2025 Marketing Predictions from Our Team
Let’s start with the obvious: AI will continue to touch every part of our industry. Video will continue to be a favorite among creators and consumers. And all of us will at some point try really, really hard to cut back on our social media usage (that last one is an educated guess). While there are a lot of things we can’t know about 2025 in the marketing world, we do know this: nothing is off-limits. Here are our marketing predictions for 2025.
Politics will still have a hand in online behavior
Katie: We have a big question mark when it comes to TikTok. The current administration has upheld the “TikTok ban”, while the incoming administration has said they did not want to ban the platform. It will be interesting to see if this ban is upheld by the new administration or if TikTok will receive a last-minute reprieve.
Cassandra: I believe online users will begin decentralizing their online habits to other platforms. The rise of Bluesky - an alternative to Twitter/X - is a good example of this. The platform has existed since 2019, but this year they have seen historic growth, increasing its users to nearly 25 million (10 million since the presidential election, which is not a coincidence).
Users will seek out brands that portray meaningful messages.
Erica: Audiences will increasingly seek businesses and individuals who deliver thoughtful, creative content that helps them improve their lives. The power of this content is driven by the relationship businesses’ have with those in their audience. That’s something AI can’t duplicate. In 2025, those willing to rise to the challenge will stand out allowing them to build trust and enjoy genuine engagement from their audience.
Chandler: What people will realize is important with their messaging is that authenticity and empathy will resonate best in your marketing messaging. Be you - you're the best at it - don't rely on a bot to connect with potential clients/customers. You're the one in the throws of the business and you know it best. You've seen/heard the pain points and found solutions for your customers - AI can't recreate those genuine experiences, lessons learned, and/or knowledge absorbed.
Cassandra: Now, marketers have less than thirty seconds to sell their brand - if they can even reach their audiences to begin with! Audiences need to come to the brand. And they won’t do that when all you’re doing is selling to them. For brands who are hoping to build a loyal following, we expect to see more video content that focuses on their clients and employees as well as helpful tips for their followers - no matter the industry.
Speaking of… Smart brands will use AI sparingly (and ethically).
Katie: Authenticity is going to be a big focus in a world where AI is becoming very popular. I think we’ll see a movement defining how we want to use AI in an ethical manner and establish standards for disclosing when AI is used in advertising and beyond.
Erica: Creating meaningful content that resonates with your audience will be more critical in 2025 than ever. By 2026, nearly half of all social media content created by businesses will be AI-generated, leaving social media feeds saturated with digital junk food. People have noticed and they aren’t pleased. Growing concerns worldwide about the impact of low-quality online content led Oxford University Press to name “brain rot” the Word of the year for 2024.
Cassandra: With the rise of AI, we also saw the rise of platform policing. You can’t use an AI-generated image or enable AI to write a post on Facebook or Instagram without the post receiving an “AI Info” badge. While this rollout on Meta was said to be proactive ahead of the fall election to squash the spread of disinformation, these guardrails are still in place - and will likely remain there for the foreseeable future.
And finally, Those who abandon strategy for the “shiny new thing” won’t see 2026…
Chandler: Just because your messaging is from the heart doesn't mean you can skimp on SEO marketing. Find a happy medium in all of your messaging that utilizes keywords (and more importantly, key phrases), but also resonates with your target audience. There are plenty of free resources available to help you achieve this. SparkToro is one we like.
Early on in my marketing career, I heard the phrase, “Let’s throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.” This was in reference to our marketing strategy. Yikes. For many organizations, a marketing strategy can be just that - a really messy guess based on what we can see.
Look, by the time you read this maybe TikTok will no longer be legal in the U.S. and people will be burrowing even further underground so marketers can’t find them. But we’re not worried. If you are placing your customers’ needs and employees’ stories ahead of your sales pitch - your audience will come to you. And, in our book, that means you are winning at this marketing thing.