Which company nailed marketing in 2025? My top picks
The more information and ads we’re exposed to, the more resistant we become.
(It’s literally impossible to absorb everything, so our brains just filter most of it out.)
BUT… there’s always that one exception.
Some campaigns are repeated so aggressively and so often that they get stuck in your head, whether you like it or not.
For me, the most intense (and impossible-to-ignore) marketing campaigns this entire year came from:
– @Base44
– @ClickUp
– Cluely
– @Lovable
And I can see some of them even on this platform lately (Base, Lovable – so they invest in this community too)
I remember these companies even when I really don’t want to. 😂
Which companies or products had the most massive, in-your-face marketing campaigns for you in 2025?
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For me, the top 2 this year were definitely @bolt.new and @n8n .
Bolt literally took over our feeds back in the spring because of that massive hackathon they hosted. It felt like everyone was building with them.
And n8n... their strategy is just everywhere right now. They seem to be paying almost every AI/Tech influencer on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to promote their platform and create tutorials. It's practically impossible to miss them if you follow the space.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@byalexai, probably you were a better target audience for them than I was. I noticed Bolt new, but n8n not so much. :D BTW, Lovable also had a big hackathon, but there was some struggle with winners (or at least people didn't perceive them as the strong competition) :D
MultiDrive
@byalexai Now I’m curious to see their ads. Either I don’t notice them, or they don’t advertise to me, most likely the second. :)
@tetianai we’re not talking about ads in the traditional sense here. This is about hundreds, sometimes dozens, of posts and videos around topics like how to use Gemini 3.0 and n8n or similar, how to build the perfect automation. That’s more or less how they market themselves. They encourage creators with big audiences to create educational content around their product. And often super unrealistic scenarios.
X is full of this kind of content. It has decreased a bit now because of Bolt, but back in April–May–June it was everywhere.
MultiDrive
@byalexai Oh, got it, thank you for explaining.
I’m not very active on X yet, just starting there. It does sound like quite aggressive content-driven marketing. Appreciate the context 🙂
I have the paid youtube, i dont see ads anymore. I do remember seeing base44 ads, but i cant say I have seen ads for most of the others, I see a lot of organic user content about n8n.
When we say marketing, was it an ad that stood out or the frequency you saw it? Where are you seeing the ads served. I have insulated myself from ads so much that I dont see them! :)
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@giannidalerta No ads on YouTube? I am envious! 😆
Yes, I think that the frequency on YT was crucial. Also remember a lot of ads with Grammarly :)
X-Design
For me, it was Cursor (or maybe Lovable, they blur together). Not necessarily through traditional banner ads, but the "influencer" and Twitter/X rotation was insane this year. You couldn't scroll for five minutes without someone claiming it wrote their entire startup backend in 30 seconds. It felt organic at first, but by mid-2025 it felt like a coordinated blitz. Hard to tell where the community excitement ended and the marketing budget began.
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@tony_hsieh2 I am pretty curious how much money they burned on those ads. But it had to be in hundreds of thousands imo.
@busmark_w_nika n8n has been all over my social media with influencers creating templates and sharing them for free (who doesn't love freebies!). It has to be one of the most useful automation tools out there right now!
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@tania_j Maybe good strategy, but I would be afraid of building reputation on free stuff because then people always expect to have everything for free lol :D
@busmark_w_nika true that but n8n templates blow me over with their usefulness.
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@tania_j Am I too late to grab some templates? :D
For me, the ones that stuck weren’t always the loudest, they showed up at the right moment, in the right context. When timing and relevance click, you remember the brand without feeling marketed to.
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@samsoftlywished Do you have a specific brand in mind? :) Because if not, maybe the ad wasn't strong enough :)
@busmark_w_nika Fair point, If I had to name one, it’s probably Grammarly for me, not because I loved the ads, but because it kept showing up exactly when I was writing or second-guessing tone. It wasn’t loud, just persistent and well-timed.
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@samsoftlywished To be honest, they are targeting me because I use their tool (free version). But I have been using it for free, like for 3 or 4 years or so :D
I loved and still love the @Notion billboards around SF when their AI tools launched.
I think @Vanta had the most massive ‘in your face’ everywhere campaign! They literally are everywhere. From NPR to podcasts to billboards and bus stops.
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@leah_matzat That's interesting. I have never heard about Vanta.