Your 2025 marketing crystal ball

This newsletter comes from the hosts of The Marketing Architects, a research-first show answering your biggest marketing questions. Find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Remember your middle school years? Awkward growth spurts. Bad fashion choices. Well, we’re predicting that the marketing world is about to hit its own puberty in 2025. Get ready for growing pains, wild experiments, and hopefully—a glow-up for the history books. 

—Elena  

68% of marketers are positive about generative AI, but only 43% of consumers trust AI-generated ads.            

This disconnect between marketer excitement and consumer skepticism highlights the delicate balance brands must strike when using AI in their campaigns.

Everything’s about to change.         

Marketing is hitting an inflection point. The digital landscape we’ve relied on for the past decade is transforming beneath our feet. Zero-click content has reduced sources of website traffic. Agency business models are turning inside out.  

So what are we going to do about it? Here are our predictions for the biggest marketing shifts in 2025. 

1. Zero-click content will take over. Content designed to deliver value directly within platforms will dominate. With users increasingly resistant to leaving their preferred platforms, brands must adapt their strategies to maintain visibility and engagement without relying on click-throughs.
   
2. Agencies will enter their "puberty" era. The agency world faces an identity crisis as AI and changing client needs force rapid transformation. Expect bold moves, restructuring, and new business models as agencies reimagine how they deliver value.
   
3. Marketers will experience a targeting reset. Marketers will question hyper-targeting as evidence mounts that broader reach often delivers better ROI. Already, cookie deprecation, rising costs, and inaccurate third-party data are pushing brands to rethink their targeting approach. 

Listen in on our discussion.

“Marketing’s Next Chapter: The Age of AI and Adaptation”       

This comprehensive analysis from Kantar examines how AI transparency, evolving TV advertising, and retail media networks will shape marketing in 2025. 

Read the report.

Time to create marketing’s future.       

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." 

— Peter Drucker