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Great Western Railway revives legend-led travel storytelling

Five and the Dragon Quest by Great Western Railway, UK

UK – British train company Great Western Railway (GWR) has launched a new chapter of its long-running Famous Five series, drawing on myths and legends to reframe rail travel as the beginning of adventure.

The campaign revisits GWR’s 1920s publicity strategy, when folklore was first used to promote leisure travel to an emerging tourism audience. As we highlighted in our Future Forecast 2026: Marketing, Advertising & Branding report, brands are using the power of legacy language in response to widespread political and economic uncertainty.

Directed by award-winning director and animator Peter Baynton and packed with vocal talent including Richard E Grant, Ambika Mod, Andi Osho and Jan Francis, the multi-channel campaign centres on a 60-second film, Five and the Dragon Quest. The film follows the Famous Five characters across the GWR network – spanning southwest England and Wales – as they investigate a mythical dragon sighting.

In our Heritage Brand-umentaries report, we explore how brands are turning to cinematic storytelling to showcase their history, craftsmanship and cultural roots.

Strategic opportunity

How can your brand go beyond short-form social media content to create rich, cinematic storytelling? Consider producing episodic series that immerse audiences in your brand world, drawing on heritage, folklore or cultural memory to build emotional depth

Peanut and Tommee Tippee launch global campaign to put ‘matrescence’ in dictionaries

Photography by Ketut Subiyanto

US – Peanut, a social networking app for women and mothers, and Tommee Tippee, a global baby products brand, have launched a global campaign to add the term ‘matrescence’ to dictionaries, arguing that the transition into motherhood remains culturally unnamed and widely misunderstood.

Coined in 1973 by anthropologist Dana Raphael, ‘matrescence’ describes the physical, psychological and emotional transformation of becoming a mother. The initiative begins with a full-page ad in The New York Times, urging lexicographers to formally recognise the word and stop flagging it as a misspelling.

According to Peanut, 67% of mothers have never heard the term. Michelle Battersby, president of Peanut, states: ‘Most women go through the biggest transformation of their lives thinking something is wrong with them because they don’t recognise themselves any more… They have no language for it. They think they’re alone. Or their experience is dismissed as ‘baby blues’, ‘hormones’ or simply ‘part of the job’.

The campaign will expand through a public petition and digital advocacy, aiming to move matrescence from academic discourse into mainstream culture while unlocking greater research, funding and support.

Raising awareness and education is critical, as is re-assessing outdated expectations of parenthood during this transformative life stage. We have previously analysed how businesses can better support mothers through Matrescence and this profound identity shift.

Strategic opportunity

Move beyond pregnancy products by developing solutions addressing identity, emotional and cognitive shifts in early motherhood, while building educational ecosystems that build cultural understanding around matrescence

Stat: British retail faces generational divide

Sporty & Rich Health & Wellness Club, US

UK – Some 40% of Gen Z in the UK say they have never bought from a bricks-and-mortar store, according to new research from Adobe Express.

A survey of 2,000 Britons revealed that while 29% of consumers have increased online purchases over the past year, the same proportion are buying more through social media. Second-hand sales are also rising, with 29% visiting resale clothing stores more often.

More than a third (33%), however, say tv adverts remain the most powerful driver of purchase, while just 12% trust AI-led recommendations. Physical retail still holds sway in specific contexts, with 37% citing free samples as the most effective purchasing influence.

The divides are generational and regional: more than three-quarters (78%) of Millennials have increased social shopping in the past year, while 44% of Londoners express interest in buying via social media platforms.

As Content Commerce becomes more seamless and intuitive than ever, we’ve been tracking the evolution of the bricks-and-mortar store in our Retail sector. While Gen Z may be flocking to malls as third spaces, transactions are predominantly happening online, suggesting a need for brands to rethink the role of their physical stores.

Strategic opportunity

Rethink your physical store as a site for community, creativity and collaboration – hosting workshops, community events and repair stations that deepen brand immersion, even when transactions happen elsewhere