For this guide, we studied 200+ presentations and trend books from international companies, supplemented them with our own experience, and got a selection of key SMM trends in 2025.
From this material, you will learn in detail:

what global trends for all people on the planet a marketer needs to take into account in their work;

how habits of searching and consuming information are changing;

what role does the global change of poles of power and the strengthening of political, economic and socio-cultural localism play;

how people's life priorities are changing;

why the theory of generations and the characteristics of content consumption by people of different ages will play an increasingly important role;

how marketing is changing with the development of neural networks and other new technologies.

Four Key Brand Marketing Trends in 2025

There are four global trends - these are trends common to the whole world and are relevant for most of the world's population.

1

Changing information consumption habits

90% of the world's data has been generated over the past two years. And the volume of content produced has grown 74 times over the past 13 years. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the audience to interact with excessive amounts of content and advertising. They are burnt out and satiated. Because of this, banner blindness is increasing, and even native formats do not always save the day.

Digital graphics, sound, memes, newsjacking, unexpected formats, and games are the most relevant ways to overcome banner blindness in 2025. We will talk about this in more detail below.

2

Changing life priorities

“Successful success”, which was trendy 5-10 years ago, is gradually losing its relevance today. Many people no longer want to endlessly engage in achievement. Life comfort and building an optimal work-life balance are becoming a trend.

Against the backdrop of this trend, issues of reducing working hours are being raised at the state level in different countries: introducing a six-hour working day or a four-day working week.

Brands are also noting this trend. One way or another, they use it in content and collaborate with influencers who motivate people to make time for themselves: communicating with loved ones, hobbies, interests, traveling.

3

Generational change

A few years ago, the main audience for brands on social networks were millennials (people of generation Y, born between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s — editor's note). This is the first digital generation that has long been using social networks to search for information about brands and products, as well as to buy them.

Today, brand marketers need to take into account the "z" (people of generation Z, born between the late 1990s and the late 2000s — editor's note). They have grown up, are starting families, and have children. They hold high-paying jobs and open businesses. They buy cars and apartments, food and household goods. In 5-7 years, they will be the most massive, active and solvent audience of social networks.

Next in line is the "alpha" generation, the oldest representatives of which have already become teenagers. People of different generations interact with content and choose products differently. These differences should be taken into account when segmenting your audience as part of your marketing strategy.

4

Tech Trends

The development of artificial intelligence is a global technological trend that will influence many aspects of people's lives in the coming decades. It is already being used to create designs. Children's books are sold with augmented reality, fictional characters come to life with the help of neural networks, and 3D museum tours are created.

It should also be borne in mind that global trends manifest themselves differently in different countries. Below, we will talk in more detail about current approaches and tools for solving brand marketing problems in social networks.

Changing information consumption habits

Due to the exponential growth of content, audiences are becoming increasingly banner blind and even native advertising formats are performing worse.

We have come to the conclusion that the era of sales marketing is over and a higher level era is beginning – the era of attention marketing.

The way brands engage their audiences is constantly changing because yesterday's methods are no longer impressive today.

Here are some approaches brands should use in 2025.

Build your own authenticity

Brand authenticity is the meanings it conveys to the audience. Social networks help convey meanings, attract users with certain values, and create an emotional connection with them. The brand's behavior on the market, its content, its products, and its messages should be focused on the people closest to the brand - its target audience.

Use hyper-realistic FOOH advertising

FOOH is Fake Out Of Home, fake outdoor advertising. For example, giant bags, wine bottles, lipstick leaving a mark on the asphalt, which are superimposed on a video from the “real world” using augmented reality tools. The first FOOH videos immediately went viral. The deliberately casual style of filming and vertical videos also played a role.

Hyper-realistic FOOH advertising is still attracting attention and is memorable. Use it now, because soon it will surprise no one.

Introduce ASMR content

The term ASMR comes from medicine. It is an autonomous sensory meridian response, a feeling of peace, joy, relaxation and one of the most popular search queries on YouTube. ASMR in SMM means content that triggers this reaction in a person.

The main triggers of such content are: sounds recorded on condenser microphones, visual manipulation, role-playing games, manipulation of food, crushing something.

These can be videos with a static picture that use the sound of rain, sounds associated with creativity, sounds of cooking, a quiet human voice (whispering), breathing. Or a video that demonstrates the work of a chef or makeup artist, such videos usually only have hands.

A striking example of such content is videos in which TikTokers simply eat. In a matter of hours, they gain millions of views.

Not only bloggers use ASMR content, global brands have also long adopted it. The hiss of Coca-Cola, the sounds of the New Year... Do you remember?

It is more difficult to exploit this effect in advertising, because a classic ASMR video lasts at least half an hour. Nevertheless, brands should use ASMR content while it is at its peak among bloggers.

It does not require involvement, but relaxation, and this is unusual. No one knows how long the effect of unusualness will work. But definitely not for long.

Use memes in advertising

Memes are a key element of modern digital culture and an integral part of social media content. They are topical, they are emotional, they help to tune in with the audience.

Memes in advertising, as a rule, use jokes that have already gained popularity. But there is one nuance - no one can predict whether a meme will reach the audience or not. Today, a post can get crazy coverage, and tomorrow there will be not a single like. That's it, a new meme has appeared. And yours is already outdated and uninteresting, disappeared into the pit of banner blindness.

Yalla Tours, for example, has developed unique entertainment content that has gained more than 1.8 million views. Unlike other travel companies that focus on places and facts, Yalla Tours uses creative and exciting content that people are happy to share on social networks.

Thus, they successfully create a positive image of their company and effectively promote their services!

Newsjacking is still going strong

Don't forget about guerrilla marketing, it still works. For example, content based on other people's news, or newsjacking.

Perhaps the most famous example of newsjacking occurred almost a decade ago at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans. After a faulty relay caused a power outage for several minutes, Oreo responded with a Twitter post that set the Internet on fire.
This very simple, but expertly timed tweet remains one of the best examples of newsjacking done right in a split second.

People come to social media to play

Use games. People don’t like to work, people like to relax, so game content holds attention longer.

The simplest way to use advergaming is to create digital games that convey key brand messages.

For example, Duolingo is a revolutionary language learning platform that uses gamification to make learning fun and interactive. Users earn experience points, level up, and receive rewards as they progress through language lessons, just like a game.

Changing life priorities

In recent years, the ideology of "successful success" has gone out of fashion. It is being replaced by the concept of work-life balance and development in the comfort zone.

The trend towards a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition and physical activity is softening, the focus is shifting towards self-development and mental health.

Here's what brands can do in 2025 to play on this trend.

Create content that emphasizes the value of comfort

Unrealistic images of young billionaire achievers are outdated. People no longer need additional motivation, they are tired of constantly achieving and achieving something. Moreover, this is increasingly perceived as a deception.

Content with a healthy lifestyle vibe is relevant for brands, collaborations with those who broadcast a conscious approach to health and emotional harmony.

Make the content more human

People buy from people. This phrase is becoming more and more important.

Use UGC. Your customers' stories, their emotions and their creativity will work to promote the brand. The simplest example of such content is reviews from real people, with accounts where you can go and see that this is the same person as you.

As an example, we can take a great example from Nike, which launched the "Play For The World" campaign, calling on its fans to share their sports achievements on social networks using the hashtag #PlayForTheWorld. The brand chose the most inspiring stories and shared them, giving users well-deserved recognition and a sense of belonging to a large community of athletes.

Use retro design and nostalgic motifs in content

This is a win-win format that takes us back to our parents' childhood and youth. Millennials and Generation Z are actively immersing themselves in creative nostalgia, remembering the times when everything was much simpler.

The nostalgia trend is global. Using nostalgic motifs, Nintendo released a mini version of the legendary NES with 30 hit games in 2016. The hits included Super Mario, a game that the third generation is already playing.

Generational change

Big brands spend a lot of marketing efforts on teenagers - so far only future consumers of goods and services, but already full-fledged consumers of information. Those who win their trust now will benefit from it in the near future.

Dialogue with Generation Y

The “Y” generation is also called the Pepsi generation, the Next generation, and even the Peter Pan generation, due to their tendency to delay entering adulthood.

Millennials are now the largest group of consumers. This generation is essentially the first digital one, initiating an unprecedented technological leap, but it still remembers pagers, modem sounds, and payphones on the streets.

Trends for nostalgia, games, work-life balance — almost everything we talk about is about them and for them. At the same time, it is important to understand that Russian millennials are different from people of their generation in other countries.

Permanent economic crises have harshly adjusted their dreams and aspirations during their growing up. And although the oldest millennials are already over forty, many of them do not even think about growing up. They missed out on a carefree childhood so much that they are still trying to make up for it.

Dialogue with Generation Z

Generation Z today makes up about a quarter of the population and will become the largest consumer group by 2030.

Unlike previous generations, who have already formed their tastes and preferences, Generation Z is ready to try new products. They value transparency, openness and authenticity. And they prefer brands that match their values. Do not try to mislead them, strive for sincerity and openness.

Generation Z is physically unable to concentrate on one object for a long time. On average, they devote no more than eight seconds to it. This is why the heyday of the attention economy is just beginning. To attract, and most importantly, hold the attention of "z", you need to act as quickly as possible.

The importance of personal reviews is growing. Generation Z easily identifies bots and fake likes, but it is difficult for them to navigate the huge variety of goods and services, they do not yet have much life experience. For brands, this means that the importance of influencer marketing is growing.

Dialogue with Generation A

This is the first generation of the 21st century. According to explodingtopics, by 2034 the spending of the alpha generation will exceed the spending of all other generations.

Children's brands already need to build communications not only with parents, but also with the children themselves. For example, create content together with young video bloggers or buy advertising on their blogs.

For the alpha generation, the virtual world is no less real than the physical one, and blogging is just one of the professions that can be mastered even at their age. They are demanding of technology and interactivity of brands. Games for them are a part of life, a means of expressing creativity or creating something new. Therefore, brands should integrate into metaverses and come up with collaborations with video game producers and streamers.

Tech Trends in Marketing

2024 was a key year for brands implementing neural networks. In 2025, the mass use of AI technologies will become the basis.

Neural networks are capable of automating many routine processes, significantly speeding up the work process. They allow people to focus on more creative aspects of work.

Hire technology to work

Use neural networks for everything they can do technically. Create characters, advertising content, generate images, music and texts. Let the neural network come up with tasks for reality show participants, animate neuroinfluencers, compose songs and make forecasts.

But do not delegate the creation of meanings, emotions and expertise to artificial intelligence. Content should show the audience real emotions and human experience. Then it will stand out in the general uniform information neuroflow.

AI Bot Midjourney Turns Writing Prompts Into Works of Art

Boost your creativity with numbers

Neural networks can do more than just draw and sing. You can give them full functionality for collecting and analyzing user data, thereby greatly enhancing the personalization of your offers and optimizing business processes.

This is another aspect of technical progress in marketing — the Data Driven trend, a way to make management decisions based on big data.

The Data Driven approach in SMM is based on collecting A/B testing data, end-to-end analytics, tracking KPIs and intermediate indicators.

These are just a few of the approaches that can grab the attention of the audience today. But our social media management agency in UAE is always one step ahead and will be happy to tell you about all the latest trends.

So, in order to build an effective communication strategy and hold the audience's attention for a long time, a marketer needs to understand global socio-cultural processes, navigate the ways in which people of different generations search for information and consume content, understand their life priorities, and promptly apply all the changes in marketing that come with the development of AI and other new technologies.