Niche marketing gets Nicher
Mainstream culture feels increasingly homogenized. So people are escaping algorithm-driven platforms and finding a home in tight-knit closed groups, nurturing their unique identities and passions. Get ready for an upsurge in Niche Marketing in 2025, a trend that taps into personalization to gain the edge, moving from mass appeal to exclusivity. We’re expecting an upsurge in culturally relevant content on nicher platforms: Discord, Telegram, and Mighty Networks are on fire!.
TREND DIRECTION: Check out Sephora’s The Beauty Insider Community, a members-only social platform for the beauty obsessed.
Curated Connections
Growing isolation, instability and media fragmentation (40% of Gen Z report feeling at risk of loneliness, Foresight Factory) will fuel a craving for community. Brands that can curate connection through human-centric IRL interactions and campaigns fostering shared experiences will win big. From Nike’s Running Club App to Ben & Jerry’s social activism events, brands are growing communities at quicker rates.
TREND DIRECTION: Lululemon hosts blissful yoga sessions, wellness retreats, and community events in store!
Democratising Entertainment
As AI skills get slicker, we’re predicting a booming trend towards democratised entertainment. Build your own streaming platform, or make a full-length movie? Now you can! As audiences and creators gain control, branded content will be more interactive than ever and storytelling formats are giving audiences autonomy. Watch out for platforms like Disney+ and Netflix as they expand choose-your-own-adventure formats across certain shows.
TREND DIRECTION: Unilever’s TikTok collab “Dirty Deeds: A Kitchen Crime” –
a short-form soap opera – exemplifies this trend.
AI goes Autonomous
Gartner predicts Agentic AI agents will change the game in 2025. Get ready for AI to work autonomously, evolving from the junior hire you’re constantly overseeing to the executive getting the job done. Consumer interaction and decision making will happen with little human intervention. What’s more, new tools will execute marketing solutions, from writing code to video production, at the push of a button. So how will marketers balance automation with human-driven creative thinking and innovation?
TREND DIRECTION: A wave of launches from Oracle’s Miracle Agent to Microsoft’s Work Recall with Copilot Vision are setting the scene.
Value-Added Strategies
Consumer confidence looks glass-fragile into 2025, as people battle high living costs, stagnating wages, and political upheaval globally (First Insight). More than ever, a brand must define its value proposition, whether that’s based on quality, affordability, or a unique customer experience (McKinsey). Communicating value across the media mix, while fighting harder for market share will be business-critical.
TREND DIRECTION: Patagonia’s “The Shitthropocene” film leans into the value of product longevity and disses over-consumption.
A Rise in the East
We’re predicting an East turning tide. Worldwide, the economy is set to grow at a “stable yet underwhelming”rate in 2025 (IMF), but Chinese brands are finding favour in the West, offering value and quality (27% of global consumers associate Chinese products with value for money McKinsey). Tourism is also set to skyrocket in Japan (Skift). So partnerships and collaborations with Asian brands is a step all brands can take.
