Lasting Lemons' Viral itsu Campaign Wins ‘Standout Use of Tiktok’ at UK Digital Excellence Awards

Creative agency Lasting Lemons was recognised last night at the UK Digital Excellence Awards, taking home the accolade for ‘Standout Use of TikTok’ for their campaign with Japanese-inspired food brand, itsu.

The award-winning campaign launched itsu’s new product, soup’dumplings, to the UK market and delivered viral success. In just 24 hours, the campaign achieved 850K organic views, ultimately reaching 7.6 million users over five weeks. By combining agile, trend-responsive content with influencer partnerships, the campaign quickly gained momentum, causing soup’dumplings to sell out across all major UK retailers within the first week.

Targeted at 18–24-year-olds, the campaign not only drove brand awareness but also delivered measurable commercial impact:

- +52% over target views (7.6M vs. 5M)

- 435K likes and 38K saves on TikTok

- +400% uplift in Google search interest

- Record-breaking retail sales across key national partners

“Everyone knows you need to speak trend and make TikToks—not ads. But too often, brands miss the mark when launching new products by showing up in ways that don’t match the world users are already immersed in. With itsu, we had a unique advantage: they’re already an active, relevant presence on TikTok, and we were speaking to an audience that was primed for this kind of launch. Soup’dumplings had already become a major trend in the US, so we set out to spark that same cultural wave in the UK. This campaign is a true testament to what happens when creativity meets cultural intuition and when a brand trusts us to run with bold, platform-native ideas.”

The campaign’s success illustrates the power of TikTok to spark brand fame and deliver real business results. This win cements Lasting Lemons’ reputation as one of the most disruptive social-first agencies in the UK.