in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Canada, and Australia.
Where do I find my Amazon Music 2025 Delivered?
To find your 2025 Delivered, open the Amazon Music app on iOS or Android, head to the Library page, and look for “2025 Delivered.”
In addition, fans can head to the Best of 2025 page in the Amazon Music app to see the platform’s highlights.
What are some of the streaming service’s 2025 highlights?
In the U.S., these include:
The Top hits of 2025 playlist includes tracks such as Taylor Swift’s The Fate of Ophelia, Bad Bunny’s DtMF, sombr’s back to friends, Alex Warren’s Ordinary, and Morgan Wallen featuring Tate McRae’s What I Want.
The Top podcasts, favorite new shows, staff picks, and more includes MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark, & Mysterious Stories, Morbid, Crime Junkie, and The Mel Robbins Podcast.
The Editors picks playlist features a mix of curated fan-favorite tracks including Olivia Dean’s Man I Need, Geese’s Cobra, Dasha’s Like It Like That, Laufey’s Lover Girl (Amazon Music Songline), and Tyler, The Creator’s Ring Ring Ring.
Fast Company’s Brands That Matter is designed to honor the brands that plant their flags firmly at the intersection of business and culture in unique ways. But there are also bigger companies that manage to succeed in that task with multiple brands.
The five 2025 Brands That Matter family of brands honorees didn’t just excel with a single brandthey’ve created cultural moments and sales momentum for multiple brands across their businesses. While being bespoke for each brand, the efforts are nonetheless able to drive solid results on engagement and overall business performance.
Coca-Cola
When you make the world’s top-selling soda, it might be easy to let the market share do all the talking, but that has never been the company’s styleand that’s especially true of its portfolio beyond the eponymous brand. One of Coca-Cola‘s biggest coups of the past year has been Sprite surpassing Pepsi as the U.S.’s number three best-selling soda, in part due to the revival of its “Obey Your Thirst” messaging and collaborations with athletes, including the addition of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. It took that momentum global with international Sprite ads focused on refreshment for its summer 2025 global “Turn Up Refreshment” campaign, which included signing on ambassadors from the world of K-pop and Chinese films. Stateside, the Coca-Cola brand partnered with South African pop star Tyla for a campaign encouraging Gen Z to live in the momentusing a cold Coke as a vehicle for them to reengage with the people around them.
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AB InBev
As one of the world’s largest breweries, AB InBev‘s brand portfolio is extensive, and several of its brews notched marketing wins in the past year. Principal among them has been Corona. As the beer celebrated its 100th anniversary, it launched its Beach 100 guide to the world’s top beaches and grew the reach of its nonalcoholic Corona Cero (which will also be front and center at the 2026 Winter Olympics). And 2025 has also been about Michelob Ultra, which unseated fellow AB InBev brand Bud Light in September as the best-selling beer in America, highlighting renewed demand for a low-calorie and low-carb beer option. The brand showed up at the Super Bowl with a spot starring Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara playing pickleball against a younger doubles pairshowing off the beer as a choice for active drinkers. It was one of four ads at the big game from Ab InBev that were among the top seven most-watched from the event. The company also focused on impact through its brands, including a focus on local production globally and water efficiency, the latter of which is paired with support of Water.org through Stella Artois.
Haleon
Haleonthe spin-off of GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer health brandsmay not be a known name, but its sub-brands are in the medicine cabinet of most of the world, each of them with unique and strong branding. For Emergen-C‘s Immune+ Crystals launch, the company built an ASMR pop-up that helped drive half a billion media impressions and double the product’s distribution goals. Sensodyne’s Clinical White launch focused on recyclable packaging, with strong sales that buoyed the brand’s overall 2024 sales and market share. In 2025, the company focused on conversations around wellness and self-care. To highlight Theraflu’s Nasal Mist, the brand focused on family and fitness influencers to underscore the product’s ability to prevent congestion from slowing them down.
Hormel Foods
By borrowing a phrase uttered by many a reluctant Super Bowl viewer, Hormel Foods combined its portfolio of brands into a single campaign”Here for the Snacks.” Unlike a lot of Super Bowl fodder that focuses on celebrities and big-ticket spectacle, “Here for the Snacks” went practical, sharing a sports-themed assortment of recipes for many a gameday nosh. Informed by insights from the company’s in-house cultural anthropologist Dr. Tanya Rodriguez, the recipes showcased brands like Hormel pepperoni, Herdez salsa, Wholly guacamole, Planters, and Hormel Chili. The result was increased cross-purchase of Hormel brands and a 4% boost in sales, particularly among younger and more diverse shoppers.
J.Crew Group
As parent company to brands like J.Crew, Madewell, and J.Crew Factory, J.Crew Group leaders have spent the past year reviving its eponymous retail offering and finding new inspiration from longtime collaborators at Madewell. At J.Crew, the fall 2024 relaunch of the retailer’s physical catalog helped the brand lift its perception among shoppers by 11% and boosted its Google search activity by 30%, while bringing a 20% increase in reactivated shoppers. With buzzy collabs throughout 2025including a collection with London’s Alex Eagle and a relaunch of a classic rollneck sweater starring up-and-coming actors like Dominic Sessa and Benito SkinnerJ.Crew is setting its sights on 2026. In the first year of a three-year partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the brand’s presence will be a factor in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics. At Madewell, the brand launched its own Substack, Well Said, and its Well Said Collectivea brand ambassador program with content on social media, in stores, and on digital platforms. Since fall 2024, the brand has partnered with longtime collaborator Alexa Chung, launching three collections, most recently in November. Campaigns around the collections with Chung have brought in more than 7 billion social media impressions.
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This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
As Fast Company‘s Brands That Matter marks its fifth year, the goal remains to honor globally recognized brands that inspire and resonate with audiences.
This year’s honorees demonstrate the same qualities that have defined the program since its inception: a deep dedication to their core mission and meaningful connections with both their customers and the wider cultural landscape. While the recognized brands span diverse industries and achievements, they’re united by these fundamental commitments.
METHODOLOGY
With more than 1,200 entries, choosing Brands That Matter honorees requires months of researching and vetting applications, until finally landing on the best examples of what all brands should aspire to. Here is a behind-the-scenes peek into our three most important criteria:
Cultural RelevanceWe look at the impact a brand has had on its industry and the culture at large. This is about what each brand has done that has influenced, impacted, or informed culture, which can range from pop culture, entertainment, and tech to how a companys brand mission connects to larger societal issues.
IngenuityWe aim to give credit to projects that exist at every stage of completion. While we do limit our consideration to brand actions in the past 12 months, those projects, strategies, or ideas can range from conceptual to just-launched to fully operational, as long as theyre bold, new, and innovative.
Business ImpactThis is where the inspiration meets impact. We want to see the numbers, data, and performance indicators that demonstrate how a brand’s unique approach has affected its business, industry, and product category. The key is to share not just what a brand is doing to sell more product or connect with the culture but also the metrics and other data that prove how it’s increasing revenue while winning hearts and minds.Brands That Matter applications are read and judged by a wide variety of writers and editors, each with expertise in each particular category and industry, says Fast Company senior staff editor Jeff Beer. After a first round of judging, theres a period of discussion and debate in creating shortlists for each category and deciding which brands will ultimately make the overall main list. The process doesn’t just produce our honorees. Getting to know all the applicants helps fuel story ideas for the coming year.”
MEET THE TEAM
Judges: Jeff Beer, Joe Berkowitz, María José Gutiérrez Chávez, Amy Farley, Yasmin Gagne, Zachary Petit, David Salazar, Hunter Schwarz, Elizabeth Segran, Julia Selinger, Liz Stinson, Max Ufberg, Jay Woodruff
Contributors: Jeff Beer, Joanne Camas, María José Gutiérrez Chávez, Jude Cramer, Amy Farley, Yasmin Gagne, Charissa Jones, David Salazar, Hunter Schwarz, Elizabeth Segran, Julia Selinger, Max Ufberg
Coordinator: Shealon Calkins
Design/Photo: Alice Alves, Jeanne Graves, Heda Hokschirr, Haewon Kye, Eric Perry, Sandra Riao, Maja Saphir, Mike Schnaidt
Development: J.J. Guaragno, Cayleigh Parrish, Luis David Gutierrez Velazquez
Aging gracefully is a tall order for any company, but the 2025 Brands That Matter heritage brands honorees have stuck around in style for decadesand in one case, even centuries. Along the way, theyve adapted to the times and grown even stronger in the process, whether that means embracing design overhauls, creating innovative new technologies, or staying on the pulse of Gen Z trends.
Here are the brands proving that age doesnt necessarily make a brand old-fashioned in 2025.
Bath & Body Works
Bath & Body Works began as a mall staple in 1990, and 35 years later, it could easily have fallen by the wayside like so many of its peers. But instead, it is Gen Zs number-one fragrance brand (per Piper Sandlers Spring 2025 Teens survey), hopping on olfactory trendshello, tomato-scented candles and Netflix collaborationsand rapidly responding to customer desires, like expanding its Everyday Luxuries collection of fragrances to include cleansers and moisturizers in just three months. The brands secret weapon isn’t just marketing, though: Its predominantly U.S.-based supply chain enables Bath & Body Works to manufacture new products quickly to be the first to big trends.
Canada Goose
In 2024, Canada Goose took a fashion-forward step. It named designer Haider Ackermann as its first ever creative director, and he quickly brought the nearly 70-year-old outerwear brand into the high-fashion world. Last fall, Ackermann released his first capsule collection under Canada Gooses Snow Goose label, a sleek aesthetic combination of the brands past and future: extreme-weather outwear blended with bold colors and silhouettes. The collection garnered attention from the fashion world, with outlets including Vogue, GQ, and Elle covering the launch and helping drive a 240% increase in earned media impressions; from Canada Gooses existing customer base, with two thirds of purchases coming from brand loyalists; and from curious newcomers, with U.S. brand search interest reaching a three-year high by December. Ackermann has since launched two more Snow Goose capsule collections, the latest starring singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, who paired one of his signature headbands with a tee touting Canada Gooses tenet of environmental preservation.
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Clover Sonoma
Brand impact isnt dependent on the size of a company. Even small players can make a big difference, and California-based dairy company Clover Sonoma proves it. The beloved brand has been operating out of Sonoma County since 1916, and in 2024, it leveraged its power as a brand like never before to make a concrete impact on its local community. When Sonoma County voters considered Ballot Measure J in 2024which the brand saw as potentially shutting down family farmsClover Sonoma stepped in and urged its customers to oppose the measure via some prime advertising real estate: its milk cartons. The packaging educated its consumers on the impact Measure J would have on the local dairy industry, a move that paid off when the measure was struck down on election day. Meanwhile, Clover Sonoma is making sustainability a priority behind the scenes, from making a commitment to reduce its methane emissions by 10% over three years to switching its yogurt packaging from plastic to paper, saving 34,000 pounds of plastic annually.
L’Oréal Paris
L’Oréal Paris is on the cutting edge of the beauty industry, leveraging new innovations to set itself apart and give consumers a wholly new at-home salon experience. In 2024, the brand introduced Colorsonic, a novel at-home hair color device that had been in development for 10 years. The devices more than 29 patents were put to good use: In its first six months, Colorsonic made major waves for LOréal Paris, earning the brand 25,000 new customers and 7 billion press impressions. The companys tech-forward thinking continued with the launch of Beauty Genius, an AI-power assistant built on proprietary LOréal Paris knowledge, offering customers 24/7 support on everything from skincare to beauty tips to virtual try-ons.
@glamzilla I COLORED MY HAIR WITH A ROBOT!!!!! This is the @loréal paris usa Colorsonic and I try it out for the first time! Watch to see my experience! #LorealParisPartner #LorealParisHairColor original sound – GLAMZILLA
Lloyds Bank
Even a 260-year-old company can reinvent itself, and over the past year, Lloyds Bank did exactly that. The British brand changed its philosophy from the outside in: First, it got a streamlined new design (one that pays homage to its classic black horse logo while incorporating modern pops of green) and moved to a new operating system. Second, it ensured that its operations matched the new image that Lloyds aimed to project: emotionally connected to its consumers, and wholly committed to helping them move forward through their banking. Customers started seeing Lloyds in a new light, while new members flocked to its redesigned app, which received 512,000 new downloads in Q4 of 2024 alone. Even as its peers dealt with declines, Lloyds saw a massive 450% year-over-year increase in net switching, proving the power of a well-timed rebrand.
Sesame Workshop
The U.S.’s biggest childrens media brand found a way to get even bigger: As of 2025, Elmo and friends have a new home on Netflix, thanks to a deal between the streamer and the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop. Now in its 56th season, Sesame Street has access to its largest-ever audience at more than 300 million worldwidebut rest assured, Elmo wont live solely behind a paywall. New episodes will continue airing on PBS as well, maintaining the unbroken 57-year relationship the series has with the public broadcaster. Amid the changes, Sesame Street is still delivering the unparalleled entertainment and education for children that has made it an undeniably iconic part of pop culture: In the U.S., Sesame Workshop has achieved a staggering 96% brand awareness, and one in three children age five and under actively engage with Sesame Street.
Topo Chico
As 2025 marks Topo Chicos 130th anniversary, the sparkling water brand is celebrating in style. Last year, the company expanded into the flavored sparkling water category with the launch of Topo Chico Sabores, then it supported the new drinks with an original variety show called Sabores TV, which featured taste tests, interviews, live performances, and more. The new products caused sales to soar by 42%, making Topo Chico among the top 15 growing beverage brands in the U.S. Earlier this year, Topo Chico launched a new campaign, The Source of Legend, that pulls back the curtain on more than a century of brand lore, secrets, and history, all while emphasizing the brands Mexican heritage and connection to fans.
William Stout Architectural Books
For William Stout Architectural Books, a visual overhaul didnt mean sacrificing the San Francisco bookshops soul. Instead, the independent retailers 2025 renovation, a collaboration with design collective LoveFrom, unlocked Stouts full potential. Its expanded retail offerings, which added items like exclusive editions and out-of-print acquisitions to the stores existing catalog of books for architects and designers, doubled the stores average transaction value. Its renewed focus on events, including lectures, workshops, and exhibitions with prominent figures from the design world, saw attendance triple to more than 3,500. And its redesigned digital storefront captured a new audiences attention, with a 40% increase in engagement even before its full launch. Overall, in-store revenue rose by 18% year over year, demonstrating that even 50 years after first opening its doors, Stouts legacy is only growing stronger.
This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
The early stages of building a brand are critical. Beyond identifying their audience, brands also have to connect with them while demonstrating their utility. For the five companies recognized as 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the on the rise category, in four years or less they have managed to do both those things with aplomb.
Whether it’s Unrivaled’s unique NIL and athletic proposition for WNBA athletes, Scarlett Gasque’s ability to tap into underserved shoppers, or Alan-1’s efforts to give the arcade game an upgrade for avid players, these brands have proven their strengths.
Alan-1
Alan-1 creates arcade and video game products inspired by the 1980s. In the past year, the company has brought back more modern versions of nostalgic games like Asteroids, Berzerk, and Missile Command through a partnership with Atari. In 2024, the company generated $2.1 million in arcade sales by placing them in Disney World and Dave and Busters locations. To promote its products, the company has adopted a YouTube strategy that showcases teaser trailers and gameplay breakdownsto date, the channel has driven more than 500,000 organic views. It has also continued to meet fans where they are, engaging with them on Discord.
Fine’ry
Mass fragrance brand Finery has made a name selling dupes for popular fragrances at a fraction of their price at retailers including Target. To tailor its appeal to customers, the company closely tracks the scents consumers want on social media and creates fragrances quickly based on that data. For example, over the summer, amid the rise of pistachio as a color and flavor, the brand released Pistachio Please, a scent with pistachio and vanilla notes. To appeal to digitally native consumerswho often purchase the fragrances without smelling them firstthe brand uses generative AI to quickly create bold campaign imagery across physical and digital assets. Finery also hosted two immersive pop-ups for fans to experience their scents and created digital pop-ups to meet their consumers where they spend time: on Roblox. As a result, one unit of Finery fragrances was sold every 10 seconds in 2024.
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Scarlett Gasque
Two-year-old lingerie company Scarlett Gasque creates lingerie and corsets. This year, the company expanded its model roster to include more plus-size and diverse bodies. The move led to a 45% increase in social engagement. The brand’s growing popularity on social media led to custom product requests from the likes of Kim Kardashian and Sabrina Carpenter. The brand’s Dorothy bra also made an appearance in Selena Gomez’s music video for her song “Sunset Blvd.”
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SirDavis American Whisky
SirDavis, a whisky brand from megastar Beyoncé and Moët Hennessy, has marketed itself to women and people of color, demographics that are historically underrepresented in the luxury whisky category. Since its launch, the brand has associated itself with pop culture, retailing at venues like the Houston Rodeo to the Pegasus World Cup and California Crown, and of course, as the Official Spirit of the Cowboy Carter Tour. The brand also engaged and promoted blind tasting tests from experts, to assure customers that beyond being a celebrity brand, the product actually tastes good.
Unrivaled
Professional three-on-three womens basketball league Unrivaled gives WNBA players more opportunities to compete during the offseason. Cofounded by players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, the company has raised $35 million. Last season, women accounted for more than half of Unrivaleds televised viewershipa significantly higher percentage than every other televised womans sports property. Unrivaled also debuted an NIL program, showcasing college basketball stars Paige Bueckers of the University of Connecticut and Flaujae Johnson of Louisiana State University. To stoke interest in the league, Unrivaled created a content strategy focused on behind-the-scenes storytelling. Unrivaled league and club social media accounts flooded the zone from January through March, together posting 3,804 times and averaging a combined 50 posts per day, which led to 589.1M social media impressions.
@unrivaled we got shooterssss #unrivaled @Azzi Fudd original sound – Unrivaled Basketball
This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
After the initial sprint of getting a brand to last for five years, there’s always the possibility of hitting a wall. Companies that emerge during cultural moments might be tempted to shift.
But the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees for established excellence, which have been in business for 5 to 14 years, have managed to stand out by finding new ways to hew to their original ethos. In doing so, they underscore what set them apart in the first place and position their brands for future growth.
Actively Black
Founded five years ago, activewear company Actively Black donates more than 10% of its profits to organizations focused on Black mental health, healthier food access, social justice, physical fitness, and HBCU athletics. The brand’s 2024 included designing the Nigerian Olympic team’s apparel and a collaboration with Civil Rights photographer Cecil Williams that benefited the South Carolina Civil Rights museum that bears his name. This year on Juneteenth, in a move that recast an industry historically built on enslaved Black workers, Actively Black released a collection made entirely with cotton from Black-owned farmswith the apparel proudly asserting it was “made from cotton grown by Black farmers.” It also brought its partnership with Mielle Organics to New York Fashion Week with Ruby Bridges, as well as the children of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton.
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Avaline
Five-year-old wine brand Avalinefounded by actor Cameron Diaz and entrepreneur Katherine Powerhas appealed to a demographic of women looking for better for you wines by meeting them where they arethe Hamptons. The effort started in summer 2024, when the company hosted pop-up experiences with fashion and lifestyle brands at Hamptons hot spots, and evolved this year: In June, the brand launched a wine with Stella McCartney, celebrating the limited-edition rosé with a cocktail party that had Drew Barrymore, Emma Roberts, and Andy Cohen in attendance. Those IRL moments have translated to social mediaand especially Instagram, where Avaline is the most followed domestic wine brand on the platform (partially the result of 8% year over year follower growth in 2024).
Babylist
Digital baby registry Babylist launched an open to secondhand feature on its website in December 2024, letting users affected by rising inflation purchase essentials for less. To highlight the problem of the rising cost of living for parents, Babylist launched a campaign to show how the impact of tariffs and the resulting trade volatility spike the price of baby essentials. To do this, CEO Natalie Gordon worked with other CEOs to highlight the issue through ads in the Washington Post and billboards in Times Square. By speaking directly to parents concerns, the company gained more than 3 million followers across social channels, with 1.4 million on TikTok alone.
BeatBox Beverages
The resealable, recyclable Tetra Pak cartons are what make Beatbox instantly recognizable in the ready-to-drink alcoholic beverage space. Whats most striking about the brand, though, may be its stratospheric growthin 2024, it nearly doubled its $100 million revenue from the previous year, and it’s reportedly on track to surpass $250 million in 2025. This year, it got a boost from Shaquille O’Neal in the form of an investment and a custom flavor for the basketball star/DJBeatBox blueberry lemonade. Shaq first encountered the brand via his DJing efforts, and music events have helped BeatBox find more customers. Its Tetra Paks have been at a growing roster of music festivals, including Outside Lands in August, where the brand debuted a Mystic Grape flavor.
Danessa Myricks Beauty
Founded by makeup artist Danessa Myricks, Danessa Myricks Beauty has gained a cult following by creating and marketing its products to underserved demographics, including women over 40, people of color, and nonbinary individuals. In the past year, the company has held two public model casting calls for everyday people. The initial effort in December 2024 saw more than 1,000 applicantswith 108 ultimately cast in the campaign. On social media, the company has focused on education, with free series like DMB University, a digital masterclass series. As a result, according to Creator IQ, the company generated 1.1 billion global impressions across all social platforms.
This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
Once a brand hits its stride, it can be tempting to coast. As these 2025 Brands That Matter enduring impact honorees demonstrate, longevity (in this case, 15-plus years in business) can inspire innovation. That’s particularly true when it comes to finding fresh ways to engage longtime consumersand court new ones.
From Clinique leaning into its longstanding reputation among dermatologists to Lundberg Family Farms getting its shoppers to care about the cutest aspect of regenerative agriculture, there’s a wide range of ways these brands kept from resting on their laurels.
Blumhouse
As the horror film production studio marked 15 years, this past year, Blumhouse has worked to bring its horror movies to life via immersive experiences (Halfway to Halloween, NY Comic Con, Overnightmare, Halloween Horror Nights, CCXP Mexico), and capitalized on consumer loyalty by broadening its merch offerings. 2025 has been a year for tentpole sequels, including M3gan 2.0 and Black Phone 2, both of which leaned into superfans to get viewers in theaters. Though M3gan 2.0’s box office kept it in the realm of cult fandom, Black Phone 2 earned more than $123 million worldwide after a $27 million opening weekend.
Clinique
To reach new customers, 57-year-old Clinique went back to its roots as a brand created with dermatologists in 1968. To reach users on social media, the brand set up a Derm Creator Council that makes content focused on trending skincare topics. Content from the council fueled a 299% increase in video views and added more than 65,000 TikTok followers. To expand its role in growing the dermatology profession, Clinique funded a three-year scholarship with the Skin of Color Society Foundation to support medical students focused on skin health equity. It did so while churning out new products and reformulations, highlighting its ability to deliver “That Clinique Glow” with global pop-ups.
Dirt Is Good
Unilever’s laundry detergent brand Dirt Is Good collects various global product namesPersil, Skip, OMO, and Surf Excelunder a shared ethos: that stains are the mark of a life lived. In 2024, its Argentinian campaign “Stains of Glory”in which the brand re-created grass and dirt stains from Argentina’s World Cup championship match and encouraged consumers to scan QR codes on ads for a chance to win one of the stained jerseysreached 63% of the country in summer 2024. This year, it took up another, more taboo, topic in Englandperiod stains. Using survey data showing 6 in 10 girls don’t play sports out of fear of period stains, Persil partnered with Arsenal women on a print and billboard campaign with athletes talking about how period stains are as much part of playing soccer as mud or grass stains. The campaign reached 34 countries and garnered 240 million earned impressions and 4.2 million social engagements in 10 days. Paired with tips on getting bloodstains out of clothes, the campaign lifted time spent on Persil’s site by 45%.
Lundberg Family Farms
Regenerative farming is still pretty opaque to the average person. To help customers understand its importance, rice-maker Lundberg Family Farms has launched campaigns to get customers to engage directly with its farming site. Every winter, Lundberg floods part of its fields to replicate the fast-disappearing California wetlands, which provide food for thousands of birds. The company also adopts other measures, like sequestering carbon, to give ducks a hospitable nesting environment. Though customers might find it difficult to engage with metrics around healthy soil, they can easily appreciate the value (and cuteness) of duckling rescue. After creating ads showcasing Lundbergs duck rescue work, the company saw a 12.3% social media engagement rate. Lundberg also launched a Gold Shovel Ticket, giving one lucky entrant the chance to experience its rescue work firsthandmore than 20,000 customers entered the sweepstakes.
Yahoo!
Search engine Yahoo! went retro, launching the “Yahoo Yodel Button” in collaboration with film production company A24 to celebrate the movie Y2K. The novelty button made the iconic Yahoo! sound when pressed. The company further tapped into its nostalgic appeal by launching ads featuring Tae Bo creator Billy Blanks, and a Super Bowl ad where comedian Bill Murray encouraged the audience to send messages to his Yahoo! email address. These throwback efforts brought in a younger audiencemillennials and Gen Z now make up almost 50% of the site’s visitors in the U.S.
This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
A brand that isn’t thinking globally is limiting its reach. The four 2025 Brands That Matter global honorees know that and have worked hard to make their messaging reach beyond their home countries. All based outside the United States, these brands demonstrated that good messaging and authentic connection have no nationality.
1Password
People don’t like to think about their digital security, so Toronto-based 1Password has become an expert at making it fun, and doing so using sports as the backdrop. The brand used its sponsorship of the Presidents Cup golf tournament in fall 2024 to debut its “What Not to Do” campaign. With more than 12 million impressions, the spot drove a 14% increase in account creation during the tournament. Elsewhere, in 2025, the brand has partnered with Oracle Red Bull Racing’s F1 team, designing a custom car wrap for driver Alisha Palmowski, which debuted at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix in June.
Babbel
Berlin-based language learning company Babbel has been focused on meeting its userswho now include over 1 million Ukrainian refugees, connected with the brand via more than 70 NGOswhere they are. Babbel used Telegram to connect with 22,000-plus language learners via Welcome Alliance Germany, helping them practice their burgeoning skills. In 2025, the company also partnered with Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF, which began using its Babbel for Business offering for its players, coaches, and front office. The team became an early adopter of the brand’s AI-powered Babbel Speak tool, which debuted in September.
Dreame
Suzhou, China-based smart vacuum maker Dreames culturally attuned product strategy helped it capture up to 43% of the robotic vacuum market in Germany and Italy, with 2024 sales reaching 3.96 million unitsa 60% year-over-year increase. By designing tech like eco-conscious smart lawnmowers for Europe and robotic vacuums with mop-detachment for cleanliness-focused markets, Dreame fused cultural insight with innovation. Campaigns such as Reclaim Time for Family and localized Amazon Prime Day activations fueled $9.05 million gross merchandise value in North America and a 540% surge in overseas direct sales.
Marina Bay Sands
In the past year, Singapore’s five-star resort Marina Bay Sands has undertaken a big transformation. As it fully renovated its lodgings, it also debuted its “Above Beyond” brand transformation. Initial response in fall 2024 included a 2.61% increase in brand equity, and average stay lengths have increased from 1.5 to 4 nights. That’s been helped by initiatives that include a cinematic campaign by filmmaker Celine Song and content featuring global brand ambassador David Beckham, which helped the brand reposition itself from a stopover to a destination.
This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
