The Best 4 Marketing Campaigns of May 2025: Who Crushed the Competition?

Alongside national holidays, your 2025 marketing calendar should also include key pop cultural events – and GymShark’s “Sweat” Gala is a prime example of why. Following this year’s Met Gala, GymShark published a series of photos on social media that recreated looks from the event.

What Did GymShark Achieve?

GymShark managed to shoot, edit, and publish these photos in less than 24 hours after the Met Gala. This speedy turnaround impressed the brand’s Instagram followers and led to significant engagement, especially from commenters praising the marketing team. By jumping on a cultural moment, GymShark could market its product in style while sparking plenty of chatter about the brand online.

Key Takeaway for Your Business

To stay ahead of your competitors, make sure that your business is aware of the cultural landscape and has the leeway to adapt to new trends if possible. But, before you initiate a more reactionary marketing campaign, make sure that it makes sense for your brand first. It should contribute to your current business goals, be it conversion rate optimization or increased social media engagement.

Especially for Mother’s Day on May 11, Uber Eats’ mobile greenhouse popped up in NYC and LA to hand out dazzling spring bouquets. At the thoughtful pop-up, kids could write a personal message on custom floral carriers before handing them to their moms. The pop-up’s aesthetic green and floral backdrop was also the perfect photo opportunity for families wanting to remember the moment.

What Did Uber Eats Achieve?

With this joyful experiential marketing campaign, Uber Eats was able to uplift its brand image by giving back to the community. Customers weren’t just left with a floral freebie, but with a heart-warming experience that they’ll remember long after the pop-up has ended.

Key Takeaway for Your Business

Want to forge a deeper relationship with your customers? Consider holding a small pop-up to show them that you care – and it doesn’t have to be extravagant either! By handing out a small freebie or complementary beverage in person, you can build brand awareness and positively shape the way that customers view your business.

If you’re a smaller brand, you might find it tricky to think of an impactful marketing campaign when you have limited resources. However, sometimes the simplest idea can have a huge impact.

Take the Romanian singer Sorana, for instance. To create a campaign reflecting her personal brand identity inspired by the early 2000s, she hid 50 old iPods across various US cities for fans to find and listen to her unreleased tunes.

What Did Sorana Achieve?

After Sorana set up makeshift listening stations across the US, various social media posts showed fans (old and new) interacting with the iPods and enjoying the musical experience. It’s proof that you don’t always need flashy billboards or million-dollar ads to make a lasting impact on consumers. All you need is a clever idea that reflects your brand and appeals to your target audience.

Key Takeaway for Your Business

If you want to create a marketing campaign that leaves a lasting impression, it’s worth exploring some sensory marketing techniques. Sorana created a sound-based experience for her fans, so see which sense you could hone in on in your own campaign. You could add your signature colors to social media campaign graphics or create a tactile small business pop-up that customers can interact with.

Who could’ve predicted this Formula 1 x Lego collaboration in 2025? At the beginning of May, the Miami Grand Prix became the ultimate racecourse for Lego cars. During the driver’s parade, F1 drivers drove around in full-size Lego cars that were made out of 400,000 bricks, could reach speeds of 20 km per hour, and took eight months to build.

You can watch the spectacle below:

Play

What Did Formula 1 and Lego Achieve?

This collaboration was a stroke of genius, with the video footage racking up over two million views on YouTube and over 500k likes and 36k saves on TikTok. Also, because of the nostalgia surrounding the Lego brand, this campaign struck a chord and showed audiences that they’re never really too old to play with toys.

Key Takeaway for Your Business

If you’d like to collaborate with another small business for your next marketing campaign, you need to choose wisely and find a brand that’s aligned with your goals and values. Ask yourself: Do you share a similar vision? What’s their online track record? And will you both benefit from the collaboration?

Regardless of your current budget or resources, your business can learn a lot from the four best marketing campaigns I’ve covered today. Whether you want to hop on a cultural moment, share a kind gesture with customers, create a memorable sensory experience, or look for the perfect collaboration, just remember to keep your audience at the heart of your campaign. Good luck!

Before you leave, let me know which one of the May marketing campaigns you liked the most. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.