For many years, manufacturers had been outlined by measurement, market share or legacy. However in 2025, these markers are not the be-all and end-all. What separates leaders from laggards as we speak isn’t whether or not they’re large or small, it’s whether or not they’re static or dynamic.
Enter the ‘challenger mentality’, the place manufacturers are rewriting the rulebooks, not simply in product or positioning, however in how they consider media. Efficient challengers behave in media; they don’t simply purchase it. They assume in actions, not campaigns. And so they perceive that pointed methods can outsmart deep pockets.
In our latest report: The New Period of Challenger Manufacturers, we recognized the media considering powering a few of as we speak’s most disruptive manufacturers. It’s a mindset marked by flexibility, cultural fluency, and a deep understanding of easy methods to transfer by way of fashionable media.
Listed below are three classes:
1. Granularity will not be the enemy of scale
It’s simple to pit precision in opposition to attain. However sensible challengers know the 2 work greatest collectively. They lay down a basis of scale, then sharpen the sting. Whether or not it’s location-based inventive, contextual shopping for or interest-led segmentation, precision doesn’t exchange brand-building fundamentals. It amplifies them.
2. Tradition beats class
Challenger manufacturers don’t simply chase eyeballs, they faucet into emotion, identification and group. They discover cracks in tradition that class leaders overlook.
Take IGA. With out the deep media pockets of different grocers, IGA made a daring transfer final Christmas. The model deployed cellular OOH vehicles and scooters exterior main supermarkets, delivering witty, well-timed messages that empathised with the chaos of Christmas purchasing. The outcome? A related, reactive second, that reminded buyers that stocking up for Christmas is much less annoying at your native IGA.
3. Timing is a tactic
Whereas most classes transfer to predictable rhythms, challengers dance to their very own beat. They seize quieter media moments, hijack narratives, and transfer quick when tradition gives up a curveball.
When it was introduced that Tasmanian-born Princess Mary would quickly be topped Queen of Denmark, Tourism Tasmania wasted no time. Inside a matter of days, they launched a witty marketing campaign throughout Australia and Denmark, celebrating the crowning of ‘considered one of their very own’. The activation garnered world protection, connecting Tasmania’s distinctive model with a culturally supercharged second.
Be daring, be courageous
The challenger mindset isn’t about being the underdog. It’s about being alert to expertise, to tradition, and to the cracks out there the place alternative hides. And in a media panorama formed by fragmentation, fatigue and monetary strain, that mindset has by no means been extra priceless.
For established manufacturers, the challenger playbook isn’t only for new entrants. It’s a blueprint for agility, creativity and daring, now desk stakes in a world that received’t stand nonetheless.
As a result of while you transfer individuals, you progress enterprise. And challenger manufacturers are doing simply that – displaying up otherwise, considering boldly and creating the type of momentum that reshapes whole classes.
The way forward for media belongs to the daring. And people prepared to problem conference could uncover they weren’t challengers in any case, simply leaders in disguise.
- Drew Usher is a strategist and storyteller with 25 years’ expertise in branding, design, promoting and media and Group Technique Director, Starcom Australia.
