Branding used to be a closed system. Craft the perfect message, repeat it endlessly, and keep it consistent across every channel. But in 2025, that model’s losing steam. Today’s most magnetic brands aren’t the ones with the loudest messages, they’re the ones building flexible identities that adapt and respond to their audience in real time.

Let the Crowd Shape the Story

One standout brand doing this well? Ryanair.

Yes, Ryanair, the famously no-frills European budget airline, has become an unlikely social media darling. By leaning into its own infamy with unapologetic humor and a sharp, self-deprecating tone, the brand has turned customer complaints into content, memes into engagement, and once-negative sentiment into cult-like loyalty among younger travelers.

This wasn’t a top-down rebrand. It’s reactive, real-time, and audience-fueled. Their TikTok comments section? A playground. Their tone? Consistently chaotic and honest. It works because it reflects the way people already talk about the brand, and it meets them there.

From Consistency to Context

Another brand rewriting the rulebook is Liquid Death. Their branding isn’t about hydration. It’s about rebellion. They’ve built an empire around canned water by adopting the aesthetic of a metal band, faking out lawsuits, releasing horror-movie-inspired campaigns, and even selling cursed merch.

It’s loud, it’s weird, and it never stops moving. But it’s not random, it’s contextual. They know who they’re for: environmentally aware, Gen Z and millennial consumers who are over “wellness-speak” and want something with teeth.

Your Packaging Is the Billboard

Oatly is another great example of a brand doing the slow-burn branding thing, literally on the box. Their oat milk cartons double as personality pieces: full of handwritten-style musings, rants, jokes, and storytelling. Every inch of packaging is working hard to remind you they’re not like the others and it doesn’t rely on traditional advertising to do it.

They’re not just selling oat milk. They’re building a philosophy that drips with voice and values in every medium.

The Takeaway for Marketers

For advertising agencies and brand teams, this is the shift: Your brand guidelines aren’t the final word. They’re the starting point. The brands resonating right now are willing to bend; to let tone flex, to hand over some control, and to meet audiences on their turf.

Ask yourself:

• Are we creating space for our audience to influence our brand?
• Are we finding the moments where a little personality can say more than a tagline?
• Are we showing up in unexpected places with a human tone?

A Brand Isn’t Just What You Say

It’s how you respond. It’s how your product shows up on a shelf. It’s how your social manager handles a sarcastic comment. It’s how your packaging tells a joke when no one’s looking.

The best brand work today lives outside the traditional ad. In the touchpoints, tone shifts, and interactions that weren’t pre-scripted. The brands that get that? They’re building real resonance, not just recognition.

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