Marketing Briefing: What will the some of the major marketing trends of 2025 be?

Managing culture shifts was already a major theme for marketers in 2024. That will likely continue to be the case throughout 2025, according to marketers and agency execs, who believe that the fractured cultural landscape may be the biggest hurdle for marketers to manage this year. 

“Truth is no longer binary — it’s personal,” wrote Kari Shimmel, CEO of Campbell Ewald, in an email. “In 2025, the real challenge for marketers will be navigating a world where a single truth carries countless interpretations.”

Figuring out the right way to respond to those interpretations, well, that’s a big job that will keep advertisers (and their agencies) busy this year. The culture war is something we’ve already covered in the wrap up for 2024 so we’ll leave that one there. As we head into 2025, here are three of the other trends we expect to be big topics of conversation throughout the year. 

Resurgence of the monoculture

One of the bright spots for 2024 was sports — the big marquee events, burgeoning fandom for women’s sports, even niche sports — as marketers obsess over one of the few ad units where people are tuned in live. Streamers have recognized the importance of live events, too. Netflix has added its fair share to entice audiences (the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight; Beyonce’s half-time show during the NFL Christmas Day game; the Chestnut vs. Kobayashi faceoff) as has Amazon (in addition to some NFL games, Amazon has also scored NBA coverage with an 11-year deal that kicks off this year), among others.

While marketers expect audience fragmentation to continue in 2025, there is a recognition that people want watercooler moments, which advertisers will want to capitalize on this year.

“Live events stand as one of the last pillars of mass viewership in a singular moment — which also fosters a sense of community as audiences interact in social settings while events are airing,” said Ryan Gilbert, vp of digital, Rain the Growth Agency, noting that streamers are prominently featuring their live event offerings in pitches to agencies. “Streaming properties stand to benefit from investment in this type of programming as it draws in new and larger audiences to their platforms.”

It’s not just streaming platforms that benefit from a return to regular watercooler moments but brands that see the need for brand building to return. “Frankly, we need these moments,” said Lydia Corin, svp of client partnerships, at creative shop The Mayda Creative Co. “Our cultural fragmentation has left watercooler conversations dry, replaced by awkward silence, insular meme in-jokes, or mentions of shows no one else has seen.”

Corin continued: “From a marketing perspective, the race to the bottom is burning out. Solely playing the algorithm game works for quick wins and impulse buys, but it doesn’t build brands or forge real connections. Only investing in culture and shared experiences can create enduring, long-term value. We’re due to see many prodigal brands return to this way of thinking in 2025.”

Creators’ sway grows

2024 was one of the first years that marketers didn’t just hop onto viral trends but worked with the creators of those original trends to become part of the conversation. The power and influence of creators is expected to continue to grow with brand marketers having to pay even closer attention to how their brands are discussed, what is said, who is saying it and how they need to show up. That means marketers will not only have to spend more time on organic social as well as paid but also watch out for trends like “deinfluencing” or other potential trends that could have a brand caught in discourse that could hurt them and avoid automating those tasks.

“Brands and their teams need to get their hands dirty and actually read and respond to comments,” said Ashley Rudder, chief creator officer at DNY (formerly Deutsch NY), noting people are paying closer attention to how a brand is online than they ever have before and that a wrong move can lead to a brand being caught up in negative chatter than can damage its reputation. “It’s more critical than ever.” 

With the risk of being caught in a trend that could harm a brand greater, “the biggest recommendation is to make your champions louder and give them a larger voice,” said Ricky Abbott, president, Americas, Transmission Agency, a shop that focuses on B2B brands. “A secondary motion that will happen is bringing more creators on board.”

The increase of creator importance may have more brands considering the potential of virtual influencers — the potential of virtual influencers has appealed for marketers for years and the rise of AI has seemingly ripe ground to make it happen easier. “A lot of brands pay a lot of money to influencers and they do not have long-term control of those influencers or editorial control of those influencers,” said John Terrana, VaynerMedia’s North America president. “The amount of times I’ve heard a brand say, ‘I’m paying that influencer to build their own brand’ is countless. So when you add it all up, conceptually, virtual influencers make a lot of sense.”

That being said, people don’t seem to want virtual influencers. (Last week, Meta reportedly shut down the use of AI characters that drew ire.) “There’s the potential for it to piss off the creator economy,” said Terrana. “There’s also potential for consumers to be like, ‘This feels disingenuous. I don’t like it.’ At the same time, I don’t think anyone really knows the capital or time investment it is going to take to manage the virtual influencer and do that well.” 

Some are more bullish on the long-term potential. “The trend towards virtual influencers will certainly continue, given the creative flexibility and reduced risk they offer,” said David Reid, vice president, global growth, Transmission Agency. “However, the success of virtual influencers will depend on how well brands can navigate the ethical and transparency issues that have recently come to light. If brands can address these concerns effectively, virtual influencers could become a mainstream marketing tool.” 

Health and wellness take center stage

If you happened to catch the Golden Globes on Sunday night, you were likely among the viewers inundated with GLP-1 advertising. It seemed like nearly every ad break had some weight loss drug pitched. If you happened to miss those, you likely saw the “healthy” soda alternatives Poppi and Olipop making their pitch during the awards show. That might be a bellwether for what the year will look like as health and wellness continues to grow in importance for consumers. 

“Health is really taking mainstage in the world of marketing in 2025,” said Brian Robinson, global chief strategy officer and head of growth for Havas Health Network. “Our expectation is that GLP-1s are going to be the engine for health again taking the main stage in marketing this year.” 

Robinson noted that as the number of users of weight loss drugs like GLP-1s continues to grow, “their buying behaviors have fundamentally shifted” in ways that not only impact food and beverage brands but potentially change their behavior with fashion or travel or other categories making the ripple effects of the market go beyond that of the expected. 

There’s also, of course, that whole Make America Healthy Again campaign that will likely get more attention should Robert F. Kennedy Jr. be confirmed to incoming President Trump’s White House. With RFK Jr. likely headed to the Department of Health and Human Services, the ripple effects of his appointment are certainly in sharp focus for health and wellness advertisers. Those advertisers are already set to manage changes on Meta, as previously reported.

3 Questions with Olga Osminkina, global president and chief growth officer at Violife, a  non-dairy cheese alternative brand 

Violife tapped into the 2024 Election Day frenzy with its “America Has Voted” campaign. A lot of brands were avoiding politics altogether. Why tap into it?
We either could look at it as a moment to stay away from a polarizing moment in culture. Or we could really embrace our purpose of bringing people together and eliminating, erasing the differences or helping to overcome the differences and leaning into the moment in a uniting way. We chose the latter.

Was there any fear or pushback? 
We are always very mindful about the choices that we make, and this was no exception. As I’ve mentioned, the big objective was not to lean into the polarity, if you will, of the moment, or imply that we are taking any sides, but rather to focus on the positive nature of the news, which is, we have become the number one choice [of cheese alternatives].

Polarization has made navigating brand safety more important than ever. How is Violife thinking about brand safety amidst polarization and the so-called culture wars? 
Brand safety is always top of mind, but that goes to any campaign or activation that we do. Those principles were equally applied here [with Violife’s “America Has Voted” campaign] and we were determined to stay away from any negative or divisional rhetoric. — Kimeko McCoy

By the numbers

For all the talk of economic headwinds and fears of impending recession over the last few years, marketers have a rosy outlook for 2025 marketing budgets. Marketers expect business to improve and budgets to increase, according to a new report from WARC (World Advertising Research Center). A breakdown by the numbers below:

• Global advertising investment was on track to surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2024, and is set to grow +7.6% in 2025.
• Two out of three (65%) marketers expect business to improve next year while a third (34%) expect marketing budgets to increase.
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) of marketers think economic conditions will significantly impact their marketing strategy in 2025. — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the week

“It took brands a while to realize that the uncertainty people had about the world wasn’t actually fully translating into how they spent their money.”

— Jeremy Goldman, senior director of marketing, commerce, and tech briefings at eMarketer, when asked about how advertising’s dealmakers are gearing up for a surge in 2025.

What we’ve covered

• The topics and trends that will be the talk of CES this year
• The Acxiom data dilemma behind Omnicom’s market-making IPG acquisition
• Have we reached peak ad network?