2026: the year of quietly doing good

In 2025 many companies used their voice for good. Think of Tony’s educating their consumers about the realities of child slavery in the cocoa industry, the Coop calling on the UK Government to do more to build peace or Patagonia using their impact report to take on the fashion industry’s outsized climate impact.

Some however lost their way with the Purpose era. In the social crucible of 2020, many businesses jumped on the activism bandwagon with the goal of appearing to be doing good. Every brand needed a purpose, to align their product with a higher calling.

The problem with this was that it was marketing-led rather than impact-focused, opportunistic rather than strategic. There weren’t always solid foundations of social impact to back these campaigns up, or an understanding of what we call their theory of change - an articulation of exactly what impact the brand hoped to have and how their marketing and communications and initiatives would achieve it. Consumers can very quickly see through something that is designed to hype the brand, rather than make a tangible contribution to society.

We also saw a trend to back away from purpose, particularly vocal progressive activations, sparked partly by the coming of the second Trump era and partly by the rise of activist investors driving a profit-only agenda.

I was fortunate enough to spend a few days at the end of 2025 with Arla, the Scandinavian dairy farmer-owned cooperative. Their business model supports thousands of farmers across Europe. In Denmark, their foundation runs summer camps with truly innovative methodologies that help young people create positive relationships with food. The brands don’t advertise this work; the foundation quietly gets on with creating good in their patch of influence.

Even Ben & Jerry’s, arguably the most vocal social impact brand, lives by Ben’s saying: “do ten things, talk about three”. Ben here is emphasising the importance of integrity in a social impact business. If you aren’t living your values within the business, no consumer is going to believe them when you put them in your marketing. 

So if you’re a company trying to do good, don’t be disheartened by the volte face of some mega brands in this Trump 2.0 era. There’s a place for you to go about your business with integrity, to use your operations to build a better society, and use your communications to encourage others to do the same. Like an oyster, quietly working away on its pearl, waiting for the moment to release it into the world. There’s a space for activist brands, but not every brand needs to be activist. Positive social change takes all sorts of changemakers. Use this time to do the work, build the foundations and your reputation will follow.