Bluey’s 2025 Marketing Lessons for Small Businesses

Bluey didn’t win Marketing Week readers’ top marketing initiative of 2025 by being “everywhere”. It won by being meaningful—and then building the systems to stay consistent.

That matters for UK small businesses because most “digital marketing” advice still starts in the wrong place: channels first. Instagram first. Ads first. SEO first. The Bluey story is a reminder that audience connection comes first, and the channels are just how you deliver it.

Marketing Week reports that Bluey (BBC Studios’ global franchise, originally launched in 2018) now airs in 140 countries, with audiences consuming 95,000 years’ worth of content. It’s also the most-watched children’s show in the UK, and its YouTube portfolio has 21 million+ subscribers and 13 billion+ lifetime views. Those are blockbuster numbers—yet the principles behind them are surprisingly usable on a limited budget.

Why Bluey worked: cultural capital beats campaign noise

Bluey’s edge is that it behaves like a brand, not a seasonal campaign.

Many businesses treat marketing as a series of “bursts”: a January sale, a spring push, a summer push. Bluey built cultural capital—the kind of familiarity and goodwill that makes people seek you out, recommend you, and forgive the occasional misstep.

Here’s the simple version you can steal:

• Consistency creates trust. Bluey’s characters, tone, and emotional themes are recognisable across episodes, clips, merchandise, and experiences.
• Trust creates repeat attention. Repeat attention is what makes social and SEO work long-term.
• Repeat attention creates distribution. Fans share, algorithms reward, partners want in.

A useful rule for small business digital marketing: if your content can’t be described in one sentence, your customers won’t remember it.

The “emotional job” is the strategy

Bluey succeeds because it understands the emotional job it does for its audience: comfort, family connection, humour, and relatability.

For a small business, the equivalent isn’t “make people cry” or “be inspirational”. It’s answering:

• What feeling do you want customers to associate with you before they buy?
• What feeling should they have after they buy?
• What story do they tell a friend when recommending you?

Example (UK local service business):

• A plumber’s content doesn’t have to be plumbing tips. It can be “calm in a crisis”: clear pricing, what to do when a pipe bursts, and short videos that reduce panic.

The big strategic move: brand-led marketing (even if you’re tiny)

Marketing Week notes that BBC Studios shifted from a genre-led structure to a brand-led strategy, with dedicated teams for properties like Bluey, Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing. That’s a corporate version of a small-business truth:

Your marketing gets easier when you stop marketing ‘offers’ and start marketing a ‘brand promise’.

A brand-led approach for a small business doesn’t require a team restructure. It requires three choices:

1. Choose one primary audience. Not “everyone in the UK”. A clear niche you can serve brilliantly.
2. Choose one core message. The thing you want to be known for.
3. Choose one repeatable content format. Something you can publish weekly without burning out.

Practical template: the “brand promise” statement

Write this sentence and keep it on your wall:

“We help [specific customer] get [specific outcome] without [specific frustration].”

Then pressure-test your website, your Instagram bio, and your Google Business Profile against it. If they don’t match, that’s your first fix.

Bluey’s distribution lesson: build a content engine, not one viral post

Bluey’s numbers are huge—13B YouTube views doesn’t happen with one lucky clip. It happens with a system: lots of content, consistently packaged, easy to discover, easy to share.

For British small business digital marketing, this is where people get stuck because they think “content engine” means expensive production.

It doesn’t. It means repeatable.

A small business content engine you can run in 2 hours a week

Pick one “pillar” topic that matches what customers search for and ask about. Then turn it into multiple small pieces.

Example pillar topics (high-intent, SEO-friendly):

• “How much does [service] cost in [town/city]?”
• “How to choose a [provider] (checklist)”
• “Common mistakes when buying [product]”
• “Before/after: what changed and why”

Weekly output (from one pillar):

• 1 blog post (SEO)
• 1 short video (Instagram/TikTok/YouTube Shorts)
• 2–3 story posts or carousels
• 1 email to your list

The win is compounding: your blog post supports SEO, your short video supports discovery, and both support trust when someone checks you out.

“People also ask” questions you should answer on your site

Bluey’s success shows how much attention goes to brands that reduce effort for the audience. In SEO terms, that means answering common questions plainly.

Add a short FAQ section to relevant pages:

• How long does it take?
• What does it cost and what changes the price?
• What’s included?
• What should I prepare before booking?
• What happens if I’m not happy?

These aren’t filler. They reduce friction and increase conversions.

Make your brand easy to license: partnerships for small businesses

Bluey isn’t just a show—it’s a licensing machine: products, live experiences, partnerships. You may not be selling plush toys, but the underlying lesson is powerful:

Create something other people want to share, stock, or collaborate on.

For a UK small business, that could look like:

• A co-branded workshop with a complementary local business (e.g., florist + wedding venue)
• A “bundle” offer with clear roles (e.g., photographer + make-up artist)
• A shared lead magnet (e.g., “The Bristol Home Renovation Checklist” featuring trusted trades)

The partnership checklist (so it actually generates leads)

Partnerships fail when they’re vague. Keep it tight:

1. Shared audience: you both serve the same customer type.
2. Non-competing: you don’t sell the same thing.
3. Single offer: one landing page, one clear CTA.
4. Tracking: a unique link or code so you know what worked.

If you can’t track it, it’s networking—not marketing.

The metric Bluey is really chasing (and you should too)

Marketing Week reports Bluey’s ambition is 100% awareness, with an aspiration to be “the next Mickey Mouse”. That’s a brand goal, not a performance marketing goal.

Small businesses often avoid awareness because it sounds fluffy. I disagree. Awareness is practical when you define it properly:

• Local awareness: people in your service area recognise your name.
• Category awareness: people know what you do without you explaining.
• Trust awareness: people assume you’re reputable before the first call.

A simple awareness scorecard for small business marketing

Run this monthly:

• Branded searches in Google Search Console (is your name being searched more?)
• Direct traffic in analytics (are people typing your URL or using bookmarks?)
• Share of voice on social (are you being tagged, mentioned, recommended?)
• Review velocity (are you getting a steady flow of new reviews?)

These are the leading indicators that make paid ads cheaper and SEO faster.

A January 2026 action plan: “Bluey principles” on a small budget

January is when many UK businesses push new offers. It’s also when audiences are tired of generic discount messaging. Use that to your advantage.

Here’s a realistic plan for the next 30 days:

Week 1: tighten your message

• Write your brand promise sentence.
• Update your homepage headline and your social bios to match.
• Add 5 FAQs to your top money page (the service/product page that drives sales).

Week 2: publish one pillar post

• Write one high-intent blog post based on what customers ask.
• Add internal links to your relevant service pages.
• Turn the post into a short video and a carousel.

Week 3: strengthen proof

• Ask for 10 reviews (recent customers are easiest).
• Post 2 customer stories: the problem, the process, the result.

Week 4: run a small partnership

• Pick one partner business.
• Create one shared offer and one landing page.
• Promote it for 7–10 days, then review results.

Where this fits in your broader small business digital marketing strategy

Bluey is a reminder that brand building and lead generation aren’t enemies. The best small business marketing in the UK does both at once: it builds familiarity while making it easy to buy.

If you take one thing from Bluey’s 2025 win, take this: your content should feel like it comes from a single, recognisable personality. That’s what makes SEO content readable, social content shareable, and ads believable.

Next step: choose one place you want to be known (your town, your niche, your category) and publish consistently enough that customers feel like they already know you by the time they enquire. What would change in your business if, by this time next year, you were the first name people thought of?