One Year’s Trauma, Next Year’s Fortune

Author: Alice Pukhova, Creative Researcher at WMH&I

One Year’s Trauma, Next Year’s Fortune

With 2025 truly underway, we summarise 2024 in one word: “inconclusive.” Despite the bombardment of world-shattering events, last year had a deafening lack of overarching identity, leaving the public struggling to find its place in the chaos. The war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine remained unresolved. The US faced instability under the leadership of a “horse let loose in a hospital,” while unsatisfying elections in the UK and a growing split between Europe’s alt-right and moderate left depened the rift.

These tensions of 2024 permeated many parts of culture, setting the stage for 2025—a year that demands answer. Answers that brands, media, and pop culture can help provide.

Fatigue. Dissolution. Unease. Fatigue. Dissolution. Unease. 

In 2024, mass culture felt stagnant, unresolved, and nebulous.  Fatigue from trend-driven obsessions fully set in, as short-lived trends like cottagecore, mob wife aesthetic, and clean girl, requiring incredible commitment, quickly faded. Political discourse remained trapped in cyclical debates—gender wars, immigration, class divide—offering no fresh perspectives and leaving the public disillusioned. In art, the unease continued with AI-generated works losing their novelty and gaining apprehension. However, this depressing state of mainstream media opens doors for return of exciting and holistic individuality in 2025. Hints of a return to personal style and a focus on core identity are beginning to emerge and are expected to grow in 2025.

The political stagnation could spark a shift in 2025, as people seek nuanced opinions and begin to break free from online echo chambers. Even celebrity culture, traditionally fuelled by sensationalism, began embracing complexity, as seen in the Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively case. Meanwhile, the creative world is attempting to resist the AI takeover and celebrate originality and artistry – something that AI cannot replicate.

So, what does this confusing year mean for marketing in 2025?

Marketing in 2025: Predictions in the Wake of 2024

The last few years have seen a significant shift in the marketing meta. Purpose-led campaigns aimed at addressing global struggles gave way to unyielding positivity designed to provide escape. Brands have gone from green-washing to green-hushing. We sawthis positivity reach a saturation point. Bright colours, surreal visuals, and snappy taglines no longer stand out—they blend into a noisy landscape. This leaves marketing in a liminal state: neither here nor there. Yet from this uncertainty, clear trends for 2025 are emerging.

The Antidote to Generative AI

Generative AI exploded onto the scene three years ago, with adoption rates skyrocketing not just by independent creators but by big brands. The various brand videos, campaigns, and other miscellaneous brand assets created through generative AI have been receiving backlash for being uninspiring and lazy. We can clearly see AI fatigue set in in 2024, as the public grows tired of this generated content. AI’s reliance on existing data makes its outputs derivative, and the more it is used, the more it risks training on its own content, leading to even poorer results.

This overexposure has created an appetite for something completely opposite: nature. As the epitome of organic intelligence—wild, uncurated, and revered—nature is poised to become a central source of inspiration in design.

By the end of 2025, we may see brands turning to natural imagery and narratives to stand out against the sterile sameness of AI-generated content. This shift is already underway in the UK, with initiatives like Agency for Nature, a pop-up agency highlighting the beauty of the natural world for younger audiences.

Beyond Authenticity

Authenticity has long been a marketing buzzword, but in 2025 it will need to evolve into something deeper. As holistic individuality takes root, people are turning inward and towards their communities to define their identities. As the public is experiencing a renewed focus on personal style, beliefs, and desires rather than conforming to fleeting trends, brands will need to do the same and reflect their core values with authenticity.

This isn’t just about tailoring ads; it’s about introspection. The brands that succeed in 2025 will be those that know themselves—those with a strong sense of identity and a clear voice. This mirrors the broader cultural shift: people are tired of the noise and seeking something real, whether it’s in their personal lives or the brands they choose to support.

The Human Touch

The shift towards recognising humanity in brand content has been gaining momentum since 2022, but it truly accelerated in 2023 and 2024. This trend stems, in part, from the overexposure to AI and a growing audience desire for authenticity—imperfections and human touches in creative work. Art forms that are less touched by computers, such as stop motion, hand-drawn animations, and live-action puppetry, have become particularly appealing and are gaining popularity. D&AD’s Annual Trend Report for 2024 encapsulates this sentiment with what they call “The Human Toolkit”: “We’re witnessing a slow disappearance of creativity’s analogue essence, and it’s giving rise to increasing nostalgia and a retreat from technology.” This yearning for the human touch extends to social media, where Gen Z, once dubbed “digital captives,” have begun embracing older technologies like digital cameras, fostering a more thoughtful and intentional relationship with technology.

Meeting People Halfway

Although the internet has made everything more accessible, the trends it perpetuates have paradoxically become increasingly inaccessible. Fashion trends demanding an entirely new wardrobe, 12-step Korean skincare routines, and constant facial exercises like mewing have created unattainable standards. While these trends historically targeted women, they are now being directed at young cishet men as well. However, 2025 may mark a turning point.

These trends are becoming so unsustainable that people are rejecting them in favour of something more accessible. A clear example is the rise of “brat summer,” a pop culture phenomenon that embraces trashiness, shamelessness, and a bratty attitude. With its low barrier to entry, brat summer embodies “meeting people where they’re at.” To be “brat” you simply need to be messy, unapologetic, and perhaps a pair of fishnets and a crop top. 

For brands, this is a crucial reminder to meet people where they are rather than aspirational extremes. People are tired of reimagining their identities to follow a trend, and in 2025 people will start following trends that have a low barrier to entry and align with the lives they already lead.

The real thing

In a world where data is king and AI is rising through the ranks, marketers have only one way forward: reconnect with your humanity and trust your intuition. 2025 offers a critical opportunity to get ahead by embracing individuality, accessibility, and nuance. Brands must move beyond surface-level messaging, introspect, and reflect their true values to resonate with an audience craving substance.

This is the year to move past marketing jargon and to meet people where they are—seeking something truly, really real. 

Author: Alice Pukhova, Creative Researcher at WMH&I

Source: WMH&I

  Agency, Alice Pukhova, Opinion Piece, WMH&I