We’ve noticed something unusual: strategists seem less eager to predict the future this year. There appear to be fewer trend reports in 2025. Some reports we love and rely on due to their brilliance haven’t surfaced (yet), and those that have seem lighter on insights.
What’s Happening?
The short answer is uncertainty. With generative AI reshaping the business landscape and geopolitics at their most unstable in decades, even inflation—that beacon of consumer behaviour—remains unpredictable despite our most educated guesses. This leaves us with two possible truths:
- This is the year where nothing is certain.
- Predictions may feel like déjà vu of the ones last year.
The political and economic instability is so pervasive that it is highlighted in top 4 The Economist’s predictions for 2025 (pages 50-51). Last year, The Economist focused on the unpredictability of the year of elections. This year’s theme revolves around renegotiating the global order, driven by factors like U.S. political transitions, aging populations, and the unexpected interplay between conflict, air travel and global tourism. Even AI, often a centrepiece of these reports, has taken a backseat to more urgent matters. The Economist advises “to expect the unbelievable.”
Attention in the Age of Uncertainty
In marketing, this translates to a renewed focus on attention. Not the post-COVID debate about the cumulative importance of each second the consumer actively views ads. This time we are negotiating with the growing number of people who do not want to look at our ads at all, no matter how skilfully crafted.
Why the Shift?
AI is producing content faster than humanly possible, but much of it lacks originality. Algorithms curate, but consumers act as the ultimate filter—an exhausting role, placing responsibility on humans to manage the content avalanche by providing algorithms with reaction-based indicators. As generative AI’s involvement makes this task feel infinite, it is no surprise that we are feeling tired and overloaded.
This has not gone unnoticed, and analysts are now asking deeper questions around how we notice and remember things:
- If attention is what makes us human, what does it mean to pay attention in the age of generative AI?
- Algorithmic online spaces shifted joy into competition, making consumers work for elusive, meaningless goals, like steps walked and books read. Even the quality of our sleep needs to be measured in order to be acknowledged. How do these goal-driven interactions in personal life reshape distribution of our attention?
- “Future burnout”: how does being lost between living and documenting life affects our feelings and hopes for the future?
- Can brands be more successful by prioritising quality of their output in spite of the algorithmic demands?
As a result, marketers are stripping down the approach and returning to time-tested basics:
- Quality-focused, genuine content.
- Minimal reliance on AI. It has its place, but that place isn’t reproducing more of the same faster!
- An unedited, authentic aesthetic. You are simply more interesting that way 😉.
- A focus on organic looking content, avoiding over-produced campaigns. It is not a stylistic choice but rather a strategic direction to engage a viewer who has grown used to instinctively skipping content that feels like an ad in under 2s.
Trend Reports: Understanding the “Me First” Consumer
This is an interesting intellectual discourse, but let’s talk about the consumer, I hear you say. Very well. Reports like IPSOS’s Global Trends that coined the term Nouveau Nihilism and Canvas8’s Year of ‘Me First’ highlight a profound consumer shift: people are drawing tighter boundaries, prioritising mental fortitude, looking for the feeling of safety and doubling-down on immediate personal fulfilment over long-term goals.
It is a shift in the way we think about time. The questions we choose to ask ourselves are subtle ways to renegotiate the pace of life, its meaning and our control over it:
What does it mean to be a certain age and have not done a certain thing? How long can a specific dream be delayed until we know it is time, or it is over? What are the movable parts of our situations the we can influence?
And perhaps most importantly, to feel more in control, we rethink what it means to be ‘human first’: to care about the quality of how we choose to live now and give ourselves permission to be less rational when faced with the world which makes less and less sense.
Culture analysts are also observing the fragmentation of the coping mechanisms we apply when overwhelmed: the divides between modernity and traditionalism (think – ‘trad wife’ and nostalgia content), globalisation and nationalism, tech optimism and fatalism are deepening. Rather unexpectedly, the appetite for subscribing to the extremes is dwindling too. As people choose to focus on themselves to manage the feeling of uncertainty (think – ‘soft life’ content), they are more willing to give space to others as they undertake similar journeys and arrive at answers that are more complex and personal than these divides usually allow.
A particularly interesting example of this is the trad wife movement. Canvas8 notes:
“For years we’ve been tracking this alt faith behaviour in culture, and what we’ve seen is that people are embracing alternative sources of authority. So, for me, the whole trad wife thing is the ultimate full circle of this kind of back to the systems that people were trying to escape from.”
-India Doyle, Editorial Director at Canvas8
Commenting on trad wife influencers, India highlights that their followers tend to be from across the political spectrum and that the more successful influencers choose over-the-top, performative and humorous presentation. This “gives fans across the board permission to indulge in this vision”, even if they themselves would not normally agree to what it represents.
Coping Strategies for Marketing in 2025
Digital spaces have stopped being innocent playgrounds of boundless fun. The 48-hour trend cycle is meaningless and exhausting. Consumers are stepping back from algorithms to care for their circadian rhythms and choose simple ways to resist platform superiority over privacy and content diets: they refuse to react to online content altogether or retrain the algorithm for their specific needs. Buying choices are officially no longer straight forward – just ask Google if you do not believe us!
So, dust off your marketing best practice books, pay more attention to behavioural science and your competitiveness. Not the usual ‘what-does-my-competitor-post-about’ line of questioning but take a good look at the core product strengths. They are at the heart of what you and your competitors do and can direct you in refining your product’s USP. Then rely on marketing to ensure that what you are best at is noticed and known.
This is our advice for 2025:
1. Quality over Quantity, Consistently.
With cheap content abundance comes consumer frustration. Make every interaction you create worth looking forward to.
2. Don’t Play by Algorithm Rules.
From your audience, algorithm demands superhuman engagement. That’s frustrating. For brands, algorithm boosts exposure, but ultimately prioritises people who spend more time on the platforms. It is the longer, less-polished content pieces that secure users who stay and convert, even if their reach is smaller.
3. Have a Human Presence.
In uncertain times, people seek other people – not faceless brands. This is why trend reports in 2025 are putting more emphasis on content creators as decision-making shortcuts and sources of trust. But research your partners carefully! It is often not the content topics that matter most but the style of communication and what type of audiences it attracts. The unexpected partnerships are usually the best performing.
4. Go Beyond Digital.
Balance your digital strategy with offline experiences. Be seen outside, in the open, where the air is fresh and memorable experiences are made. It doesn’t have to be expensive or even unique, and will look different to each brand, but it is important to consider these additional touchpoints and what a personal interaction with your customer looks like.
5. Recognise Your Invisible Audience.
Not all engagement is measurable. Many consumers, especially middle- to upper-class demographics, actively disengage from digital spaces. After all, with money comes the opportunities to have more interesting, internet-free personal time! Don’t overlook this less-visible audience. It is healthy to remember that in marketing the picture is always a little incomplete and act accordingly.
Final Thoughts
In the face of an unpredictable 2025, the principles of marketing and human behaviour will remain the same. By focusing on quality, human connection, and timeless principles, brands can remain relevant and meaningful in the eyes of their audience.