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In 2025, “marketing trends” finally stopped being just shiny toys and started splitting into two camps: the ones that actually drove measurable growth… and the ones that burned time, budget, and brand trust. Here are the top 5 winners and the top 5 busts that shaped the year.
Top 5 successful marketing trends in 2025
1) Retail media marketing trends grew up (and ate a big chunk of the budget)
Retail media networks moved from “interesting” to essential. Brands poured more dollars into on-site search, sponsored listings, and retailer data partnerships because it’s closer to the point of purchase—and easier to justify in a boardroom. Multiple outlooks pointed to retail media outpacing the broader ad market and even overtaking TV ad revenue in 2025.
Why it worked: It’s performance-friendly, commerce-adjacent, and gives marketers cleaner measurement compared to some open-web targeting chaos.
2) Short-form video stayed king (because attention spans didn’t magically come back)
Despite all the “video is saturated” hand-wringing, short-form continued delivering ROI. HubSpot’s 2025 findings highlight short-form video as a leading format for ROI and planned investment.
Why it worked: It’s native to how people discover brands now: fast, mobile, personality-driven, and algorithm-amplified.
3) Creator partnerships in marketing trends shifted from “influencer posting” to “distribution strategy.”
In 2025, innovative brands stopped treating creators like billboards and started treating them like channels. Affiliate-led creator ecosystems (and “shop from my page” behavior) continued to drive product discovery and conversion, especially for DTC and retail brands.
Why it worked: Trust + relevance beats polished ads. Micro-creators and authentic voices consistently outperform “corporate trying to be cool.”
4) Social commerce got more real (TikTok Shop, live shopping, and frictionless checkout)
Social commerce matured from being less gimmicky to being more infrastructure-oriented. Big retailers leaned into TikTok Shop-style hubs, live selling, and in-app purchasing with measurable sales lift (not just views).
Why it worked: The fewer clicks between “want” and “buy,” the better. Convenience wins.
5) Measurement leveled up: incrementality + MMM stopped being “for enterprise only.”
Marketers got more serious about proving what actually works. Marketing mix modeling (MMM) and incrementality testing gained traction as teams tried to move beyond last-click attribution and platform-reported ROAS. EMARKETER/TransUnion survey data showed a meaningful push toward MMM investment and confidence in it as a methodology.
Why it worked: When budgets tighten (or scrutiny rises), “trust me” marketing dies. Proof-based marketing survives.
Top 5 marketing trend busts in 2025
1) “AI did it” marketing (when it replaced craft instead of supporting it)
AI assisted marketing had a great year. But fully AI-generated creative, especially when it felt uncanny, cheap, or cynical, triggered real backlash. The McDonald’s Netherlands AI holiday ad is a clean example: considerable attention, bad vibes, pulled campaign.
And the bigger signal: governments are moving toward AI-ad disclosure rules, which will raise the stakes on trust and transparency.
Lesson: Use AI to speed up drafts and workflows, but keep humans responsible for taste, truth, and tone.
2) “Personalization” that was really over-messaging
A lot of brands confused personalization with volume: more pushes, more emails, more “Hey {FirstName}!” and customers responded with fatigue and disengagement. Reports on marketing fatigue in 2025 point directly at excessive or poorly timed messaging as a driver of churn-y behavior.
Lesson: Relevance beats frequency. Fewer, better messages outperform “always on” noise.
3) Betting the farm on third-party cookies and legacy retargeting
The cookie story kept changing, and the marketers who built strategies assuming a single, clean “cookie apocalypse” timeline lost time. Google shifted toward a user-choice approach rather than complete deprecation, while continuing to tighten protections in areas like Incognito and introducing new tracking protections.
Lesson: Whether cookies disappear tomorrow or limp along for years, the direction is clear: invest in first-party data, contextual, and measurement that doesn’t depend on perfect tracking.
4) Brand-unsafe media buys (especially where trust is collapsing)
If your paid strategy ignored brand safety, 2025 punished you. Kantar data showed a significant share of marketers planned to reduce ad spend on X in 2025, driven by concerns about brand safety and trust.
Lesson: Cheap impressions aren’t cheap if they torch trust. “Where your ads appear” is part of your brand.
5) Culture-war positioning without credibility (aka “purpose” as a costume)
2025 was a reminder that brands don’t get to borrow identity or values for a campaign and then act surprised when people react. Edelman-style trust dynamics (and real-world examples) show that consumers interpret silence, inconsistency, or opportunism as a signal, and that backlash is faster than ever.
Lesson: If you’re going to take a stand, it has to match your actions, history, and customer reality. Otherwise, stay focused on what you actually do well.
The Bottom Line: Marketing Trends for 2026 planning
The winners in 2025 had one thing in common: they made marketing simpler for the customer—clearer discovery, fewer clicks, more trust, better proof. The busts did the opposite: they added noise, eroded credibility, or chased shortcuts.
Need help? That’s what we are here for. Contact TCHQ Communications today at 502-209-7619.
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