Brand Differentiation and Activation Excellence

The 2025 Winner in our brand award category is Discover Financial Services for their Discover Deposits Marketing campaign. 

Discover, known for credit cards, expanded into a full-service financial institution with Discover Cashback Debit to reach new audiences and drive product growth. Partnering with Jennifer Coolidge, they used her charm to position Discover as a friendly financial alternative. Their strategy included TV, digital, social media, and programmatic ads, along with localized testing and engagement through email, account targeting, direct mail, and digital retargeting. Judges commended this strategic marketing for transforming brand perception and delivering outstanding business results through clear opportunity identification and innovative execution.

Watch their video now to learn more! 

The global market for brand health tracking is growing. However, despite growth in the market, CMOs struggle to identify the right vendor and appropriate metrics to measure brand health success. 

Use the Gartner Brand Health Framework to get insights and expert recommendations to successfully find the best-fit brand health tracking provider and:

  • Measure your brand health with targeted metrics
  • Communicate the impact across the organization
  • Prove brand’s contribution to business results

Download the 2025 Brand Health Framework

Assess and build your brand to empower your organization to have a competitive edge

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    Q&A with Gartner Expert on Brand Awards

    Gartner experts address some common and pressing questions about brand awards that are most relevant to CMOs and other marketing leaders today. Read through to navigate the brand strategy in this ever-evolving landscape effectively.

    Stronger brands boost customers’ willingness to pay, purchase likelihood and brand exclusivity. To build strong brands, CMOs and CCOs should craft a solid brand strategy and architecture, communicate brand governance, activate the brand to ensure differentiation across the organization and measure results. We want to recognize organizations who understand the importance of activating and differentiating their brand to improve revenue.

    The higher performing entries will showcase the work of organizations who have looked beyond the conventional approaches to brand differentiation through strategy and activation. The elevated entries will demonstrate how unique insights drove a differentiated brand strategy, innovative ways to drive internal brand understanding, and/or how organizations execute the brand in new ways that change audience perceptions and behaviours.

    Brand Activation is how a brand is brought to life through campaigns, content and experiences that demonstrate and evoke the brand strategy.

    Brand Differentiation is the process of establishing a unique position in the market that sets a brand apart from its competitors. It focuses on the distinct value and benefits that a brand offers to its target audience.

    CCOs and CMOs and their teams must design campaigns that consistently reinforce the brand’s identity, positioning and differentiation across both digital and traditional channels for both internal and external audiences.

    Marketing and communications leaders must balance opportunity with the tangible risks GenAI presents to protect reputation. They should take three important actions to suppress external reputational threats from GenAI:

    • Enhance social media monitoring capabilities.
    • Build owned media credibility.
    • Scenario plan for the most likely attacks.