Marketers are constantly told the future is uncertain. But 2024 was a year in which advances, experiments, and risk-taking heralded a new template for modern marketing. Over the last year, Think with Google has shone a spotlight on the people and brands re-making marketing strategy.
Our conclusion? The mists are parting. Results from the cutting edge in the last 12 months now light the way to practical implementation in 2025.
1. Artificial intelligence gets real
While AI’s advertising application may previously have seemed cloudy, concerted adoption in 2024 has crystalised the clear opportunity for the year ahead.
2025 will be the year AI goes from pilot and experiment to becoming embedded in core marketing operations.
It took bold, brave experimenters like Michael Benjamin. The director of marketing at Intuit U.K. was an early adopter and knew he could use AI-driven ad strategies to grow Search ad conversion while lowering costs. Despite internal scepticism toward AI, Intuit’s QuickBooks achieved a phenomenal 45% annual jump in peak-season customer acquisition from Search, by adopting value-based bidding and broad match.
Best practice also emerged on the creative side. Brands like B&Q recognised how multiplying their video assets is the way to arm AI algorithms to reach a diverse audience set.
2025 will be the year AI goes from pilot and experiment to becoming embedded in core marketing operations. Expect to see AI integrated into areas such as content creation, paid search marketing, and real-time personalisation at a scale and effectiveness not seen before.
2. Reconnecting media measurement to momentum
The pressures with marketing measurement are familiar: more complex paths to purchase, changing regulations, and fragmented media channels. Challenges to audience signal visibility have complicated marketers’ need to prove their investments.
But this year, we saw marketers begin to plug that gap. New practices and technologies, harnessing first-party data, incrementality testing, and granular mixed media modelling are re-illuminating media impact and providing a clearer picture of ROI — as laid out in our modern measurement guide.
The imperative in the year ahead is to recognise these opportunities to reconnect media to business and adopt them effectively.
Follow Watches of Switzerland Group's lead. With a typical customer journey having as many as 40 touchpoints, the group moved from a session-based measurement model to a user event-based approach, and is now able to attribute sales accurately.
With boards demanding to see results, the watch company got it right — for taking action on measurement, there's no time like the present.
3. Second-hand at scale is the future of sustainability
There’s a growing desire from both shoppers and businesses to do the right thing when it comes to sustainability. Research from IPG Mediabrands, Kantar, and Google found 81% of shoppers want to buy sustainable goods. But, with cost-of-living pressures still squeezing budgets, consumers are struggling to prioritise eco-conscious choices.
Refurbished and pre-loved products offer a sweet spot. They’re more affordable and sustainable, appealing to both values and wallets. Online marketplaces and physical furniture stores are shifting the circular economy from theory into practice. Think with Google U.K.’s most-read story of the year found brands that grow awareness of their recycling commitments and offerings achieve greater business growth.
Expect more brands to incorporate refurbished, pre-loved goods, right-to-repair, and buy-back schemes in the months ahead. For marketers, this means embracing a counterintuitive shift: from selling the next shiny thing to creating consumer interest and demand in yesterday’s new. Those marketers that manage to make old goods feel like the future will reap increased affection, growing custom, and a reduced carbon output.
4. Double down on a deeper inclusion
Despite gains in the advertising industry, according to All In’s inclusion index, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) still have room to grow.
Brands have the power to help people feel proud, represented, and noticed.
But the upside of inclusion remains crystal clear. As Esi Eggleston Bracey, chief growth and marketing officer at Unilever, told us: “Improving equity for underserved groups drives better outcomes for people, business, and society.”
How should brands approach this in 2025? By making the business benefit as clear as the moral imperative.
Rich Miles, CEO of The Diversity Standards Collective, told us: “Brands have the power to help people feel proud, represented, and noticed. (If you) overlook community-specific nuances and diverse casting, (your initiatives) can feel like box-ticking and undo otherwise good work.”
5. Favour progress over perfection
The marketing path for a year of implementation is shaping up — but the way ahead won’t always be clear. While there are now opportunities to go beyond experimentation, marketers should retain a keenness to test and explore.
In 2025, balancing progress and practice is essential for making a difference.
“It’s better to show up than do nothing,” says Tom Chard, Tesco’s lead media and campaign planning manager. Last year, Tesco embraced this mindset for a standout Ramadan campaign. It connected with a diverse audience and achieved significant brand lift while recognising that DEI initiatives are an ongoing journey of learning and improvement.
The same is true of every initiative. As James Thompson, Watches of Switzerland’s group digital marketing manager, put it: “It’s better to move forward, accepting that not everything will be perfect from the start.”
In 2025, balancing progress and practice is essential for making a difference. In a rapidly changing environment, the cost of inaction can be more detrimental than imperfection.
