This article first appeared in my marketing newsletter.\u00a0Subscribe here<\/a>\u00a0to be the first one to read new posts.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n TL;DR: Marketing trends will continue to shift A LOT this year\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Writing about\u00a0<\/strong>2024 marketing trends<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0I focused on the Big Five of trends, including Gen Z social media, UGC-style content, AI hype going down (I was wrong) and sustainability going up.<\/p>\n An important shift form the early 2020s is that\u00a0marketing strategies, tactics, and channels have become increasingly differentiated among B2B v.s. B2C,<\/strong>\u00a0virtual v.s. physical products.<\/p>\n Also, there\u2019s a whole new space of\u00a0AI marketing tools,<\/strong>\u00a0the Everything Bagel Magic Powder to sprinkle on tasks that must become\u00a0more efficient<\/em>. Will we want to go on eating, daily, fast-delivery but low-quality dishes that all taste the same?<\/p>\n In 2025, I decided to do the annual fortune telling slightly differently\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n As I failed to finalise my personal\u00a0INs and OUTs\u00a0<\/strong>list in time for the NYE (I got as far as\u00a0hypocrisy: OUT\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0coconut: IN<\/em>), I\u2019m going to make up for this oversight in my business-realm predictions.<\/p>\n Opinionated as ever, here come\u00a0my predictions for 2025 marketing trends\u00a0<\/strong>in six categories.<\/p>\n My experience being primarily in\u00a0brand, marketing, and growth strategies for Seed and A-round tech companies,<\/strong>\u00a0the forecasts are probably most relevant to the techy-unicorny world.<\/p>\n However, there will be food for thought (bagels!) for marketers\/founders in all industries.<\/p>\n AI will be a huge marketing trend in 2025, as it was already in the second half of 2024. <\/strong><\/p>\n The question is: do we actually want the resulting average-content tsunami <\/strong>to wash over our inboxes & feeds? <\/p>\n IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n Also IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n By the 2nd half of 2025, everyone is so tired of AI that we finally begin thinking with our own heads again.<\/strong><\/p>\n Bad marketers will be unable to restore their creative brain cells. Good marketers get lots of job offers and\/or a raise.<\/p>\n The key social media trend in 2025 will be: less is more<\/em>. <\/strong>Think high-quality content that really makes people (you yourself) want to engage with it.<\/p>\n IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n Big IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n Branding in 2025<\/strong> will take some interesting turns, from anti-AI storytelling<\/strong> to multi-million brand collaborations<\/strong> with film stars, pop artists, and top 1% social media creators. <\/p>\n IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n A very sad OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n In 2025, we\u2019re finally\u00a0admitting our hypocrisy as consumers: \u201cgreen\u201d equals not buying.<\/strong>\u00a0But instead of not buying, we\u2019ll simply stop talking about fake sustainability nonsense.<\/p>\n On the bright side,\u00a0second-hand and vintage apps + platforms will continue to thrive.\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s cheaper, more original, and delivered to your doorstep. And (!) things produced before Y2K (2000) have\u00a010x superior quality<\/strong>\u00a0v.s. current Big Retail output (same goes for luxury brands).<\/p>\n In advertising (both offline and online) there will be a drop in spending across platforms. <\/strong>Not only has the ROI of paid ads declined over the past five years \u2013 there is also less budget to spend.<\/p>\n IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b \u200b<\/p>\n Not to lose faith!\u00a0Many successful companies were launched during recession.<\/strong>\u00a0And it\u2019s because of\u00a0low competition, lower advertising costs, access to talent\u00a0<\/strong>that they could expand so fast. Think Uber, Airbnb, Slack, Pinterest, Instagram in 2008.<\/p>\n In 2025, high-quality web and brand aesthetics become key to earning customers\u2019 trust<\/strong>, as well as getting their attention in the first place. <\/p>\n Do not<\/em> rely on AI for your creatives. <\/strong><\/p>\n IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n As I observed in a\u00a0<\/strong>LinkedIn post,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>it was sad to see Adobe\u2019s annual design trends report shift from cool stuff to AI stuff this year.\u00a0For aesthetic inspiration in 2025<\/strong>, I recommend these two reports on Behance.\u00a0One<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>Two<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Traditional blog-based content marketing is dead in 2025.<\/strong> Content marketers will need to diversify into newsletters and social media marketing.<\/p>\n IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n All my predictions here are AI-free.<\/strong>\u00a0I wasn\u2019t even tempted to ask ChatGPT \u201cwhat are the marketing trends in 2025?\u201d It would simply scrape other blog articles, mostly by junior marketers. Would you really want to read those?<\/p>\n OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n Personal IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n \u200bThanks for reading!<\/p>\n Want more articles like this? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter with 15,000+ readers<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"2025](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2025-marketing-trends.png\")
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\u200bHigh-level OUT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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