
on their screens: digital marketing trends
As generative AI and digital continue to drive efficiency, here are 2025’s top trends, challenges, and opportunities for digital marketers.
Every moment is a fresh beginning.
T.S. Eliot
As we step into 2025, we are aware of the ways the beginning of a new year invites us to pause, take stock of where we’ve been, and think about where we’re going.
This 4th edition of The Britton Trend Update highlights the new processes, new trends, and new ways of being that 2025 is ushering us into, brands and consumers alike. With an emphasis on the ways the past informs the future, we explore new AI technology, ever-shifting digital media trends, colors of the year, and more.
Actionable Digital Marketing Trends for 2025
To succeed in 2025’s evolving digital landscape, brands should prioritize personalization, AI-driven insights, and privacy-focused marketing, while embracing video and interactive content to engage users. Focused content strategies that leverage data responsibly are essential, as consumers expect transparency and value-rich experiences. As sustainability and ethical practices influence buying decisions, communicating these values clearly will be a vital strategy for brands to keep in mind. Emerging tech like AR and VR can also deepen consumer engagement, especially as mobile and voice searches grow.
Source:Smart Insights
Understand How to Amplify Your Business’s Social Media Presence with These Trends
In today’s fast-paced business environment, keeping your brand relevant means staying ahead of social media trends. When creating content, it’s important to keep these cutting-edge trends at the forefront of your online strategy:
Source: Sprinklr
The Rise of Pop-Ups
With the rise of “bleisure” travel, digital nomads, and a changing retail landscape, more brands are turning to pop-ups to meet consumers’ desire for experiences over goods. Temporary retail formats that blend shopping, leisure, and entertainment allow brands to position themselves as lifestyle-oriented and experiential. Given the climbing retail rental prices, pop-ups offer a flexible way to expand, test new markets, and appeal to travelers. Expected to reach a $95 billion value by 2025, the pop-up market is increasingly competitive, making it crucial for brands to stand out by curating exclusive, connection driven environments.
To succeed, brands should focus on several strategies: designing pop-ups as social hubs to attract Gen Z, shifting from exclusive to accessible spaces, enhancing store design to create memorable destinations, capturing travel spend through playful, resort-style spaces, and embracing modular formats to bring pop-ups closer to consumers.
Source: WGSN
Texture Drenching Takes the Stage at High Point Market
While color drenching has long been a staple, this year, the tactile allure of texture took center stage. Vintage-inspired silhouettes were reimagined in an array of sensorial fabrics—think crushed velvets, nubby tweeds, and ribbed corduroys—adding depth and richness that extends from bedding to bed frames, and from centerpiece furnishings to every sumptuous accent. The season’s palette embraced the essence of fall, featuring warm hues in retro burnt orange, deep chocolate browns, and glowing autumnal golds, evoking the comforting, nostalgic tones of the season.
Source: BMDG
Thoughtful Consumption in the “Secondhand Surge”
As the “secondhand surge” gains momentum, retailers have a unique opportunity to strengthen brand loyalty and open new sales channels by embracing a preloved narrative. This shift can be further enhanced with repair programs and lifetime guarantees, fostering long-term customer relationships and encouraging thoughtful investment purchases.
By celebrating craftsmanship and promoting a slower, more sustainable lifestyle, retailers can stand apart from fast homeware brands often seen as disposable—an image that today’s consumers are increasingly rejecting. Additionally, combining physical showrooms with VR and AR tools offers customers an immersive experience, allowing them to visualize and personalize purchases before committing. This not only reduces impulse buys but also ensures a stronger, lasting satisfaction with their selections.
Source: WGSN
2025 Colors of the Year Roundup
2025 will be a year of cozy, cocooning, and comforting colors, according to some of the biggest paint manufacturers around the globe as they crowned their key hues of the upcoming year. Not unlike two years ago, when an overwhelming majority of forecasters predicted the rising popularity of green, this year’s deep, moody shades that dance the lines between red, purple, and brown were a clear collective common thread, forecasting a dramatic and warm year in design ahead.
Source: BMDG
Connecting with Millennials Through Branding and Visual Strategy
As millennials transition into midlife and experience all of the emotions that come with that transition, brands have a prime opportunity to tap into their nostalgia and digital-first lifestyles. With their global annual incomes projected to reach $4 trillion by 2030, millennials will account for a significant portion of buyers in the coming years.
Brands’ campaigns should embrace age-inclusive messaging that reflects midlife realities while fostering joy. Heritage marketing and world-building will resonate, especially when using sophisticated color palettes like deep greens, dark reds, and neutrals. Keep visuals simple yet luxurious, and incorporate energizing green hues to connect with interests in wellness and the outdoors.
Source: WGSN
The Importance of Brand Values to Younger New American Middle Consumers
The New American Middle is a consumer supergroup that is highly influenced by values-driven branding and marketing. We estimate that approximately 50% of US consumers are within this segment. And since we started our research into this valuable consumer group, we’ve been able to track core and secondary values over time through several different lenses.
In the latest batch of primary research, wave 6, we looked at two groups of NAM consumers: people with children under the age of 18, and people without children under the age of 18 (most likely grandparents with older kids).
We identified an interesting preference gap. Younger NAM consumers are far more concerned with brands clearly expressing their values and taking a stand than the more mature segment (or parents without children under the age of 18 in the household).
Want to learn more about how we can activate the New American Middle for your brand? Let’s talk.
The answers to these questions are what separate brands that merely sell products from the brands that create lasting emotional connections with their audiences.
This is the difference between Apple and Sony. Between Starbucks and Folgers. Between brand relevance and commoditization.
Welcome to 2023, and our first edition of The Home Trend Update. Our team is always on the lookout for new developments across different audience segments, and we distill those trends into actionable insights that our client partners can utilize.
The metaverse is here and we’re spotlighting a few of the brands, trends, and tools that are already dancing the increasingly fine line between our digital and physical realities.
In the 3rd edition of The Home Trend Update, we’re inspired by the constant that is change and the ever-growing (and imperative) mindfulness of both brands and consumers toward sustainability and environmental stewardship.
Research conducted, curated, analyzed, and made actionable, by our partner agency: BRIGHT—Helping data-curious marketers become data-informed leaders by shining a light on what data is useful vs. useless.
Access the BRIGHT website