I think in-game marketing is going to be very big in 2025. We’ve seen Fortnite collaborate with four musicians within their game, with players being able to buy new emotes, music, and skins inspired by each artist, with a ‘live’ event at the end of the promotion. You can buy Nike trainers in-game now; things like this are a great way to connect with the demographic who are always on their Xbox, PC, or PlayStation.

It’s a non-intrusive way of reaching a dedicated audience - it feels relatively ‘natural’, as games often create their own new content anyway. I think more and more brands and games studios will start to recognise and capitalise on this opportunity.

Nikita Heer, Account Manager

Audio and visual content will become the backbone of many effective PR campaigns. Brands will need to get comfortable creating and curating multimedia content, which means more storytelling tools for PRs.

Boris on Diary of a CEO. Kamala on Call Her Daddy, Victoria Derbyshire’s transformation into a TikTok ‘newsfluencer’. If politicians and seasoned broadcasters are doing it, then one could argue that it’s already the status quo.

A short, vertical video of your CEO explaining the significance of their latest announcement? Industry experts having insightful conversations on a relevant podcast? Sign me up. The media training playbook will need expanding, with prepping for podcast appearances and short-form videos becoming standard practice.

Holly Hickey, PR Account Director

It’s already a trend of sorts, but I think we'll continue to see a rise in brands finding interesting ways to work with influencers/content creators. This came to mind from a few months ago - I think brands will be more open to tapping in with specific creators/communities.

I think we’ll also see a change in how influencers and brands market these products. Paid partnerships and sponsored posts are so common now, that everyone is wise to when they’re being sold something.

Even the most well-made videos and most natural performances are still seen as advertisements; someone being paid to promote something. So, I think 2025 will see ‘brand x influencer’ products which have had design/development input from the influencers themselves.

Mayur Odedra, Account Manager

For social, as algorithms become pretty much all AI-generated, follower counts will become even less important as the content will determine who sees your stuff. We'll also see a marked increase in private/niche communities as Threads and Bluesky make more meaningful impacts.

We’re already seeing this change in some ways. For example, the Reels algorithm is built to recommend content primarily to non-followers, which means that engagement is already a more accurate performance indicator for certain formats. This will only become more prominent next year.

Selina Conroy, Social Media and Content Manager

It's no big secret that AI is poised and ready to evolve rapidly in 2025, but as more businesses acknowledge its impact on their carbon footprint, I think we'll see a rise in Inception-style problem solving: people using AI to understand how they can leverage the technology more efficiently and responsibly.

One thing I'm anticipating is more companies deploying tools to calculate the energy and emissions of specific tasks completed using AI, and then using this as a proof point of their sustainability action planning.

Katie Westwood, Senior Planner