Best Brands Club Wraps Up Its 2026 Edition

Milan, 11 November 2026 – The sixth edition of the Best Brands Club, the think tank that brings together some of Italy’s strongest brands to examine today’s challenges and reflect on the future of their role in society, has come to a close. A cross-category, closed-door forum, designed to step away from day-to-day operations, share diverse perspectives and create space for reflection and meaningful discussion. The final session took place at the Serviceplan Group House of Communication in Milan.

Promoted by NielsenIQ and Serviceplan Group, supported by Rai Pubblicità, 24 ORE System, IGPDecaux and ADC Group, and endorsed by UPA, this year’s Club brought together 13 Best Brands: Amazon, Dove, Gourmet, Kinder, L’Angelica, Lego, Loacker, Magnum, MediaWorld, Mulino Bianco, Nivea, Prima Assicurazioni and TIM.

Leading the discussion was journalist Giampaolo Colletti, who has guided participating brands through a journey since July built around a central question: what moon is worth aiming for? From this starting point emerged insights and reflections on some of the transformations reshaping the relationship between brands and people, from shifting consumer mindsets, with younger generations finding it increasingly difficult to plan for the medium and long term, to the evolving interplay between creativity and artificial intelligence, as well as Dual Marketing and the challenge of surprising algorithms as well as consumers.

Among the topics explored was the growing risk of AI Slop and a possible response to it: returning to the making of, to actually making things, and to the tangible substance behind ideas. Not as a rejection of artificial intelligence, but as a way of rediscovering the value of what makes an experience, a piece of content or a brand genuinely distinctive.

Throughout the programme, the Club gradually identified a central theme: surprise. What does it really mean to surprise people today? How can brands create something unexpected in a context where data, algorithms and artificial intelligence appear to make behaviours, content and choices increasingly predictable? And does surprise necessarily have to mean something spectacular or radically new?

The discussion highlighted instead the need to cultivate surprise: to foster lateral thinking, challenge conventions and automatisms, and rediscover both product authenticity and the value of meaningful relationships. In an ecosystem increasingly saturated with content, surprising people does not necessarily mean astonishing them, but rather finding less predictable paths that remain true to a brand’s identity.

The roundtable painted the portrait of a brand capable of thinking like a moonshotter: not one that promises impossible worlds, but one that has the courage to define its own moon to strive towards, pursuing demanding, unconventional paths rooted in the truth of the product itself.

The reflections, experiences and questions generated throughout the discussion will be brought together in Best Brands Book Six, edited by Giampaolo Colletti, which will be presented on Thursday, 8 April 2027, at LUISS University in Milan.

For further information: www.best-brands.it