This is Contagious

What does it take to become a brand people actually want to spend time with?
The Contagious Brands Report 2026 brings together 45 brands finding unconventional answers to some of marketing’s biggest challenges - from earning attention and building communities, to making products more desirable, embracing AI and responding to affordability concerns.
This episode reveals some of the standout brands in the report, from sunglasses sold in art-gallery-like spaces to tractors-as-a-service, AI film festivals and a pickle brand turning students into creators. Along the way, they explore what marketers can learn from brands finding new markets, new opportunities and new ways to keep people coming back.
We’ll explore
Why destination retail overindexes on ROI per square foot
How brands are designing products to generate stories and attention
Why some brands are turning employees and students into their marketing department
How brands can turn customers into communities, and communities into value
Why reframing value can be as powerful as changing the product
Why the thrill of potentially owning crab-soup sake is attracting Gen Z in Japan

If you work in marketing, you should almost definitely subscribe to Contagious IQ - an intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies supercharge their creativity by learning from the world's most impactful brands, campaigns and trends.

Becky Owen, CMO at social agency Billion Dollar Boy, joins Contagious to challenge the received wisdom about how brands should work with creators – from the three-second rule to the idea that good content is all that matters.
Drawing on new research, the latest Contagious podcast explores how brands should work with creators, from using emotion and microdramas to build audiences, to deliberately creating imperfection to fight AI slop. We also look at why creator fandom can now come before the streaming deal, and how brands are having to rewire themselves to keep up.
We’ll explain:
Why the three-second rule may be tanking your campaign performance
Why creators are deliberately embracing messy bedrooms and mistakes to prove they're human
How the same emotion can boost performance in one category and tank it in another
How creators have become data-driven marketers, not just media channels
Why some brands are exploring equity and longer-term relationships to make creators genuinely invested in their success
How social creators are using micro-pilots to build fandom before getting picked up by streaming platforms
Why Argos turned everyday kettles into gallery-worthy objects


If you work in marketing, you should almost definitely subscribe to Contagious IQ - an intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies supercharge their creativity by learning from the world's most impactful brands, campaigns and trends.

Dirty mattresses. Giant hairballs. Bad Bunny. The Pope. This CFO-friendly episode explores how brands can overindex on impact by investing in creativity rather than throwing money at the problem.
The Contagious team analyse some of their favourite low-budget marketing campaigns, unpacking the creative principles behind them and asking how brands can turn tiny budgets into big ideas, big conversations and even bigger earned media.
We’ll explain:
How to weaponise your audience as a media channel
Why withholding information can be more powerful than broadcasting it
How an ick factor can make out-of-sight products impossible to ignore
Why the WTF factor works so well in outdoor
How to turn existing infrastructure into emotion and engagement
How one tiny physical change can become a huge media event
How shoplifting can become brilliant PR

If you work in marketing, you should almost definitely subscribe to Contagious IQ - an intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies supercharge their creativity by learning from the world's most impactful brands, campaigns and trends.

Mary Kish, Head of Community at Twitch, joins Contagious to break down why people are flocking to Twitch – and why brands should care. 

As a streamer herself, Mary doesn’t just work at Twitch, she lives the culture. In this conversation we explore why experiencing things together matters more than ever and how participation kicks the ass of passive viewing when it comes to building engagement. 

We also explain: 

How Twitch builds community in a world that feels lonely 

The power of ‘I was there’ 

The origin of ‘rizz’ 

How a falcon rehabilitator found her people through Twitch 

The main character energy of ‘chat’  

The golden rule for brands on Twitch

If you work in marketing, you should almost definitely subscribe to Contagious IQ - an intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies supercharge their creativity by learning from the world's most impactful brands, campaigns and trends.

Tracing a line from Tolkien to Mattel’s toyetics, the Contagious team explores why brands are moving beyond storytelling to create richer, more immersive worlds. 

We look at the rules that make fictional worlds believable and how worldbuilding can help brands escape commoditisation, fuel always-on creativity and give people something to believe in, belong to and buy into.

Along the way, we explore:

How Jellycat’s worldbuilding whimsy helped drive 66% revenue growth

Why the story is in the world, not the other way around

The toyetic rules that make Barbie Land believable

How Disney’s underground Utilidors keep fantasy intact

When a brand should act like a character, not a company

How Trader Joe’s became a tiki-themed grocery store and why Londoners carry its tote bags

Why your brand might need a map more than a sales strategy

If you work in marketing, you should almost definitely subscribe to Contagious IQ - an intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies supercharge their creativity by learning from the world's most impactful brands, campaigns and trends.