2025 Content trends — Humanity and creativity

Counterbalancing AI, standing up and speaking out, and AI plus data in a different way.

These are the big 3 trends awarded at the Cannes Lions in 2024, where what matters and makes an impact is honored.

– As a counterbalance against AI, we value human connection more than ever. And that shows in the ads to get awarded in the industry.

– Next to that, we finally dare again to stand up and speak out. On ethics and what matters to us. And we become more playful with logos and products. We break the unwritten rules.

– Lastly, we embrace data and AI in a different way. Not only for production, also as a direction and a reflection.

Human, humanize, humanity

This is where things get really great! This is all based on what’s hot and not in Cannes Lions 2024. For the first time in many years, I’m blown away by the creativity that surprises, enlightens, and is daringly bold. Yes!

And it makes total sense.

The more AI, the more we value human contact — real, authentic, personal. It’s for a reason that personal selling outperforms automation with forms, and flows. I prefer a personal email or call any time over being marketed to, no matter how personalized you make it for me with AI and CRM systems.

So, what we see in Cannes is that the great winners put 1 human upfront and honor them.

  • JCDecaux gives a stage to abuela Marina Pietro in the Madrid metro to prove that out-of-home still works like magic. With the just-and-only posters, she went from a few followers to 10K+.
  • Allgemeiner Frankfurter Zeitung honors cultural icons, Oscar Winners, sports heroes, and Margot Friedlander, the 102-year-old last Holocaust survivor, in its Brilliant Minds campaign to celebrate its 100th edition and address the concerning political changes in the world around us.
  • Johnny Walker honors the forgotten female founder Alaída Cosa of Bossa Nova, gives her a stage with modern technology, and buys a fat, big paid spread in the newspaper to give her the credit she deserves.

This is about connection, not emotion

Please notice that this ‘human’ is not about emotion; it’s about connection. And from the connection, inform and educate. Quote from WARC.

  • “Informative and educational creative strategies have overtaken emotional strategies
    The last five years have seen the proportion of informative or educational strategies overtake that of emotional strategies. The dominance of purpose-led marketing over the same period may be a contributing factor.
  • Awareness, sales growth and brand building are the dominant objectives
    Used by over half of the top 100 campaigns in 2024, these are the top objectives across all campaigns on WARC, but sales growth over-indexes against the norm in these very effective cases by nine percentage points.”

Stand up, speak out, dare to be bold

This is what I love about brands nowadays. They are not afraid to address what matters and dare to be different. Not only on ethical topics, also in playing and having fun with their brand and logo.

Here are the Cannes Lions cases that inspire to do good and have fun.

On ethics

  • The Down Syndrome Association in Argentina uses data to tackle and debunk absurd political promises. As an alternative realistic and impactful promise, they propose a new law that no longer obliges people with Down syndrome to renew their disability certificate every year. And they succeed with 100% of the votes.
  • Dove stays true to their claim and turns their backs on using the ‘Bold Glamour’ filter in TikTok to stand up against the unrealistic, humanly impossible beauty standards on social.
  • KPN in the Netherlands addresses the devastating consequences of forwarding very personal pictures and content to others. Think before you share what others sent you in private. It’s not about the sexting; it’s about the unsolicited forwarding of it to others and the huge impact that it has on girls’ lives.
  • AXA changes 3 little words in their terms and conditions in 3.5 million contracts in France with retroactive effect to enable women to escape domestic violence at home by giving them time and a safe place to stay to find a long-term solution. They provide emergency relocation when a home becomes inhabitable in the event of fire or flood, and domestic violence.

Play with your logo, and have fun with your brand and products

Data and AI

By now, we all use data and AI, but this is at a different level.

But first, what’s happening in 2024

AI adoption in marketing is 74% in 2023, and will be a must-have by 2030. 68% of marketers already see the benefits, with AI taking over routine tasks and freeing up space for more creative, strategic work. 57% of marketers feel pressured to keep up or risk falling behind.

Content creation is getting a boost, with the realization that the human touch is still key.

In summary, AI drives real productivity gains and sharper data insights, making marketing smarter and more effective. [Hubspot AI trend report 2024]

Embrace AI to do good — read, and learn

Now, in (almost) real-time, we can use data, from aggregation to analysis, and feed that back into the campaign. That’s something different and gives us and society a mirror of what’s going on.

Wrapping it up for 2025

This is what you need to know.

  • We’re getting tired of the crappy content flood on socials. As a result, we spend less time and engage less, and seek more niche and personal channels.
  • All you can do as a brand is upgrade your quality. Great content is not about you; it’s (still) about your audience. That becomes even more important to get reach, paid doesn’t guarantee that anymore.
  • As a counterbalance against AI, we value human connection more than ever. And that shows in the ads to get awarded in the industry.
  • Next to that, we finally dare again to stand up and speak out. On ethics and what matters to us. And we become more playful with logos and products. We break the unwritten rules.
  • Lastly, we embrace data and AI in a different way. Not only for production, also as a direction and a reflection.

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