Specsavers has been crowned Brand of the Year at the Marketing Week Awards 2025, pipping Adidas, EE, Monzo, ServiceNow and Warburtons to the prize.  

The iconic family-run business has consistently put its brand purpose at the forefront, achieving growth while continuing to invest in its team and business.  

The brand scooped the accolade after combining scores from our jury of brand and marketing experts with the results of a Marketing Week reader vote. 

“Our purpose is not financial success. Our purpose is about changing lives, and actually the rest sort of follows,” said CEO John Perkins, speaking at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing earlier this month.  

In October 2024, the brand won gold at the IPA Effectiveness Awards for its ‘I don’t go’ campaign, which subverted its longstanding ‘Should’ve gone’ tagline to highlight its home visits proposition, and delivered an estimated £19.8m in incremental profit. 

Specsavers CEO on why its main purpose is ‘not financial success’

Group revenue grew by 7.5% in the 2023/24 financial year to £4.18bn, and while the business noted a drop in profits, it said this was in part due to swallowing inflationary costs and not passing them on to customers. 

“Specsavers is a brand that has a strong sense of self, that is true to its purpose – an actual, authentic purpose that dictates what it does and how it does it,” says Russell Parsons, editor-in-chief at Marketing Week.  

“Its marketing communications are consistently excellent, establishing a strong platform with room for risk that sees the brand lean into culture and confidently subvert and play with some of its distinctive assets. An excellent and deserved winner of Brand of the Year,” he added.  

Consistency is key

“It’s absolutely amazing to receive the award. It’s a huge recognition of the work from all the marketers, creatives and partner agencies at Specsavers around the world,” says Peter Wright, Specsavers’ CMO.  

“A big thank you to the judging panel and all the Marketing Week readers who voted for us – we’re beyond delighted.” 

Specsavers is a strong example of a brand that has reaped the rewards of consistency. 

‘You can train skills, you can’t change people’: Specsavers’ CMO on capability and upskilling  

Celebrating its 40th anniversary last year, the business hasn’t rested on its laurels, with awareness at a high of 91%, according to data from Tracksuit, far ahead of the category’s average of 38%. The brand’s consideration is also high at 72%, experiencing a 5% uplift in the last year. 

It’s a brand with strong marketing fundamentals, in part thanks to the Specsavers Academy of Marketing, a skills and knowledge initiative to support its marketers worldwide. 

Specsavers’ CMO Peter Wright works in developing his marketing teams, fostering an environment of psychological safety and encouraging his marketers to try new things is one of the secrets to the brand’s success.  

“If we’re not trying new things out, we’re not going to work out what does work and what doesn’t,” he told Marketing Week last year.