Marketing forecast for 2025: Trends that will blow up

2025 is coming soon, and marketing weather will be a wild ride this time. No more calm skies, expect more showers of creativity, lightning of AI and machine learning, and strong winds of disruption in go-to marketing plans. The weather forecast every year after Christmas takes a new turn; this time, the skies are anything but ordinary. The forecast for 2025 promises excitement, competition, and analytical thinking.

Be ready to chase the bright skies of customer loyalty. This time, your customer needs more than just a jacket! Let's dive into the 2025 marketing forecast with Boch & Fernsh. Like every changing season, winter ends with constant change, a promise of a new year and newer surprises, and honestly, so does the marketing 'Mausam'. First, 2025 is not just going to be a creative ride. Be prepared for tech advancement and a smarter customer perspective.

Buckle up, Marketers!

Go literally vocal with Voice Search 

With Alexa and other voice assistants, and a little bit lazy lifestyle, shopping via voice assistance is getting exceptional interest. Like a nice breezy sunny day when you love to step out, voice search is exactly the medium that will keep your customers ready for a relaxed yet chirpy picnic. Integrating voice-activated promotion, personalised recommendation, and machine learning, Voice search is improving day by day as convenience-oriented for customers, this adoption will create a new marketing channel for e-com brands that rely heavily on customer search. 

Get Micro with narrative ads

You have heard of micro-influencers, and now micro-narratives - even shorter than short ads or as we call thumb-scrolling content, will see exponential growth. These come rarely, like a beautiful rainbow after rain - ones we love to see and enjoy even for a few seconds. With so much content already out in the market, the attention span has dropped to 3 seconds - a challenge worth accepting for marketers.

Quantum computing for better performance

All in the world that is needed for your brand or marketing plan to succeed is data. Quantum computing sounds too heavy, think of this strategy as a beautiful cluster of stars in a clear sky - not seen often but beautiful. This strategy will be a game-changer to crunch heavy databases and help your brand identify opportunities that our traditional strategies could not. The optimisation level will be high and become the go-to move for deeper and more powerful personalisation. 

Only-Subscription-based advertising 

With consumers heavily following the subscription trend to avoid nasty, boring, unwanted ads, subscription-based platforms that offer ad-free experiences or with limited ads will filter out ads with premium and non-intrusive content. Ones that align with users' preferences, pushing brands and marketers to thoughtfully shower content rain.

It's all about ambience in marketing

With the rise in AR & VR, content marketing is subtly creating an ambience around story-telling to make advertisements more real and natural. Artificial ambience that helps brand managers to leverage and control the weather as per customers' interest. Technology will not stop becoming innovative, and your customers love the breeze of fresh air. Keep your strategies ready for ambient marketing.

Integrating generative AI 

80% of digital marketers will be using AI in the near future as per IAB. The role of automation and optimising marketing strategies by AI is becoming prevalent. A great way to improve efficiency and reduce redundancy.

Forget volume, focus on communities

Customers are ready to go further than just shopping. While having offers and discounts, and bunch of ads might give a quick high return but there is no longevity. Make your customer love the season of winter rather than giving them one or two cold breeze night. They become loyal when they are part of something bigger than the brand. Communities are the seed for brand’s long term growth plan.

Shift your ROAS focus to LTV

Gone are the days where everything was about return on ad spends. The climate is changing drastically, even for marketing.  In 2025, shift your focus from quick returns to lifetime value of your customer. One-time purchase customer can never beat the ones who come back every season. 

While the coming weather seems new, let's not forget about the safety kit of this year's weather that will continue to shine bright in the sky!

Some trends/strategies that worked in 2024 are expected to cloud even in 2025. 

More of UGC content to rise

The customer listens to what other customer says. Influencers are on one side with their big budget, but real customers or as we like to call user-generated content are competing uptight to stay on top of our marketing funnels. Lesser budget - better content, real customers - more purchases. UGC boomed in 2024 and will continue to dominate as one of the favourite marketing strategies even in 2025. 

Snackable content

Customers love what's candid, fun, short, and to the point. Anything that is easy on the mind and pleasing to the eyes will continue to get love even in 2025. Keep your content crisp and snackable and your audience likes drama but loves simple things even more.  

Mobile first everything

Call it reels, call in thumb-scroller - make everything that fits the screen in your palm. That's it. It requires no other justification. 

Sustainability

Our audience is shaken awake by the changing scales of a healthy environment. Anything that is or comes closer to sustainable environment/environment friendly will continue to thrive and get positive responses. 

To conclude, think of 2025 not as a storm but more like many seasons within a season. That might sound not so environment friendly but that's the truth. 2025's marketing forecast is all about agility, innovation, and action. Well, a cliche statement to close this forecast report - marketers don't really wait for weather forecasts - they make one! 

Get ready to use this marketing forecast for 2025 and create your weather kit!

This article is penned by Chirag Shah, Founder and Creative Head, Boch & Fernsh.

Disclaimer: The article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the stance of the publication.