At a time when major influencers like Léna Situation and Inoxtag are encouraging digital detoxification, digital marketing is facing new challenges. While artificial intelligence must always be better exploited to achieve maximum productivity, it is also essential to maintain and develop the human dimension. And this is both to target each audience around the world and to build loyalty, particularly by maintaining the consistency of a brand story.
To find your way around the latest digital marketing trends in 2025, Brandwatch's annual report, the Digital Marketing Trends, provides industry specialists with the keys thanks to a study that is both qualitative and quantitative. It contains the essential points for successful campaigns with some advice. Enough to give you ideas for your new projects for the year.
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Multiply surprising collaborations to get people talking online
According to Digital Marketing Trends, 36% of marketers believe that unexpected collaborations between companies, such as the one between the skincare brand Cerave and the actor Michael Cera, will be a very influential trend in 2025. For good reason, Cerave's campaign, which humorously played on words, was viewed more than 850,000 times and the channel was flooded with comments. Thus, a favorable impression of the brand image was given.
This underlines an analysis by Brandwatch Customer Research which indicates that nearly 75% of the 9 million mentions associated with consumer reactions to collaborations between brands report a positive sentiment. However, beyond partnerships between companies, we should not hesitate to bet on influencers and personalities sharing a similar target audience.
Added to this is the creation of limited edition products, an action that allows us to exploit the "Fear of missing out" (FOMO). In French, this means the fear of missing out on something. A way of attracting consumers whose lever must not be forgotten. Indeed, launching limited edition items, thus exploiting FOMO, makes potential customers even more vigilant and impatient to discover the brand's new products.
This is what e.l.f and Liquid Death did in 2024: the alliance of makeup and sparkling water by creating a limited edition makeup box in the shape of a coffin that allowed buyers to create KISS-style looks. The partnership was a huge success: all the boxes were sold out in just 45 minutes.
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Demonstrate bold creativity at events physical
In order to reinforce the feeling of scarcity, and therefore FOMO, but also to encourage the publication of user-generated content, the organization of aesthetic and unusual events is emerging as one of the key trends of the coming year. More than 60% of the marketers surveyed agree.
“We are seeing more and more companies and consumers interested in creating personalized and exclusive interactive experiences, which belong to the brand itself rather than to the large traditional platforms,” says one of the experts interviewed by Brandwatch.
This is what the suitcase and bag brand Béis did by offering a “washing station” service for bags for a weekend. As if they were cleaning their vehicle, participants put their Béis item in a roller machine. Once their bag was washed, consumers left with a maintenance manual and, ideally, with a few purchased products. In stores and on social networks, it was a success.
While 67% of the 5.24 million mentions related to localized content and events are perceived positively, you should not hesitate to launch a project of this type.
Communities for new forms of marketing opportunities
Beyond creating buzz, content generated by Internet users inspires more credibility. The trust placed by consumers in your brand image will be strengthened. In order to serve this goal, communities represent a great opportunity. Red Bull, which has established itself in the world of extreme sports, is one example. Another is the opening of a café for the dating app Bumble in Paris. Conclusion: Bringing together potential customers and users makes it easier to acquire and retain them.
There’s no need to blush if these means seem disproportionate to the size of your structure. You can also rely on existing community groups, such as a trendy café. The key is to find what speaks to your subscribers outside of your brand and to ensure that you offer an experience that is worth it.
Digital detox
Proposing the collaboration or physical event that will go viral, managing to exploit the opportunities linked to your community, are just a few points of a successful marketing strategy. It is also essential to understand many other axes, in particular the emergence of a more moderate approach to social networks. Digital detox or complete disconnection, new habits are developing and require increasing interactions in real life.
This trend is also marked by the emergence of the “dumb phone”, as opposed to the smartphone. Between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024, discussions about “dumb phones” increased by 43%. These new challenges are added to those relating to optimizing AI use, but also to those aimed at disrupting Search techniques that lead consumers to explore other alternatives to access the information they are looking for.
HDM and Barbie have understood this well and have teamed up to release a retro pink flip phone, without access to social networks, to help consumers reduce their screen time.
Download the study "Digital Marketing Trends 2025"
700 specialists and 500 million discussions analyzed
Taking on these issues is essential to approach your 2025 projects from the best angle. To discover them in detail and understand them with concrete examples, reading Brandwatch’s Digital Marketing Trends is something to add to your to-do list.
Based on internal data gathering more than 500 million online discussions, interviews with Brandwatch experts and a survey of more than 700 marketers, we promise that this resource will provide actionable insights to inform your decision-making, always supported by examples. So don't hesitate to download the white paper, other relevant and interesting topics are to be discovered.
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