A FINE Nine Forecast 2025: Nine Trends in Brand, Digital, Marketing, and Company Culture
Posted in Insights
As we do each year (except the years we don’t) we queried some of FINE’s leading thought leaders and asked them what trends will drive the world of brand, digital, marketing, and company culture in 2025.
We distilled their collective genius to nine surefire guaranteed-gonna-happens. (There was a 10th one, but it felt like too much of a spoiler, so we’ll save that one for after it happens.)
1. Aesthetic Escapism
Snowballing tech overload will heighten the desire to escape today’s reality by embracing nostalgia in all its forms. Look for new brands with the familiarity and comfort of the way things were. Look for styles like “retrofuturism,” inspired by the endearing, vibrant way past generations pictured the distant future (we were promised jetpacks!), and the continued rise in throwback travel experiences, from rustic retreats and “calmcations” to vacations with the vibe of that madcap family summer road-trip movie you always wished you starred in.
(See Vacation, Piecework Puzzles, and Gimmick Clothing.)
2. Data Delighting
All over the world, they’re building hyperscale data centers faster than you can count them. With all that number crunching comes increased need to put it all in context, see it, and believe it. What used to be the purview of business-to-business is creeping into consumer consciousness, driving brands and storytelling. The demand for ways to visualize, design, and deliver number stories will infuse into everything. Hey, maybe we need a chart for that. (See The Data Soap.)
3. Unique-ified Letterforms
In physical space, look for an increase in the combination of highly unique and/or retro-quirky letterforms and hand-drawn illustration. We’re seeing this trend starting to play out already, especially in executions with bright, vivid colors. It’s the natural evolution from the mixed typefaces that were heavily used over the last 2–3 years, adding more visual interest and a new vibe that comes from embracing the imperfect, human touch. (See Graza, Studio Lucien, and Sumercé Coffee.)
4. Digital De-Cluttering
We know, Marie Kondo was so 2012. But it’s slowly dawned on brands that just because the square footage of a website is unlimited, that doesn’t mean you should keep filling it like a Kardashian’s walk-in closet. There’s a growing consumer trend toward getting your digital house in order—it’s why Google Photos started "stacking" duplicates) to help you whittle down your thousands of shots. Some brands are content hoarders, too, packing their sites like they live with 57 cats. Or letting their sites grow like the urban sprawl of digital destinations. Either way, a back to basics and design fundamentals mentality will help cut through the noisy digital landscape, allowing a company’s purpose to shine through and connect to people more directly. A more focused, elegant, minimal site is harder to make than a giant one packed to the rafters. But it comes with other big time benefits, like better accessibility and SEO-friendliness.
5. AI Sprinklings
The big chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude get all the attention. But we’re bracing for all the small ways AI will seamlessly integrate everywhere you go online.
Already in position zero of Search Engine Results Pages—the first result you see—and native in our phone’s search functions, AI results will increasingly be the only results you see, or even seek. AI will infiltrate via AR in filters, photo editing apps, or video augmentation coming to social media. It will enable new tools and options for higher visibility and control to optimize advertising and audiences. And it will become an instrument to weave consumers “into” their total brand experience and creative, bordering on augmented reality where marketing is no longer a spectator sport.
In short, 2025 isn't just the year that your parents will learn how to consult Chat GPT and Claude, it’s also the year they’ll start using AI 20 other times a day (without even knowing it).
6. Planet-Friendly Websites
Yes, the internet pollutes. Read the sustainable web manifesto and you’ll learn that if the internet was a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest polluter. Each site in the network plays a role in keeping the WWW footprint light. Much of that falls to the technology involved. It starts with code that’s built efficiently (limiting data calls, focused CMS, etc.) and open, and extends to sustainably powered hosting. 2025 will see the tech world waking up to this in how they build, and the end customers beginning to ask important questions as they continue. (See Sustainable Web Manifesto.)
7. Unscripted Influence
Wait, you’re saying some influencers are being PAID to love those brands? At a time when authenticity increasingly drives value, the average consumer now understands influencers are an ad media channel. Some authentic thought leaders will continue to hold sway, and brands will increasingly seek the kind of genuine loyalty they found in the early days before influential people were called “influencers.” We’ll shy away from overtly monetized marketing to focus on deeper ways to encourage real customers to become creators, rewarding them with community gifting, trips, and perks ultimately encouraging Creator Generated Content (CGC) that drives real brand loyalty.
8. The Hello Agains Year
With brash talk of return to office mandates pitted against a rise in remote work jobs and continued preferences for workplace flexibility, the post-Covid world is headed for another crossroads in 2025. Companies will have to again find their own optimal hybrid blends of efficiency and humanity, and workers will reacquaint themselves with each other and with the benefits of connection through both collaboration and camaraderie. They may find themselves back in the office, or welcoming new ways to personally connect and pursue wellbeing outside it. Both will count as just good business. An MIT study showed in-person interaction boosts creativity 15%. And Harvard Business Review found companies with a strong sense of connection outperform less connected companies by 20%. So yeah, let’s meet again for the first time.
9. Citizen Fickle
Marketers have always known that what people say in last week’s surveys often doesn’t match what they do today. 2025 will be the year when you’ll notice you can’t over-generalize, you have to hyper-personalize. Customers will join your loyalty program but switch often. They’ll hate social media and use it more than ever. They’ll be socially conscious one moment, and apathetic the next. Fickleness is part and parcel of making it through modern days filled with “this just in” new (and often conflicting) information. The “contradictory consumer” will force brands to be true to their own internal compass, and know genuine consumer sentiment from noise. But these citizens also need brands to adapt to their needs in the moment, not just set it and forget it.
There you have it. FINE’s nine things we see in our crystal ball for 2025. We look forward to spending 2025 with you, observing them all in action.
