Tis the season to be branding. UK agency Quietroom makes much hay out of the entire practice of brand playbooks with its hilarious and scathing tongue-in-cheek online guide to a Santa Claus “brand refresh.”
“*Santa* is a Concept, not an idea. It’s an Emotion, not a feeling,” reads the front cover, “It’s both Yesterday and Today. And it’s Tomorrow as well.” This, of course, both evokes and skewers the bland and empty corporate language found in so many real-life brand strategy documents. The book is is riddled with it. Check out these “approved'” versions of the *Santa* logo:
More in Marketing
After watching X’s ownership issues play out, marketers brace for TikTok whiplash in 2026
TikTok’s ownership drama has echoes of X (formerly Twitter), but ad performance has kept marketers for fleeing—for now.
‘There’s no room for purists’: Generative AI is altering the agency junior talent search
AI is altering agency business models. It’s altering the skills they’re hiring for and where they’re hiring them from, too.
For platforms, here’s what’s not going to happen in 2026
Rather than the traditional platform predictions, this is a list of what Digiday believes won’t happen next year.


