Predictions for 2025 started fast and furious before the calendar turned to November.
But as you've learned, marketing predictors are really bad at this.
Virtual and augmented reality should take off in 2023. And 2024 should be full of agile marketers striving to do innovative things to drive growth. This was supposed to be the year that AI would take off, as marketers' optimism would lead to a rapid and exciting adoption of the technology.
Brand safety should be another story in 2024. But as Forrester research shows, more than half (53%) of U.S. B2C marketing managers recently said they are becoming less “prudish” when it comes to brand safety.
Yes, predictions are fun, engaging, and exactly what people (including us at CMI) do. So keep everything in perspective.
With that in mind, we turn the microphone over to CMI's Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose to hear what he sees for 2025. Read on or watch the video:
Create moments, not momentum
What will be the focus in 2025?
Will it be SEO and content? Forrester predicts that SEO budgets will triple in 2025 as AI integration reaches a critical path point for search.
And how about AI? Well, research firm Kantar predicts that in 2025, marketers will place great emphasis on auditing and managing their data and its quality so that they, and therefore their customers, have more confidence in the content generated by generative AI.
There is a lot to clarify for 2025, especially with the US elections now complete. So let's grab the CMI Magic 8 Ball to see what will happen (or not happen) next year.
Brace Yourself: With the US federal election as a backdrop, I confidently see a wild and winding road ahead for marketers on the content journey.
Pressure will increase again when it comes to how brands talk about cultural and social issues. Regardless of where your brand stands in the culture wars, your most important job is to inspire belief and trust with your audience, and to do that you need to go beyond your normal content space.
Taking a stand as a brand while adapting to the changing landscape is here to stay. Young people want to see brands that share their ideals, and companies are really starting to understand that.
In many ways, marketers will look to create trustworthy moments rather than long-winded narratives. This may sound esoteric, but it is not. Marketers will create moments of surprise, delight and value rather than taking the time to build momentum through a long story.
Benefit from changing trust
If at all possible, trust is likely to decline. Expect the 2025 Edelman's Trust Barometer to see a decline in mainstream media and government. Nonprofits and for-profit companies could be the only two institutions moving in a positive direction when it comes to trust in 2025.
What does that mean? This refers to podcasts on radio and cable television. It's social media content rather than long-form downloadable PDFs. This means that paid media is becoming more digitalized and marketers are becoming less concerned about brand safety on social media platforms because the platforms themselves are less trustworthy than the brands that are on them.
From a social media perspective, this shift is good for platforms like TikTok. If your brand has been hesitant to invest in this platform because of the possibility of it disappearing, you can probably confidently make that bet now.
Work in an unregulated AI world
On the technology front, AI will continue to advance and any regulations surrounding the technology will lag behind. Don't expect any short-term clarity on issues such as copyright infringement or formal rules about where and how AI content can be used.
What about mergers and acquisitions in the marketing and content space? It should be interesting. Expect a flood of new AI-focused marketing tools to hit the market.
Additionally, more and more “marketing agent” tools are coming to market that promise to automate everything from your customer emails and drip campaigns to media buying. However, most of these announcements are steam, fueled by a bubbling venture capital market that will capitalize on the cryptocurrency's astronomical rise. And I wouldn't rule out a return of NFTs and other blockchain marketing solutions as the startup world and money takes a back seat again.
Be aware that this prediction is guaranteed
In short, while you wait to see if any of these dynamics come to fruition, one thing is for certain: marketing leaders, now more than ever, have A LOT to navigate. So, hold on tight.
The only prediction I really want to agree with is that brands will increase their investment in their teams – their time, training and wisdom – and increase the institutional value of their marketing teams and the people within them. AI and automation never falter with imaginary creativity.
I can guarantee that this one prediction will come true in 2025: you will have to be smarter, more creative and more empathetic than ever before. As Peter Drucker famously said, “The only way to predict the future is to create it.” It’s up to you to make 2025 what you want it to be.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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