A nationally representative sample of 1,000 Brits, over the age of 18, were asked about their view of ‘troublemaking’ and challenger brands, by media agency Trouble Makers.
Dash Drinks, Coca Cola, Marmite, Peperami, Guinness, Oatley, Huel and Irn Bru all made the top 50.
It found a clear appetite for brands that ‘do more’, such as fighting food waste or reimagining breakfast.
The report said that these names are proof that modern consumers reward “bold flavour with bold thinking.”
The appearance of heritage icon Marmite alongside start-ups like Surreal shows that attitude, not age, defines what it means to “make trouble”.
It found that social media was the true challenger battleground, with 30% spotting challenger brands with this, rising to 54% among 18-24-year-olds.
The report also found that it is riskier not to challenge category conventions and take risks in communications, as two-thirds of UK consumers believe brands “play it too safe,” a figure that climbs to 75% among 18-35s.
Topping the inaugural rankings, Temu, Brewdog, and Ryanair demonstrated a diverse mix of audience appeal and challenger characteristics, from brand personality to behaviour, underscoring that there’s no single way to be a challenger brand in any market.
The report found that characteristics of successful challenger brands evolve across life stages, revealing a delicate balance between the impact of personality and meaningful industry disruption, and how different generations react and respond to these factors in different ways.
Of those surveyed, 51% of UK consumers identified as ‘rebel-minded,’ and 67% of this group were more likely to buy from challengers.
That’s 17 million Brits, representing a £4BN+ weekly spending opportunity for savvy challenger brands, the report concluded.
“As an industry, we love discussing, analysing and anointing challenger brands, but it struck us that no one had ever asked real people what they think makes a great challenger brand,” said Pete Jackson, head of planning at Trouble Maker.
“The ambition for the TM100 is to capture what resonates with people and turn those insights into a practical playbook for making trouble in your market. This first study is just the start of what we hope will be a multi-year journey, exploring trouble-making through the eyes of UK consumers and creating a bellwether for challenger brands in the UK.”
Jonathan Fraser, chief creative officer at Trouble Maker, added: “Creativity without courage doesn’t cut it anymore. The TM100 shows that trouble-making isn’t just a nice-to-have attitude, but reinforces what we already know - that it’s a real driver of business value.”
He added: “Few brands win solely through media scale and even fewer are market leaders. The rest can only win hearts (and wallets) by being brave enough to break category rules, take risks and stand for something. That’s both the challenge and the opportunity for marketers today.”
The TM100 ranks brands of all sizes, from household names to smaller start-ups, across diverse sectors including media and entertainment, apparel, tech, food and drink, and FMCG.
The methodology combines prompted awareness scores with ad spend data over the last 18 months, ensuring small and large brands compete on an even playing field. It is based on responses from the UK public, with more than 400 brands identified and narrowed to a top 100, and then ranked using the new TM Index.
