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Three surprising content and copywriting predictions for 2025 9 January 2025

2024 is so last year. In honour of the arrival of 2025, I decided to take a look at what people are saying about the near future of content and copywriting and drew some perhaps surprising conclusions as a result…

AI vs authenticity

You don’t need the talents of a futurologist to know that the use of AI in content and marketing is very likely to grow in 2025. However, I wonder if this very popularity could lead to increased demand for greater content authenticity in the months ahead. I’ve already written about the complexities of trust in AI among consumers, and about how the very rise of AI could create a backlash, with an associated appetite for a more authentic tone of voice and point of view. My content trends article for 2024 also explored this relationship.

Kantar’s Marketing Trends 2025 report certainly picks up on this theme, stating that “We predict that in 2025 marketers will pay more attention to data provenance. And there will be more need for transparency in consumer-facing uses of Generative AI, which may come from consumers.”

It seems likely that this dynamic will become more pronounced with the rising use of generative AI for everything from marketing automation to search engine optimisation. This normalisation is anticipated to extend to the use of generative AI in small businesses too.

The widely trumpeted rise of AI is more nuanced than it first seems. And it’s likely that this mixed picture will continue. For example, research by the Content Marketing Institute shows that most marketing teams (54%) take an ad hoc approach to AI, suggesting that they are still at the experimental stage, rather than applying it in a more comprehensive way.

The Content Marketing Institute also found that no less than 35% of businesses are concerned about their lack of technical ability to use AI to its full capacity in order to scale up the production of quality content. Again, this is another indicator that the role of AI in marketing and copywriting is not likely to be as clear-cut in 2025 as the buzz would suggest it to be. Add into this mix a potential drive for more authenticity and it’s very likely that the dynamic between AI and marketing will become even more complex in 2025.

Humour goes into overdrive

The power to make people smile is likely to be a superpower in 2025. I recently wrote about the viral rise of Gen Z-scripted videos. This trend alone highlights the impact of affectionately directed wit, aligning with research from Kantar showing that not only is “humour is the highest ad receptivity driver for Gen X and Boomers,” but that “Gen Y is equally receptive to humour and good music”.

We all know that humour has always been a powerful force in copywriting and marketing. Perhaps 2025 will see an even bigger response to it, precisely because of the rise of automated, AI-driven content. When world events are shall we say, volatile, funny matters more than ever. So it seems likely that we’ll see even more brands and business attempt to tickle our funny bones in 2025.

Inconsistency becomes the norm

I appreciate that inconsistency doesn’t sound like a great characteristic for copywriting and content marketing. But here’s why it is: with so much competition, driven by increasing volumes of content volume due to the rise of generative AI, it seems likely that brands will strive harder than ever to stand out from the crowd. That often requires short-term or even one-off campaigns; a little trial and error. While this can be perceived as inconsistent, it can also be viewed as experimental. It’s a shift that ties in with Kantar’s commentary about the use of humour as a way to connect with specific demographics.

In a world awash with marketing platforms and messages, people want content that meets them where they are. So it seems likely that brands will try out novel approaches to achieve this. It could be that this will result in them moving on more quickly from approaches that don’t achieve the desired response. This article on social media trends suggests that experimentation with brand consistency will lead teams to push creative boundaries. If so, we can expect more innovation and more surprises from brands in 2025.

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