Brands on social media fight an uphill battle, not just for attention, but for organic visibility in algorithm-led feeds. By the end of 2026, we’ll be spending double the time with algorithmic versus non-algorithmic media (Ofcom, Media Nation 2024).
By the end of 2024, we realised our organic output across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts was active, but not always algorithmically optimised. Additionally, for service providers like Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), social media is often where complaints show up first. That made the challenge even sharper: how do you also build positive perception and sentiment? The answer: we had to become part of the cultural conversation. So, in early 2025, we reassessed how we showed up and, importantly, how to actually deliver on this ambition.
That’s where CultureLAB came in. A new way of collaboratively working, combining the strengths of both the VMO2 social team and VCCP, allowing us to cook up ideas at the speed of culture. Together, we built a culture and audience-led system to help us earn our place within feeds. From music to gaming, sport to entertainment, CultureLAB lets us show up where people already were, with content that felt like it belonged.
We set out to achieve three core objectives:
We knew the old approach to organic content of showing up frequently and chasing virality wasn’t cutting through. In fact, 83% of Gen Z say they can easily spot when brands are trying too hard to go viral. It doesn’t influence what they buy, but it does read as cringe. (Archrival & Tumblr, 2025)
So, we flipped the model. Together, we designed a system to make VMO2 more discoverable in feeds and more resonant with audiences. Shifting from a campaign mindset to a publishing mindset, we prioritised relevance over frequency. CultureLAB is built on a single belief: the best way to earn attention is to show up where your brand has cultural credibility, and to do it in a way that feels fan-first, not brand-led.
That’s how our teams defined VMO2’s cultural lens: music, sport, gaming and entertainment. They’re the spaces where our audience spends time, where communities thrive, and where VMO2 can show up with something meaningful to say. This cultural lens became our filter: if it didn’t fit, we didn’t force it.
CultureLAB runs on two connected tracks: planned and reactive. The planned track lets us prepare for cultural moments we know are coming. The reactive track gives us the speed to respond when new ones emerge.
Planned: publishing with purpose
The planned side starts with a live cultural calendar. VMO2 and VCCP work together to identify key moments across our cultural spaces, often in collaboration with the sponsorship team. With both teams creating content off the back of these discussions. Content is always centred around the audience. Every brief strategically sweats over the communities around the moment, getting closer to what’s driving the most interest and insights into their conversations.
These communities deeply shape our creative approach. It’s where we experiment with cultural nuances and cook up ways to make the brand feel like it belongs. When Central Cee played The O2, we knew it would be a cultural flashpoint. In the brief, we highlighted how Cench’s fanbase loves to mimic his signature hand pose. So we mirrored that behaviour in our content and referenced UK rap culture by asking his fans at the gig to do the gesture. The result was 3.1 million views and over 1.3K likes on our post, all organically.
Reactive: showing up when it matters
Our reactive track lets us move even faster. VCCP and VMO2 teams monitor what’s happening in culture daily, flagging emerging opportunities as they’re bubbling up. If the moment’s right, we move fast to create content so VMO2 can publish as soon as possible.
When BTS’s Jin was announced as the first Korean soloist to headline The O2, we kept our reactive post simple and celebratory, speaking in the fandom’s voice, not the brand’s. The result was 87K views, 5K likes, and 1.7K shares, all organic.
Together, the planned and reactive tracks make CultureLAB a repeatable model for earning attention and cutting through the algorithm, by being present and timely in culture.
CultureLAB was never a set-and-forget approach. Each month, we tracked performance against KPIs, looking at reach, engagement and watch time. We also looked at what topics were landing, which fan communities were responding, and where we needed to fine-tune. This consistent reporting helped us optimise in real time.
To drive visibility and discoverability, we focused on showing up more consistently across key platforms, aligned to moments that mattered. Over the course of 2025, CultureLAB delivered over 16 million views and over 15.5m impressions across Virgin Media and O2, powered entirely through organic distribution.
We also focused on increasing salience by creating content that felt platform-native and culturally relevant. Our average view-through rate was 31%, comfortably beating our benchmark of 15%, while our engagement rate landed at 3%, proving that audiences weren’t just seeing the work, they were engaging with it.
While we couldn’t track the brand lift of our organic content, the numbers tell their own story. Strong view-through rates and above-benchmark engagement suggested audiences weren’t just scrolling past; they were staying with the content. We also saw fewer negative comments than typical brand posts, especially on reactive content. All of it pointed to a subtle but important shift: the brand was being discovered and enjoyed more. We call this a win.
