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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. View this post on Instagram 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.
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E-Commerce
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. View this post on Instagram 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.” View this post on Instagram 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.
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E-Commerce
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. View this post on Instagram 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.
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E-Commerce
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
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E-Commerce
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. View this post on Instagram 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. View this post on Instagram 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.
Category:
E-Commerce
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