• You could show us the box.
• You could reveal what's inside.
• You could tell us how much the contents are worth.
• You could offer an early-bird discount.

Or you could appoint Helena Bonham Carter as your fictional Head of the Extraordinary and turn the launch into a piece of entertainment.

That's exactly what Liberty has done with its 2026 Beauty Advent Calendar, and it caught my attention for all the right reasons.

It's not really about the advent calendar

On the face of it, Liberty is launching a beauty advent calendar.  But rather than making the product itself the entire story, Liberty has created a world around it.

Enter Helena Bonham Carter as the fictional Head of the Extraordinary, a role created specifically for the campaign, giving her a character to play and a story to tell rather than simply using her as a familiar celebrity face.

And that is where I think the marketing gets interesting.

Hang on… haven't we seen this before?

There is another 2026 campaign that immediately sprang to mind.  Back in March, M&S appointed actress Gillian Anderson as its first-ever Chief Compliments Officer, as part of its Love That campaign. M&S created a fictional role around Anderson and made that role part of the campaign's identity.

Anderson has since returned as Chief Compliments Officer for M&S's autumn campaign.

Then along comes Liberty, with Helena Bonham Carter as its Head of the Extraordinary.

Coincidence? Very possibly.

I certainly wouldn't claim Liberty copied M&S. There is no evidence I've seen to suggest that.  But the similarity is interesting.

Both brands have taken a recognisable British actress and given her a made-up job title that fits the personality of the brand and the campaign. And that is rather clever.

But then there's Kathryn…

And this is where I think the story gets even more interesting.

Because perhaps the bigger marketing trend isn't actually about celebrities at all.

It's about people

M&S Food's Director of Product Development Kathryn Turner has become something of a social media phenomenon through her informal videos from M&S food halls.

And unlike Gillian Anderson and Helena Bonham Carter, Kathryn isn't playing a fictional role.  She really does know her stuff.

Her videos take audiences behind the scenes, looking at products, talking about the people involved in developing them and sharing her own knowledge and enthusiasm for M&S Food.  And they appear to be working.

Turner's LinkedIn profile currently shows around 19,000 followers, while social posts analysing her content report millions of views from a relatively small number of videos.

The really interesting thing is that there doesn't appear to be anything particularly complicated about the format.

• It's Kathryn.
• In an M&S food hall.
• Talking about food.
• No elaborate set. No celebrity endorsement. No enormous production concept.

Just a knowledgeable person who clearly enjoys what she does, talking about the products she knows. And people want to watch.

Is this where marketing is heading?

Perhaps.  We've spent years talking about influencer marketing.

But I wonder whether we're starting to see something slightly different.

• Employee-as-influencer
• Expert-as-content-creator
• Personality-as-brand-asset

And there is an important distinction.  People don't necessarily want to hear another carefully scripted corporate message about why a product is brilliant.

They might be much more interested in hearing from the person who actually developed it.

• Or seeing the buyer explain why it made the shelf.
• Or watching the chef who created the recipe.
• Or meeting the person who has worked for the company for 25 years and genuinely knows their stuff.

That's harder for competitors to copy because the person is the content.

Three very different people. One interesting marketing lesson.

Look at the three examples:

• Gillian Anderson – a famous person given a fictional role that makes the campaign memorable.
• Helena Bonham Carter – a famous person given a fictional role that fits the brand's personality and creates a story around the product.
• Kathryn Turner – a genuine expert whose personality and knowledge have become the content.

Three very different approaches.

But they have something important in common. They're making the brand human. And perhaps that's the bit worth taking away.

What does this mean for smaller businesses?

• You probably don't have Helena Bonham Carter's agent on speed dial.
• You probably don't have the budget to create a national advertising campaign.
• And you probably don't need either.

But you might have:

• The person who has been making your product for 20 years.
• The engineer who can explain exactly why something works.
• The founder who knows the story behind the business.
• The salesperson who knows every customer question going.
• The chef who can explain why they put an ingredient in a particular dish.
• The person in the warehouse who has seen every unusual delivery.

Those people are your marketing assets too.

And they may be much more interesting to your audience than another beautifully designed graphic saying “We're delighted to announce…”

The lesson isn't "put your staff on social media"

Please don't read this and immediately march into the office announcing that everyone is now required to make three TikToks a week.  That's not the point.

The point is to look at the people, expertise and personality already inside your business and ask whether there's a story there.

Because people buy from businesses.  But increasingly, they also want to know the people behind them.

• That builds familiarity
• It builds trust
• It creates personality

And, done well, it gives people a reason to come back for more.

Maybe the future of marketing isn't about finding more ways to make brands look polished.  Maybe it's about finding more ways to let the interesting people inside them be seen. And that's something almost every business has access to.

You just have to look.

#GoodMarketing

Marketing Doris helps businesses simplify their marketing with tailored solutions, combining strategic thinking with practical marketing support. Because sometimes the best marketing question isn't “What should we post?” but “Who have we got inside this business that people would actually want to hear from?”