As consumers get bored of brands—72% said that “very few really stand out as different,” according to VML’s 2025 Future 100 report—marketers are turning to creative campaigns to attract attention.
The marketing industry’s emphasis on either creative or performance marketing is constantly changing, said Kyle Eckhart, senior vice president of growth at Rain the Growth Agency, who noted a recent “healthy, but quiet, shift” toward creative.
“After decades of inching further to the side that prioritizes short-term outcomes, we’ve definitely felt a larger market correction happening in the industry and with our clients specifically,” said Eckhart. “Brand-building strategies and measurement of longer-term outcomes is a welcome renewed priority.”
Highly creative ads can be four times more profitable than low-quality creative, according to a February 2023 study from Kantar and WARC. As marketers invest in creative strategies, they are ensuring QR codes and call-to-action buttons don’t distract from brand distinction.
Tying product to purpose
Archer, a dating app for LGBTQ+ men owned by Tinder’s Match Group, is prioritizing brand positioning and purpose in 2025, according to head of brand and director of brand marketing and communications Michael Kaye. This year, Archer will continue to invest in creative marketing to highlight its safety and security features, said Kaye.
Strong creative is an opportunity to showcase brand purpose, said Kaye. Archer’s first brand integration was on “RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars,” and the brand has centered drag talent in its campaigns and events since its 2023 launch.
“The queer community has always been a beacon of resilience, and at its forefront are drag performers—champions of self-expression and tireless advocates for civil rights and social justice,” Kaye said.
Challenging B2B blandness
For B2B marketers, the right storytelling is essential to resonate with an off-the-clock audience, said Transmission media director Michael Katrenak. The agency’s clients include HP, SoftwareAG, and DeepInstinct.
While a lower-funnel demand campaign might work for LinkedIn, he advises clients to lead with storytelling and strong creative on connected TV (CTV). Delivering brand storytelling to the right audience through personalization is top priority this year, said Katrenak.
“We are trying to make sure that we’re moving away from frankly dull and semi-tired advertising that looks like everything else,” he said. “Brand has never been more important to our clients, and we’re making sure [they’re] actually doing it right and breaking through the noisy advertising world.”
Making creative and performance marketing collaborate
Long-term results and immediate conversions shouldn’t be siloed, said Lucy Markowitz, senior vice president and general manager of US Marketplace at Vistar Media, who emphasized the value of the right data and audience targeting in yielding creative results. Data-driven creative is the most significant ad-creative production opportunity for brands and agencies worldwide, according to Digiday’s “The State of Ad Creative” report.
“In 2025, I expect to see a sharper focus on agency-owned data and how it fuels creative storytelling,” Markowitz said. “Brands and agencies alike are recognizing that data isn’t just a tool for targeting. It’s the backbone of smarter, more impactful creative strategies.”
Some 75% of consumers globally think brands should “make more effort to be entertaining,” according to the VML report. This demand mirrors the growth of the creator economy, as consumers expect high-quality content from creators that doesn’t feel like an interruption to their feeds.
“Creator and influencer partnerships are where I see the strongest correlation between brand marketing and performance,” said Kaye. “It also has to work well on the organic side as well as the paid side. It’s a marketer’s version of 'Tetris.'”
Across marketing channels, creative and performance strategies succeed most when they work together, he said.
“At Archer, the top and bottom of the marketing funnel are so closely connected,” said Kaye. “Insights from the top are helping drive a lot of the strategies that are helping us bring in new users and turn them into subscribers.”
This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.