Ian and I started eff back in 2008, and no two years have ever felt the same. This year, I’ve taken a minute to reflect. . .

Interestingly, we’ve ended this year in a similar way to the last, with a brand turning to us because they wanted to grab attention and do something a little unexpected.

Last year it was Toblerone, where our entertainment twist transformed gift-wrapping at Selfridges and Christmas shopping into a viral theatrical moment. This year it took us further afield, all the way to Mumbai, where we produced a Bollywood-meets-Hollywood party for American Eagle’s new creative launch. That experience set off a much bigger reflection on the kind of year it’s been.

One of my favourite attention-grabbing stunts of 2025 happened in New York with the Apple’s Severance season 2 launch . A thoughtful, fun and fan led experience which was well produced, captured and clearly attracted attention to the launch. Our work continued with Apple too, this year working across multiple releases including Echo Valley, The Lost Bus and Come See Me in the Good Light. For the latter, we didn’t just build a campaign and experience; we made a physical zine, which felt beautifully analogue in a digital year.

Looking more widely at streaming, Amazon became the first company to support MASSIVE’s Weekend Watchlist, featuring The Fire Inside as our lead streaming pick. MASSIVE itself has had another booming year, the platform we created and run now reaches over 2M people monthly and generates more than 11M views per month across the last quarter. New editorial strands helped fuel this, especially the launch of Massive News, which quickly caught fire as we dropped celeb stories and new trailers. We also hit the BAFTA, LFF, and BIFA red carpets, capturing some brilliant moments, including with David Jonsson, who we loved working with on The Long Walk. We’ve already locked in another project with him for 2026. Watch this space…

Another campaign we didn’t touch but absolutely loved was Tyler, The Creator’s album launch. It was wildly inventive and a reminder of how creative attention can feel when you refuse to interrupt and instead create moments people want to step into. Of course, Tyler also appears in A24’s upcoming Marty Supreme, a release I’m obsessing over. I wrote about it in the eff Newsroom because it’s one of the standout launch campaigns of the year and another lesson in how to attract attention.

As I head into the BAFTA voting season, something I always feel is a privilege of working in this world, I’ve been thinking about what I watched this year that really stayed with me. A lot is being said about Netflix right now and the speculation around what might happen if they buy Warners. But I owe them thanks for Adolescence, which might be my show of the year. It stars Ashley Walters, who also featured in one of our Escapes campaigns. Through Escapes, and with great thanks for BFI and National Lottery, we've created thousands of screenings this year, building tens of thousands of new audiences to UK independent cinemas. One of the films we screened for free to new audiences was Bullet Boy, where we celebrated Ashley and his impact as a force in British storytelling. That thread carries forward, he’s now directing, with Animol coming to Cinemas and Sky in 2026.

Those of you who didn't go deep into the London underground scene might have first discovered Ashley in Top Boy which brings me to another Netflix gem, Steve. A stunning film also featuring Little Simz, who not only acts but brings her music into the story too. Fresh talent crossing effortlessly between genres and mediums is definitely a cultural trend you’ll see more of in 2026.

I hope you’ve had a great year too and that this little recap made for a fun few minutes. Here's to more stories, more surprises, more collaborations and more reasons to pay attention in 2026.

See you soon

david

David's reflections and recommendations from 2025