Move Fast, Stay Relevant: Lessons for Legacy Brands
Lately, there’s been a noticeable shift in how some of the world’s most established brands are showing up online.
Instead of trying to control the conversation, they’re stepping into it. Brands are embracing the chaos of internet culture in a way that feels more human, more reactive, and far less polished.
We all know the brands that are always top of mind in their category. The ones we’d consider iconic. You could argue that brands like these don’t even need to market anymore.
But the truth is, even the most recognisable brands in the world can’t afford to stand still. Relevance isn’t something you earn once and keep forever, but something you have to keep proving, especially in a media landscape that moves at the speed of culture.
A small number of brands are standing out in how well they’re navigating this shift. Take IKEA, for example. The global furniture brand jumped into one of the internet’s most absurd viral moments, the “Punch The Monkey” meme, and turned it into playful, reactive content. It wasn’t polished or overthought. It was quick, culturally aware, and felt like it understood the joke, which is exactly why it worked. The Instagram post on IKEA’s official account has since received over 226 thousand likes.
Another example is the NHS, which surprised a lot of people by tapping into a Harry Styles meme to promote cervical screening. It’s not the kind of communication people typically associate with a national health service, but that’s exactly why it worked. It showed a legacy organisation behaving like a modern brand: culturally aware, comfortable with humour, and willing to meet audiences where they actually are. Since being posted on Instagram in mid-January, the post has garnered over 400 thousand likes.
But this shift isn’t just about social media managers being funnier. It reflects a deeper change in how content itself is created. Campaigns can’t be static anymore; they need to be flexible enough to respond to what’s happening in culture in real time.
We’ve seen this firsthand through the projects we’ve worked on at Pixelworx. It’s our role to help brands operate at that pace, creating content that’s not only high-quality, but also timely and culturally relevant. Take our work with the Premier League, for example, where we’ve edited match clips with strong hooks and elevated graphics designed to match how audiences actually watch and engage with content today.
Because ultimately, culture doesn’t pause for brand guidelines. The brands winning today, whether it’s a global furniture giant or a national institution, understand that staying relevant means staying human, responsive, playful, and present.
Legacy doesn’t give you permission to slow down. If anything, it demands that you move faster.
