Reddit today launched "People Are The Best," its first US brand campaign, kicking off in New York and Chicago with TV, streaming, out-of-home and social placements built around three community verticals: beauty, television, and soccer.

The campaign is also the first produced under Jim Squires, who took the role of chief marketing officer at Reddit earlier this year. Developed in partnership with creative agency Mischief, the work marks a notable shift for a platform that has grown rapidly as an advertising destination while investing relatively little in consumer-facing brand advertising of its own.

Three 30-second spots, three communities

According to Reddit, each of the three creative executions runs 30 seconds and focuses on a distinct community type. The beauty spot highlights what Reddit describes as "boots-on-ground journalism" - honest product reviews and makeup tips from platform users who have actually used the items. The television ad focuses on deep-dive discussions, plot breakdowns, and show recommendations that Reddit's TV communities generate after and between episodes. The soccer spot showcases real-time commentary, tactical analysis, and the kind of camaraderie that, according to Reddit, turns a 90-minute match into something closer to a communal event.

All three follow a similar structural logic: the communities already exist and generate the behavior being depicted; the campaign is framing that behavior for a broader audience rather than inventing a brand persona from scratch.

"Reddit has always stood apart for the candor, depth, and personality you find in its communities," said Jim Squires, Reddit's CMO. "At a moment when people are craving something more real online, there's no better place to find it than in a Reddit thread. 'People Are the Best' is our way of celebrating the hundreds of millions who show up every day to keep the internet human."

Greg Hahn, co-founder and chief creative officer at Mischief, described Reddit as a place where interest-driven communities become something more durable. "At its core, Reddit has always been about a different kind of connection - people may come for a shared interest, but they stay for the humanity they find along the way," Hahn said. "So much of the internet feels disconnected from real life now, and Reddit is a place where people can learn from others' life experiences, and feel part of something bigger than themselves."

New York and Chicago first, more markets to follow

The initial rollout covers New York City and Chicago. According to Reddit, the campaign will expand to additional US markets in the coming months, though the company has not specified which cities or a timeline for that expansion.

The media mix - TV, streaming, out-of-home, and social - covers both linear and connected television placements alongside physical advertising inventory in the two launch markets. The inclusion of streaming is consistent with the direction Reddit's advertising business has taken in 2026, as the platform has built out video advertising capabilities and introduced new video optimization objectives for its advertiser base.

The platform context

The timing places "People Are the Best" against a specific backdrop for Reddit as a business. The platform reported advertising revenue of $625 million in Q1 2026, a 74% increase year-over-year, with active advertisers growing more than 75% over the same period. Seven consecutive quarters above 60% revenue growth have established Reddit as a platform that ad buyers can no longer easily categorize as niche. Performance-oriented revenue now represents more than 60% of the total ad business.

The ad product development has run in parallel. Reddit's 2026 Creative Best Practices report, published in May based on nearly 150,000 in-feed ads across approximately 7,000 advertisers, found that creative attuned to community tone outperforms generic brand messaging. The beauty, TV, and soccer verticals chosen for "People Are the Best" are precisely the kind of interest-defined communities where that community-native tone matters most.

Research published by Reddit at Cannes Lions 2026 in late June found that half of US shoppers verify AI-generated product recommendations on Reddit before completing a purchase. The survey, conducted by Attest among 13,956 US adults, positioned Reddit as a fact-checking layer in the AI-assisted purchase journey. A brand campaign that foregrounds authentic human conversation fits neatly into that positioning - though the consumer research and the brand campaign serve different audiences. One is directed at marketers; the other at potential users.

At Cannes Lions this month, Reddit also introduced four new advertising tools powered by Community Intelligence: a free-form ad generator in beta, tailored creative assets for Max Campaigns, Redditor Highlights moving to general availability, and a six-second engaged video view optimization goal that produced a 130% increase in view-through rates in testing. The advertising business and the brand campaign are running on separate tracks, but both draw on the same underlying argument: that the conversations happening on Reddit are qualitatively different from what other platforms offer.

Why the campaign matters for marketers

For the marketing community, a Reddit brand campaign directed at consumers carries implications that go beyond brand awareness. Reddit's core challenge as an advertising platform has been that many potential advertisers are unfamiliar with it as users. The beauty, television, and soccer communities depicted in "People Are the Best" are mainstream interest areas - categories where the platform's community depth may not be obvious to someone who has never searched Reddit for a product recommendation or a show discussion.

A consumer-facing brand campaign in New York and Chicago increases the likelihood that marketing decision-makers encounter Reddit as users, not just as an entry in a media plan. That familiarity gap has been one of the structural constraints on advertiser adoption, even as Reddit's financial trajectory has demonstrated that the brands already on the platform are finding measurable returns.

The choice of Mischief as creative partner is also notable. The agency, founded in 2020, has developed a reputation for campaigns that lean on cultural observation rather than production scale. That orientation fits a brief centered on community authenticity. A campaign produced with a more conventional large-network agency might have risked looking like exactly what Reddit is arguing against: polished brand content detached from real experience.

Whether the consumer campaign translates into accelerated advertiser adoption will take time to measure. What is visible today is that Reddit, under a new CMO and with several quarters of strong advertising revenue behind it, has decided that the moment to invest in its own US brand equity is now.

Timeline

  • Earlier in 2026: Jim Squires takes the role of chief marketing officer at Reddit
  • June 29, 2026: Reddit launches "People Are The Best," its first US brand campaign, developed with Mischief; campaign debuts in New York City and Chicago across TV, streaming, out-of-home, and social placements with three 30-second spots covering beauty, TV, and soccer communities
  • Coming months: Reddit plans to expand the campaign to additional US markets

Summary

Who: Reddit, under new CMO Jim Squires, working with creative agency Mischief.

What: "People Are The Best" - Reddit's first US brand campaign, comprising three 30-second spots focused on beauty, television, and soccer communities, running across TV, streaming, out-of-home, and social placements.

When: Launched on June 29, 2026, with plans to expand beyond the initial two markets in the coming months.

Where: New York City and Chicago are the launch markets, with additional US cities to follow.

Why: Reddit, whose advertising revenue reached $625 million in Q1 2026 and whose active advertiser count grew more than 75% year-over-year, is investing in US consumer brand awareness to increase familiarity with its communities among potential users and marketing decision-makers who may know the platform by reputation but not by experience.