A new year calls for some new predictions.
In 2024, some of our newsletter team’s predictions included that attention metrics would gain more momentum in measurement, and Gen Alpha would steal some of Gen Z’s appeal among marketers. This year, we’re expecting a surge in AI ethics campaigns, email marketing troubles, rising browser competition, as well as some innovation in the world of gaming. Our analysts have already shared many of their predictions for 2025, but here are a few more from our newsletter team.
Marketers will tie AI to their brand purpose
In an attempt to maintain trust with consumers while continuing to incorporate AI, we predict there will be a surge of AI ethics codes and statements from brands and agencies alike. The rapid emergence of AI and organizations' rush to fold it into existing workflows have led to some wariness, and even backlash, among consumers—Coca-Cola’s AI-generated holiday ads weren't exactly met with widespread acclaim.
Dove was one of the first to lean into this sentiment this year—in April, the brand pledged to never use AI in place of real people in advertising and introduced its Real Beauty Prompt Playbook, which argued that AI often only reinforces societal biases by relying on data sets that are “intentionally curated or broadly scraped from the internet.”
In February, Microsoft launched its AI Access Principles, which included promises like prioritizing privacy and promoting inclusion and access. Since buzzwords like "transparency" and "accountability” are already commonplace in these statements, agencies and brands will work on creative campaigns that showcase their stances through storytelling.
AI will threaten email marketing
Email marketers have their work cut out for them this year, as surpassing AI filters in inboxes will become increasingly difficult. Automation is the top tactic in email marketing, and marketers' top challenge is ensuring deliverability and avoiding spam filters, according to a May 2024 report from Ascend2.
While email is an efficient and personalized channel for brands to reach consumers—7 in 10 consumers worldwide prefer email from brands over channels like direct mail and SMS—the use of AI within these platforms will make it harder for brands to dodge the spam filter.
Our forecasts predict that email users in the US will steadily increase until 2027, making the channel even more crucial for marketers. To combat the impact of consumer opt-out and heightened filtering, marketers can focus on quality of messaging rather than volume by keeping emails personalized and relevant. To land on those relevant messages, marketers should lean on AI to better understand their audience’s needs.
“Marketers should avoid irrelevant emails and high volume, and instead prioritize authentic personalization and blending human creativity with AI insights,” wrote our analyst Kelsey Voss in a September report.
Browser wars kick off in earnest
The DOJ’s ongoing antitrust cases against Google could lead to the tech giant being forced to sell Chrome. While experts wonder if Trump will dial back on the Google antitrust cases established by the Biden Administration, other players in Big Tech are making more bids for Google users, and the competition will only heat up this year.
In December, The Browser Company, which is behind privacy-focused Arc Browser, announced that it’s launching a new browser, Dia, built around AI in 2025. Meanwhile, ChatGPT-developer OpenAI has made moves suggesting its interest in competing in the browser space. It ended the year by introducing a real-time web search feature and making it free for logged-in users two months later.
The innovation and legal uncertainty is also a reminder for marketers to diversify their media spend.
Video game product placement will grow more refined and accepted
2024 was a rocky year for the video game industry. Mainstays like "Fortnite" and "Call of Duty" continued to find success. Meanwhile, highly visible flops like PlayStation's "Concord" and the ballooning cost of development led to a huge wave of industry layoffs and studio closures. With game developers and publishers looking for new avenues to shore up funding, 2025 will see a growth of in-game product placement.
Marketers have long tried to incorporate brands into video games, e.g.,President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign ads in "Guitar Hero 3," Energizer batteries in "Alan Wake," and Monster Energy drinks in "Death Stranding." Unfortunately, product placement like this has been roundly mocked by game players for awkwardly standing out or for breaking the immersion.
But a new announcement from last month's Game Awards signaled a shift in how games could incorporate brands.
PlayStation showed off "Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet" during the December 12 event, and the sci-fi trailer openly featured a spaceship with Porsche branding and a main character wearing Adidas sneakers. (It also had a Sony-branded stereo, which is less of a surprise since PlayStation is a Sony brand.) The game will almost certainly sell very well—Naughty Dog, the studio behind "Intergalactic," also made "The Last of Us," source material for the acclaimed HBO show of the same name.
The impact of games as an advertising channel has markedly grown over the last decade. Activations in "Roblox" and "Fortnite" character skin tie-ins have shown that audiences are more willing to engage with brands in-game. And as "Grand Theft Auto VI" looms on the horizon, marketers are already building strategies to take advantage of the cultural phenomenon.
Modern game technology allows for branded elements to be designed and shown as both a part of the fictional world, while keeping the brand's design language intact. These opportunities, along with the industry's need to find additional revenue, will make for an easier branding pipeline into games with broader acceptance by players.
This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.