These 66 brands aren’t just contributing to culture—they’re creating it

Since it began in 2020, Fast Company‘s Brands That Matter has been focused on celebrating companies that have made themselves an integral part of their customers’ lives while also carving out space in the broader culture.

This year, from more than 1,200 applications, our team of judges—Fast Company writers and editors—identified 119 brands and 10 CMOs that exemplified how to build brand affinity while showing up in broader culture and communities related to their businesses. Of this year’s honorees, 66 stood out for work that was impactful, cleverly conceived and executed, and ultimately consistent with their brand ethos and popular perception.

Those 66 comprise the 2024 Brands That Matter benchmark brands, which span everything from insurance companies and nonprofits to beauty brands and booze. Despite the broad range of industries they represent, these brands have all demonstrated how a brand can matter in 2024 and beyond. Read about all of them below.

1Password

Cybersecurity company 1Password makes password management accessible—in terms of both user experience and branding. As the brand surpassed 1 million passkeys created this year, it added the opportunity for users to test out experimental features and unveiled an enterprise-focused tool that was quickly adopted by fellow honoree Opentable. It paired its growing suite of features with cheeky marketing via its “Stopping Bad Actors” ad, which starred Tommy Wiseau, the writer/director and star of The Room, whose questionable acting skills elevated the film to cult status. 1Password’s ability to pair entertainment with education was also honored by the Webby Awards, which named its Random But Memorable podcast an honoree in its Best Branded Podcast category.

Aflac

Despite the high profile of Aflac’s duck mascot, the supplemental insurance company set out over the past year to increase its brand recognition among Hispanic consumers. Based on a survey of Spanish-speaking consumers, Aflac launched its “Remission with a Mission” campaign starring Mario Lopez. The initiative’s content—spread across leading Spanish-language networks and Lopez’s Instagram—garnered 275 million impressions. The campaign’s messaging about proactive health and wellness helped Aflac increase its Instagram followers by 24% while spurring a 36% increase in wellness claims amid doubled traffic to its Spanish-language site.

AllTrails

Outdoor exploration app AllTrails came into 2024 having doubled its membership base since 2021, reaching 60 million members. With those numbers underscoring its indispensability to hikers, it set out to become equally necessary for land management agencies and nonprofits that support trails and parks. In spring 2024, the brand launched its free Public Lands program, which supports 250-plus agencies and organizations by sharing insights on trail use while allowing park staff to edit trail info and send alerts to hikers via the app. The data AllTrails shares via the Public Lands program has helped nonprofits supporting public lands to secure funding for improvement projects and allowed parks like Olympic National Park to use proactive messaging about trail conditions to reduce search-and-rescue incidents.

Ally Financial

Earlier this year, research firm Deloitte reported that women’s sports was on track to generate $1 billion in revenue—nearly triple what it generated in 2021. Ally Financial and CMO of the year Andrea Brimmer have been an important conduit for bringing sponsor and advertiser money into women’s sports. Two years into its 50/50 pledge to spend equal amounts on men’s and women’s sports by 2027, the bank has grown its Women’s Sports Club to more than 300 members in little more than a year—connecting brands, media companies, and content creators to help support higher investment in women’s sports. These efforts haven’t distracted from Ally’s main business. This Thanksgiving, Ally revived its “Banksgiving” campaign after four years, letting its call center employees give out money to customers with no strings attached.

American Express

Under its CMO of the year Elizabeth Rutledge, American Express has turned its Gold and Platinum credits cards into passports to culture for Gen Z and millennials. Over the past year, the company has bolstered its perks for sports fans, foodies, and travelers alike—adding new perks at events like Formula One, hosting exclusive food events via subsidiary Resy, and opening new airport lounges. Amex has also grown the benefits it offers to music fans, going beyond presales to add cardholder-only events like a listening party with Billie Eilish to mark the singer’s Hit Me Hard and Soft release. The strategy is paying off. As of Amex’s Q3 of 2024, Gen Z made up 80% of new accounts acquired on its Gold Card and were the company’s fastest-growing group of consumers. Additionally, spend among Gen Z and millennials was up 12% year over year in Q3.

Angara

Diamonds tend to dominate the world of fine jewelry, but Angara’s proposition to its consumers is that a little bit of color never hurt anybody. This year saw the continuation and payoff of the ethical jewelry brand’s “Better in Color” campaign, which highlights the versatility of colored gems—including those like alexandrite and tanzanite, which are rarer than diamonds. The campaign boosted sales for colored gems by 33%, with more than a quarter of customers who bought them returning for more.

Arc’teryx

Read about how the outdoor apparel brand is getting creative to promote circular materials.

Athletic Brewing Co.

Athletic Brewing closed out 2023 as the top nonalcoholic brewery in the United States, outpacing zero-alcohol options from the world’s biggest beer makers. This year, it has kept that momentum with a high-profile partnership with country star Walker Hayes, who received the honorary title of Chief Fancy Officer. As the brewery worked with Hayes to craft his own beer variety (named for his hit song “Fancy Like”), he opened up to Rolling Stone about his sobriety and how the brand offered him an option that didn’t make him feel like the odd man out at a bar. Athletic timed the beer’s release to Hayes’s April album Sober Thoughts.

Autodesk

Design software company Autodesk has built several moments over the past year that have showcased its capabilities while engaging with its customers in pop culture. In late 2023, it was among the first brands to test a custom ad on Las Vegas’s Sphere. The ad, for The Marvels, showed off the software’s ability to build ads on the venue’s massive exterior display and was timed to greet arrivals for its annual Autodesk University. Its impact was well beyond the conference, though, reaching 30 million people across platforms and logging half a million engagements. This year, it partnered with fellow honoree Disney and Lucasfilm for a contest that asked fans to design their own droid, coinciding with the announcement that Autodesk used its software to design a droid in the Disney+ series The Acolyte.

Black Love

As a platform focused on Black relationships, Black Love has built out a solid roster of content for its users on various platforms. New seasons of its podcast The Mama’s Den—whose three hosts discuss their experience with motherhood—helped the show’s YouTube following grow by 10% over the course of 2024 and increase its Instagram following by a third. Additionally, a new season of its Couch Conversations video series, in which rapper Acehood and his wife, Shelah Marie, talk candidly about their relationship, became the most-downloaded show on the Black Love+ app and garnered more that 3 million views on YouTube.

Bobbie

In the three years since it launched in 2021, baby-formula maker Bobbie has been integral to keeping the nation’s supply of formula flowing, but this year it made an impact without even mentioning its flagship product. The brand partnered with new mom tennis star Naomi Osaka for a campaign that aired on ESPN and focused on the need for federal parental leave. The effort centered Osaka’s own story about her experience returning to work, earned more than 8 million impressions on the network, and was accompanied by a full-page New York Times ad. Also this year: Bobbie showcasing how formula can supplement breastfeeding with a Times Square billboard starring chef-influencer Molly Baz—whose ad with lactation cookie brand Swehl had been removed by Clear Channel.

Brooks Running

When actor Jeremy Renner was in a snowplow accident in early 2023—breaking 38 bones—his doctor told him he would likely never walk again, let alone run. But in May, Renner was the star of shoemaker Brooks Running‘s “Let’s Run There” campaign, anchoring a video about his journey to get back into running with the help of Brooks’ shoes. The video’s inspirational subject helped it rack up 14 million views on Instagram and almost 1 million engagements within two weeks. In a fitting effort to push beyond initial success, Brooks quickly expanded the campaign to include elite athletes like Josh Kerr and Valery Tobias, as well as country singer Morgan Wade.

Bubble Skincare

Much to the chagrin of their parents, members of Gen Alpha love skincare, and among the skincare-obsessed tweens—and a large share of Gen Z—Bubble is a front-runner for favorite. The brand has managed to capture the hearts, minds, and dollars of younger consumers via its extensive network of brand ambassadors, which grew 700% in 2023 to more than 32,000, coupled with its massive retail footprint—it’s sold in more than 12,000 stores in North America and at Boots in the U.K. The content generated by its ambassadors, especially via its Campus Ambassadors program, helped drive foot traffic to Ulta Beauty at the holidays in 2023: Creators told fans that the only way to buy Bubble’s two holiday mystery serums was in-store at Ulta. This fall, the brand expanded into Australia via pharmacy chain Priceline, and looked to capture a wider collegiate set with its “Face the Gameday” tailgate tour.

C-SPAN

Read about how the cable network is quickly becoming a go-to source for political content on social media.

Calm

Mental health app Calm has become a source of, well, calm for the millions of people who have downloaded it. In 2023, the company tripled its TikTok following by making a point of cutting through the din that accompanies swiping through videos on the app. With a combination of calming sounds, questions for reflection, and the occasional influencer-driven pep talk or explainer, the app’s TikTok account has amassed over 4.5 million likes and more than 939,000 followers. Calm’s branding also incorporated big celebrity moments over the past year, including a sleep hotline manned by Harry Styles in 2023 and a 36-minute story for focus narrated by Wicked star Cynthia Erivo. To drive home the need for some time to think, on election night, the brand purchased 30-second ad blocks on CNN and ABC to give some calm time to viewers watching returns, boosting its App Store rankings in the days that followed.

Cider

Clothing brand Cider has become a go-to among younger consumers due to its ability to deliver exactly what they want—and that’s by design. The brand’s demand-based approach to production starts with listening to what its fans want—say, expanded sizing or certain looks for the Eras Tour—and making it happen. As it courts Gen Z, Cider is making inroads among Zoomer celebs, including Bella Thorne, Millie Bobbie Brown, and Kaia Gerber.

Crocs

Fashionably unfashionable shoemaker Crocs has always courted big moments with outré designs, but it reached new maximalist heights through partnerships this year. The brand’s collaboration with Pringles produced a boot that repped the Pringles logo and featured a holster sized to accommodate a small can of the crisps (ideally the crossover Croc-tail Party flavor). Crocs also debuted a co-branded Big Yellow Boot with art collective MSCHF at Paris Fashion Week. These and other collaborations led to more than 1.7 billion media impressions, and most sold out in minutes. This year, collabs have included Wicked and Moana 2, and in November, the company brought former Yeezy designer Steven Smith onboard to lead a new wave of product innovation.

The DiPietro Law Firm

DiPietro has built a brand around advocating for and supporting victims through work like helping the New York state legislature to pass the Adult Survivor’s Act and New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. The brand has positioned itself as a relevant and authoritative voice involving pressing social issues and advancing meaningful progress in the name of patient safety. The company’s efforts are focused on leveraging its expertise to provide insight and guidance on legal and ethical matters that impact society at large. DiPietro was featured in the Wondery podcast Exposed: Cover-Up at Columbia University and related features in ProPublica and The New York Times.

Disney

Disney came off its centennial year in 2023 having leveraged a Disney100 TikTok hub to boost the following of all of its accounts. Even ESPN benefited from the 170 million net new followers the brand brought in from social content tied to the anniversary. This year, under CMO of the year Asad Ayaz, Disney has marketed several blockbuster films—from family-friendly Inside Out 2 to the sweary Deadpool & Wolverine.

E.l.f. Beauty

In an effort spearheaded by CMO of the Year Kory Marchisotto, E.l.f. turned its inclusive ethos into its “Change the Board Game” campaign, which pushes for diversity on corporate boards. The campaign’s most buzzworthy output has been “So Many Dicks,” highlighting that the boards of America’s public companies have more men named Richard, Rick, or Dick than they have women and other diverse groups. “So Many Dicks” took over New York’s financial district and E.l.f.’s socials in May and June, building 98.2% positive sentiment among consumers.

Eventbrite

As a ticketing platform used for more than 5 million events in 2023, Eventbrite saw a role for itself in combating the loneliness epidemic by building out promotions for events designed to help people “GTFO (Get the F*** Out)” of their houses to interact with people IRL. Throughout the second half of 2023, Eventbrite promoted GTFO and Date, showcasing events for singles; GTFO and Eat Week, with events for foodies; and GTFO and Celebrate, which highlighted holiday and New Year’s Eve events. GTFO and Date drove an 83% increase in singles and dating events. Keeping with the theme of bringing digital interests int the real world, Eventbrite this past summer partnered with TikTok to integrate its ticketing tools with the platform, allowing content creators to easily host their own ticketed events.

The Female Quotient

Gender equality advocacy organization the Female Quotient has significantly grown across digital platforms with original and regular programming on LinkedIn. Among its offerings are “The Power of the Pack,” which unpacks taboo topics affecting women in the workplace; “Generation Money,” exploring topics related to finance issues facing women; and “The Algorithm for Equality,” discussing the increasing use of AI in both work and at home, and how to make a more equitable AI experience for all. In 2023, across platforms, The FQ garnered over 1.47 billion impressions. Its “Trailblazers in History” video series has attracted more than 26 million views by shining a spotlight on overlooked trailblazers like the women of the Manhattan Project, Ana May Wong, Zora Neale Hurston, and more.

Gap

As a legacy retailer, Gap has been working to up its brand recognition among Gen Z, and it’s done so in 2024 with two viral campaigns that center young pop stars showing off their dance chops. In March, Gap’s “Linen Moves” campaign, starring Afrobeats artist Tyla, helped more than double its Instagram following from 2 million to 5 million, and helped send the song by Jungle that soundtracked the ad onto the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart for four weeks. Its fall 2024 campaign “Get Loose” spotlighted its denim collection on Australian pop singer Troye Sivan and dancers from the Netherlands’s CDK Company. Like the ad, the site for “Get Loose” showcases Sivan alongside CDK Company dancers in the brand’s denim, channeling the spot’s playful nature for shoppers.

Ghia

At the beginning of 2024, Mediterranean-inspired zero-proof beverage maker Ghia had just hit some 600 Target locations. That offered a springboard for its best sales for Dry January since it launched in 2020, logging a 49% year-over-year increase in total revenue that month. Besides being in front of more consumers in stores, Ghia works with partner bars and restaurants to host aperitivo hours and has grown its stable of influencers and simpatico brands in such areas as wellness, food and beverage, and entrepreneurship. Coupled with its approach of centering storytelling in its brand work, the company managed to reduce digital spend while growing its total revenue by more than 50%.

Glossier

Four years into its sponsorship of the WNBA, Glossier—the league’s first beauty sponsor—saw its early investment in the league pay off. In April, the brand was center court on draft day with No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark. Glossier worked with Clark—whose stellar final March Madness with the Iowa Hawkeyes catapulted her to national stardom—on her draft day look and sponsored the event’s beauty room for other prospective players, earning the brand 4 billion impressions. The brand also sponsored Team USA’s women’s basketball team at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. This fall, Glossier enlisted WNBA players Brionna Jones, DiDi Richards, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and Ezi Magbegor to help launch new shades of its lip gloss.

Guinness

Irish beer brand Guinness is almost as synonymous with St. Patrick’s Day as wearing green. This year, it used that platform to launch a new tagline—”a lovely day for a Guinness”—alongside actor Jason Momoa, who co-directed and starred in an ad for the brand in which he discovers he’s 2% Irish and celebrates, naturally, with a pint of Guinness. The campaign amassed over 2,000 media placements and 13 billion impressions, and the Jason Momoa Instagram post from @GuinnessUS became its most commented-on post. Throughout 2024, Guinness (partially due to its Guinness 0 nonalcoholic beer) has seen a surge in popularity that has made the stout a growth driver for parent company Diageo. This fall, the brand unveiled a capsule collection with London-based fashion label JW Anderson.

Impossible Foods

Plant-based-meat company Impossible Foods has always swung for the fences when it comes to showing consumers that it is comparable to the real thing. So when it launched hot dogs this year, it signed champion hot dog eater Joey Chestnut to underscore that the product was good enough for a man who knows hot dogs. The Chestnut-anchored summer campaign helped drive a 16,000% increase in Impossible’s social media engagement. And this fall, Impossible’s hot dogs were used in its launch of frozen corn dogs as the brand pushed into family-focused products including chicken nuggets and plant-based beef with taco and Italian seasoning options.

Johnnie Walker

In a year when many fellow honorees successfully piggybacked on the growing interest in women’s sports, Scotch brand Johnnie Walker was already earning accolades for its fall 2023 campaign, “Watch Women’s Sports,” which tapped Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham to encourage fans of soccer and other sports to tune into women’s games. The campaign won the Webby Awards Bronze Honor and Audience Honor awards, and helped kick off a year of notable partnerships—from the launch of après-ski-focused Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ice Chalet with Priyanka Chopra Jonas to a campaign starring The Bear‘s Ebon Moss-Bachrach encouraging use of its Blue Label scotch in cocktails.

Keen

After 21 years in business, PFAS-free shoemaker Keen in 2024 cemented its status as an outdoor-focused, environmentally friendly shoe brand that’s functional on the trails and on the runway. To mark the 10th anniversary of its open-air sneaker sandal Uneek, Keen released a special edition of the shoes for Commes des Garçons’ autumn/winter and spring/summer 2024 collections. It also launched Uneek collaborations with streetwear brands MLTA, Only NY, and End. Keen’s retail partners expanded to include Hypebeast mainstays Kith and Dover Street Market. As its profile has grown, Keen has kept its eye on environmental responsibility, continuing a multiyear partnership with filmmaker Max Romney explaining PFAS and why Keen removed the chemicals from its shoes a decade ago.

King Arthur Baking Co.

If you thought the sourdough boom started and ended with the pandemic, you’d only be half right. Between 2023 and 2024, King Arthur Baking reported a 75% increase in sales of its sourdough starter and a concurrent 61% year-over-year increase sales for its bread flour, with sales of its organic flours up 53%. The brand attracts experienced bakers and amateurs alike, and it has added products for each, from a regeneratively grown whole wheat blend launched in late 2023 to bread mix kits that can be ready in an hour. Amid the growth, the brand has maintained its focus on being a resource to its customers, from answering every DM on Instagram (where it has 950,000 followers) to staffing a baking hotline and chat tool that can answer questions 24/7.

Lilly

Read about how the pharma giant is forgoing a hard sell to focus on drug access and safety.

Loewe

Read about how the Spanish fashion house became the name on everybody’s lips—tricky pronunciation be damned.

McDonald’s

If you’ve ever read Japanese manga (comic books) or watched anime, it’s likely you’ve seen the inverted Golden Arches of WcDonald’s—a clever workaround that enabled artists and animators to include McDonald’s without violating its trademark. This year, McDonald’s embraced its bizarro-world counterpart with a promo that included anime-inspired packaging, a limited-edition Savory Chili WcDonald’s Sauce, and its first official anime, with four short episodes. In the summer and fall, a guest appearance by Grimace at a New York Mets game that kicked off a winning streak turned the mascot into a good-luck charm for the team. McDonald’s bringing Grimace to games and even onto the subway line that services Citi Field—with branding and IRL appearances—kept the brand in the cultural moment, even as its rising prices rankled some consumers and it faced an E. coli outbreak in October.

Meals on Wheels

Senior-focused meal delivery service Meals on Wheels used 2024 to highlight the volunteers who fuel its food deliveries with its “Power of a Knock” campaign, and its #SaveLunch spurred 100,000 messages from voters asking Congressmembers to protect the program’s funding.

Milani Cosmetics

Beauty brand Milani Cosmetics reached its majority Gen Z fanbase with clever TikTok content, including a food-influencer-driven “Chef’s Kiss” campaign for its Fruit Fetish Lip Oils. The campaign used TikTok chefs, mixologists, and beauty creators to market the oils by creating recipes inspired by the different shades.

Minnetonka

Read about how the moccasin maker is reckoning with its uncomfortable past.

Mira

Femtech company Mira has worked this past year to address a lack of access to reliable, comprehensive information about sex hormones. To make hormonal education more engaging, Mira introduced the dream job “Sex Hormone Tester,” inviting women to get paid for simply testing their hormones at home daily and vlogging their observations. The role received more than 3,000 applications, generating thousands of pieces of user-generated content. The campaign culminated with National Sex Hormones Awareness Week, engaging the femtech community through educational events and industry partnerships. The brand estimates media coverage of the campaign got 1 billion impressions.

Misfits Market

E-grocer Misfits Market has built out an ability to identify collaborations, partnerships, and content that can effectively engage consumers about how to eat sustainably and shop consciously. In the past year, it teamed up with trending brands to create all-new exclusive items: broken rice pudding with Petit Pot, upcycled meat sticks with Chomps, upcycled mini naan with Atoria’s, and a better-for-you onion crisp with Pipcorn. The brand’s audience engagement strategy for its million-plus social media followers and 2 million newsletter subscribers includes teaching people how to minimize food waste with content about storing produce properly, how long leftovers last, and tips for reviving fresh produce.

Munchkin

The popular baby lifestyle brand solidified its position as a trusted brand for parents not only through its products but by sharing compelling content. In 2023, Munchkin launched “The Curve” video series to highlight its designs, starting with the Gear line for parents. In 2024, it used “The Curve” branding approach to tout the design of its diaper pails. The series has resonated with the brand’s audience, attracting millions of views on YouTube. Beyond branding, Munchkin’s StrollerCoaster podcast has become a resource for parents—with expert commentary and stories from fellow parents—that regularly ranks in the top 1% on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

National Football League

Read about how America’s most popular sports league is embracing flag football as a pipeline for future stars and fans.

National Women’s Soccer League

In fall 2023, the National Women’s Soccer League inked a $240 million media-rights deal with networks including CBS Sports, ESPN, and Prime Video, setting the stage for a big 2024 with 118 games televised. The 2024 season saw record-high attendance, with more than 2 million people watching a game in person (compared with 1.37 million in 2023). As it grew, the brand supported investment in infrastructure, helping court funding for the Kansas City Current’s new CPKC Stadium—the first in the U.S. built specifically for a women’s professional sports team.

Nike

For the last two years, Nike’s Project Dreamweaver has supported a community of 120 women across the U.S. and their dreams of qualifying for the most competitive Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials ever assembled. More than half of the Project Dreamweaver participants reached new personal bests in the half- and full-marathon distances, and 15 achieved an Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier time to join elite Nike athletes on the start line of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. In May, Nike announced WNBA star A’ja Wilson as the newest athlete on the brand’s signature roster. The brand and Wilson put rumors of a collaboration to rest and generated a lot of buzz as Wilson strode into the arena before her game sporting a sweatshirt that read “Of Course I Have a Shoe Dot Com.” The swoosh also kept its rep for its pop cultural agility when it posted a hit social ad in November less than 24 hours after Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley had shocked and awed NFL fans with a backward leap over an opposing player. The ad featured the word “witness” and the Nike logo backwards on a photo of Barkley’s jump.

Organic Valley

Organic Valley’s most impactful work this year involved its “Protect” campaign, which focused on championing organic farming and its positive impact on the environment, animals, and people. The campaign employed a multifaceted approach, using a nature-documentary-style brand video, hosting events on actual organic farms, and even creating a pop-up farm in New York City to bring the experience to urban consumers. A partnership with NPR created soundscapes and podcast ads that immersed listeners in the sounds of a working organic farm. On National Farmers Day in October, the brand hosted a 12-hour livestream giving a virtual tour of the farms and their ecosystems, and answered questions from curious consumers and students. More than 3,500 students from 200 classrooms across the nation tuned in and displayed signs to say thank you to the farmers.

Osprey Packs

Backpack brand Osprey celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024 by hitting sustainability goals such as using recycled content in the main body fabric of 98% of its textile products. The brand also showcased its commitment to connecting people with the outdoors with its EF collection, which was designed to provide optimal performance for bigger bodies. Made with the help of in-field testers, Osprey went beyond superficial changes, reworking hip belts, shoulder straps, pocketing, and more to deliver an extended fit that works like it should. It also launched a pack that supports the local tribes, pueblos, and people of the greater Bears Ears region of Utah with a Bears Ears Daylite pack featuring original artwork commissioned from former Hopi Vice Chairman Clark Tenakhongva.

Owala

Water bottle brand Owala’s flagship FreeSip bottle has hit Stanley-level virality in the past year, both by solving the age-old straw vs. spout debate and by constantly churning out new color combinations and limited-edition products that keep shoppers coming back. The brand’s impressive growth over the past year was fueled by its effective use of social media, hyping limited-edition products like the “Party of the Decades” birthday collection, featuring designs inspired by the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s. Owala’s social following has skyrocketed by 2,500%, generating hundreds of millions of impressions across TikTok and Instagram. Most of its “Color Drop” special-edition products sold out in seconds, leading the brand to add a feature that lets buyers who missed out immediately purchase a back-ordered product.

Panda Express

The transformation of Panda Express from mall food-court brand into a cultural force continues, making inroads among foodies while delivering clever collabs and promotions for its existing fans. Last December, Panda was the only Asian American restaurant at the inaugural, sold-out ChainFest in Los Angeles—a two-day food festival cofounded by B.J. Novak and Chef Tim Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth put a twist on Panda’s Original Orange Chicken dubbed “Roy G Chicken,” featuring Szechuan red, turmeric yellow, and basil-mint green flavors, all served on skewers. Panda’s participation generated 2.7 billion impressions. The chain further elevated its offerings in February with a Valentine’s Day pop-up that turned restaurants into date-night spots, offering a five-course prix fixe menu and live violinist—earning 1.1 billion media impressions. On the collaboration front, Panda Express and Lodge Cast Iron launched limited-edition mini woks, and in November 2023, it rolled out Blazing Bourbon Chicken (made with Hot Ones Last Dab Apollo sauce) that was so popular it returned to menus in August.

Perelel

The ob/gyn-founded vitamin brand’s content series “Fertility, U filtered” partnered with Whitney Port (from reality TV OG The Hills) to chronicle the celebrity’s five-year journey with IVF, miscarriage, and surrogacy. Perelel also continued its ongoing campaign to fight for reproductive equity and closing longstanding gaps in women’s health research. In the video series “Hormonal Hotline,” Gen Z musician Lydia Night dialed in to ob/gyn and medical cofounder Dr. Banafsheh Bayati to ask questions many people are too embarrassed to ask. The result was a 2,400% increase in social media engagement and 1.46 million social media impressions.

Quinn

Read about the app’s star-studded effort to bring audio erotica into the mainstream.

Reformation

Sustainable women’s clothing brand Reformation combined style with surprising and strategic collaborations. The brand had two standout partnerships at the end of 2023—a New York City Ballet capsule collection that sold out in three weeks, and a line of shoes with French sneaker brand Veja. But its splashiest effort debuted in February 2024, when the L.A.-based fashion brand partnered with Monica Lewinsky for voter advocacy campaign “You’ve Got the Power” that launched alongside a new workwear collection. The brand worked with Vote.org on a one-stop voting hub with everything consumers need to know about how, when, and why to vote. While encouraging participation in the election, the campaign cast Lewinsky in a new light and drove brand search up by 40% year over year, with outlets like the BBC and Fox News covering the campaign via more than 130 stand-alone stories.

Reverb

Online marketplace Reverb, which sells used and new musical instruments, has built a star-studded brand at bargain prices by combining social media engagement with affordable used gear from bands like Green Day, Wilco, Nancy Wilson, and more. With over 2.3 million social followers, Reverb uses the platform to highlight diverse musicians, including Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela, to ensure that all types of players see themselves reflected in its channels—all while focusing on approachable lessons and budget-friendly product recommendations. Its campaign “The Signature Models We Want to See” explored the influential women from music’s past and present who Reverb thinks deserve their own signature gear models.

Sandy Hook Promise

Gun safety advocacy organization Sandy Hook Promise continues to create the most compelling, often heart-wrenching work in awareness, including its “Just Joking” PSA featuring comedians like Billy Eichner and Wanda Sykes delivering standup lines that are actually real-life threats from actual school shooters—underscoring the fact that while 80% of school shooters tell someone their plans beforehand, most people assume they’re not serious. The spot had more than 724 million views and 1.2 billion media impressions, all with zero dollars of media spend. The brand’s website saw a 413% increase in traffic, and 95% of viewers said they were interested in learning the warning signs to help prevent violence, while 61% more people understood there are steps an individual can take to prevent gun violence.

Seed Health

Microbiome science brand Seed Health is known for its top-selling probiotic, but it’s the unconventional way it advertises these products that stands out for this category. Last August, Gwyneth Paltrow made headlines for what wasn’t but seemed to be a woefully executed ad for the DS-01 probiotic. The 19-second video featured Paltrow talking about it while her voice is drowned out by the noise of steaming milk in the background. The non-ad went viral, with plenty of media attention and memes to match. Other fun social work to raise awareness for the use of microbes in human and planetary health included work with partners like chef-influencer Molly Baz; model Karlie Kloss; and actresses Paltrow, Jessica Biel, and Cameron Diaz.

Sephora

Beauty retailer Sephora wanted to highlight Latina beauty founders, and it did so in a way that didn’t even involve its stores. The company invested in entertainment with Peacock documentary series The Foundation of Belleza, which follows the stories of three Latina beauty founders who have created brands that celebrate their roots. The brand partnered with Peacock to stream the series because the platform has 7 million Gen Z subscribers and higher Latine viewership than other streaming services. The Foundation of Belleza became the second-most-watched branded documentary series in Peacock history, with more than 800,000 minutes watched and 14 million social media impressions. The result was a 13% lift in Sephora brand trust and a 24% increase in recommendation intent among Hispanic audiences.

Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop’s efforts this past year went far beyond the street with a focus on children’s mental health. When Elmo tweeted in January, “Elmo is just checking in. How is everybody doing?” the post racked up 329 million impressions and sparked conversation across X about how people were feeling. The brand extended that to include a celebrity-driven YouTube Special, Elmo’s Mindfulness Spectacular, and a Clio-winning Ad Council PSA. The brand prioritized expanding audience development efforts to drive Sesame’s high adult engagement while maintaining the core child audience. These efforts helped Sesame Workshop be particularly impactful on social media, reaching 1.1 billion impressions across platforms, a 24% boost year over year.

SickKids VS

As the nonprofit arm of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, SickKids VS focused its “Heal the Future” campaign on humanizing the complex science behind the hospital’s recent Precision Child Health care approach. The campaign used the story of Nathan, a real patient who suffered a fatal heart arrhythmia reimagining a world where he recovered thanks to the use of precision medicine identifying the arrhythmia and spurring a defibrillator implant. In a year when charitable giving was down 40%, the campaign drove more than 52 million earned media impressions and helped the organization surpass its donation acquisition goal by 26% while adding 9,500+ new monthly donors.

Spot Pet Insurance

In a traditionally staid category, Spot has used social engagement and celebrity content to boost its brand, whether partnering with MrBeast to find homes for 100 dogs, or Walter Geoffrey the Frenchie to build community and awareness. These collaborations resulted in user-generated content that showcased real experiences from Spot pet insurance customers, further amplifying brand exposure and fostering a sense of community among pet owners who use Spot’s services.

Supergut

Supplement brand Supergut has built a next-generation health food brand focused on how its prebiotic fiber product can boost the blood sugar and energy hormone GLP-1 to support weight loss without prescription drugs. Its monthly newsletter, “The Gut Check,” gives readers editorial and easily digestible health tips from an internal team of doctors, scientists, and nutrition experts. Over the past year, the brand’s social and email followings have doubled, site traffic increased sevenfold, and business quadrupled.

T-Mobile

Telecom giant T-Mobile has spent the past year showcasing its extensive range with marketing efforts spanning sports, innovation, and outreach. It used Formula One’s Las Vegas Grand Prix as a showcase for its networking capabilities, upgrading the city’s 5G infrastructure and coupling that with T-Mobile WiFi to make the inaugural race a highly connected event—attendees could use 213 terabytes of data over the course of the race. But the brand isn’t just concerned with getting F1 attendees connected. It’s also working with SpaceX/Starlink to expand mobile coverage to underserved areas and invested in the growth of its WelcomeUS program for newcomers, pledging up to 200,000 lines of free talk, text, and data services for refugees through Metro by T-Mobile for one year.

TimberTech

Composite decking and railing maker TimberTech has been engaging with homeowners and builders in ways unique to the building industry, with a blend of style, durability, and environmental responsibility. In a product category not exactly known for its consumer brand work, TimberTech decided to lean into the trust it has built over time thanks to its products. The brand created a testimonial campaign built from solicited feedback from customers, and hundreds of iPhone “audition” videos from enthusiastic customers were narrowed down to 12 for the campaign. These genuine, insightful testimonials created a memorable and impactful narrative that contrasted sharply with typical scripted ads.

Tony’s Chocolonely

Read about how the chocolatier is building equity into the cocoa supply chain piece by piece.

Tubi

With a brand refresh, and a darkly hilarious “Free for Everyone” campaign that underscored that Tubi can be streamed for free by anyone, the brand has become a household name under CMO of the Year Nicole Parlapiano. With more than 80 million viewers, Tubi’s share of total U.S. TV viewing time grew 70% over the past year, with 60% growth in the 18 to 34 demographic, and a 64% boost in female audiences. A teaser campaign and talent collaboration for show Wynonna Earp garnered nearly 600 million video views in 24 hours. The brand work has paid off: Between February 2023 and April 2024, Tubi’s share of total U.S. TV view time grew 70%, a higher proportion than that of any other streamer in the same period of time.

U.S. Soccer Foundation

The U.S. Soccer Foundation has been investing in the sport through programs and infrastructure that engage young athletes and improve communities around the Beautiful Game. The brand created the “What Soccer Does” campaign to showcase the impact of its work in underprivileged communities. Using personal stories to highlight the organization’s work, it included providing safe play spaces by installing 700 mini pitches across the country, engaging 272,000 children through its “Soccer for Success” program, and training more than 10,000 coach-mentors who provide guidance and support to young athletes.

Universal Pictures

Read about how the film studio is turning movie marketing into a subcultural moment.

Vita Coco

To support its “Seedlings for Sustainability” initiative—aimed at planting up to 10 million coconut tree seedlings by 2030—Vita Coco created a 3D simulation on Roblox called “The Coconut Grove.” More than 26 million people visited, driving 94 million impressions and introducing a new generation of consumers to the brand. Its “Seedlings for Sustainability” program helps replenish the aging population of coconut trees by providing farmers with new seedlings. This past year, the Vita Coco Project and its partners worked with more than 120,000 people in its sourcing communities—including farmers and their families, teachers, students, and more. The brand also distributed more than 400,000 seedlings, trained 8,000 farmers in regenerative agriculture practices, and built seven classrooms in the Philippines, bringing the total number of educational facilities it has helped build to 36 centers since 2014.

Vital Farms

Egg brand Vital Farms used the holidays in 2023 to shine a light on its suppliers with a “Farmer Pause” campaign across streaming channels like Paramount+ and Peacock. It reminded viewers that farmers don’t get to pause work. A QR code on the pause ads helps people learn why Vital Farms farmers work through the holidays and prompted viewers to submit a thank-you. The brand then shared the thank-you letters with its farmers by airing them as radio ads in the Pasture Belt—where most of its farmers live—throughout the holiday season.

Wieden+Kennedy

Known for its forward-looking work, ad agency Wieden+Kennedy teamed up with DoorDash for Super Bowl LXVIII to expand what an ad for the game can be. The ad’s unprecedented giveaway of products and services from 76 other brands landed more than 11.9 billion earned impressions. To help Instagram add new functionality to its Close Friends feature in late 2023, the agency had the idea to enlist artist Lil Yachty to demonstrate its capabilities. The rapper added all 11.3 million of his followers to his Close Friends list for two days, where they were treated like his inner circle. The move generated over a billion organic impressions, boosting Google searches for Close Friends by 300%.

This story is part of Fast Company’s 2024 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.