It’s the end of the year, and you know what that means? It’s time for a 2025 predictions list. That’s just how it goes, gang. Before the calendar turns, you will get obligatory best of list or predictions list blogs. You want to get to 2025, but don’t want to read an end of the year lists? That’s just silly.
Genius Marketing Predictions
Let’s make a few guesses about where marketing is going as we head into the quarter mark of the century. Are we sure all of this will happen? Nope. Markets change, habits evolve, and advancements in technology just sort of pop up. (Tupac hologram ads might be just around the corner…)
Anti-AI vs. AI
The implementation of AI is likely to grow. Digital marketing is already seeing a boom in the use of AI, so like it or not, it’s here to stay. Getting this genie back in the bottle is going to prove nigh-impossible. Now it’s about finding ways to use AI effectively and efficiently, without eliminating jobs. Perhaps, even, adding new ones.
More Companies Will Invest in “Offline” Experiences
In 2025, we’re all about “touching grass” lacking a better phrase. The world’s march to normalization post-pandemic will continue. Not to toot our horn, but we did speak about the value of trade shows and in-person marketing. We’re thinking experiential marketing events, pop-ups, or community-building efforts will be part of brands efforts to build loyalty and enhance consumer engagement.
Increase in Video
Video remains king when it comes to marketing—that won’t be changing. YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and the granddaddy of them all, TikTok, ensure the video share of the marketing pie will expand further. Despite our waning national attention span, long form content still has its place. Engaging and authentic storytelling is always going to move the needle and in 2025, video will be still the best way to do it.
End of Intrusive Marketing
In 2025, intrusive marketing tactics like pop-up ads and autoplay ads will keep fading like a toddler on a long car ride. More consumer-friendly approaches like native advertising and opt-in experiences will grain traction. Mind you, it’s only a prediction, but raise your hand if you would like less pop-up ads in your life? What are you doing? Put your hand down, you look ridiculous.
Top Social Media Trends of 2025
You can’t get around social media. Sorry. It’s impossible to be the cool cousin from Baltimore that never trusted Mark Zuckerberg and refused to create a Facebook count, so now not having social media is your whole personality. Your mindset needs to be like Arial from The Little Mermaid, you “wanna go where the people are.”
More AI Platform Integrations for Social Media Analytics
Social media platforms and brands are embracing AI integration. This is streamlining the way brands gather insight, better known as that sweet, sweet costumer data. This is the safest bet on this list.
AI Content
If you’re seeing content on social media, you’re surely seeing AI content via text, image and video generation. Which comes with a few benefits, like speed and scalability you couldn’t get otherwise. There are some drawbacks in terms of maintaining authenticity, the respect of your peers, and just generally creeping people out, but it’s all about finding balance, probably.
More Personable and Organic Content Will Win
Time to get real—figuratively and literally. Customers respond to more organic and personalized content. Brands like Dove and Ben & Jerry’s lean into authenticity. That authenticity equals dollar signs. Which “research” says is fantastic.
Video Content Will Still Be King
The emergence of video content on social media has transformed the way advertising works. Live-streaming, shoppable videos, and interactive video ads have opening new avenues for brands to reach customers. And the great thing about social media is it allows you to tailor your content to specific audience demographics on different platforms.
Employee Generated Content
If your people aren’t going to champion your brand, how can you expect customers to do the same? You can’t. What better way to build trust with your customers while showing off your work culture than employee generated content? A car dealership in upstate New York offers a perfect example of the magic that happens when employee content humanizes a brand. And it’s genuinely funny.
Social Media as a Search Engine
Google may want to avoid genericide, but there’s a reason they’ve become synonymous with internet search. If you’re looking for something on the internet, you’ll typically “googling” it. But when audience are searching for how to “do” something, they’ve learned to cut out the middleman that can be Google.
Search through social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok lets customers escape the clutter that has become “recommended search” to find examples of real people fixing that sink, cooking that recipe, or learning that new dance craze. This shift means brands should look into optimizing content for discoverability and leveraging hashtags, keywords, and platform-specific SEO.
Ready for one last prediction? We see you finally maximizing your brand’s potential and taking your next product to bold new heights? How might you accomplish this? Effortless, in fact. Just fill out the contact form below and let us know what time works best for you to chat about all things branding with a genius.