Rohit Sakunia on why 2025 will be a transformative year for marketing

In conversation with Adgully, Rohit Sakunia, Founder and Director, ArtE Mediatech, speaks about how technologies like AI, AR/VR, 5G, and blockchain will drive marketing in 2025, the increased focus on hyper-personalization, immersive experiences, and sustainability, challenges posed by data privacy, ethical marketing, and much more.

What are the trends, developments, innovations that are expected to dominate the industry in 2025?

The Indian advertising industry is undergoing a digital revolution; every brand wants to create a positive picture online, and showcase the best to their targeted audience.

Undoubtedly, 2025 will be a transformative year for the marketing and technology industry, as emerging technologies like AI, AR/VR, predictive analytics, block chain, and 5G create new opportunities for brands to engage with consumers in multiple innovative ways.

There are several key trends and innovations that are expected to mould the marketing and advertising landscape such as mentioned below:

AI and Machine Learning in Marketing

AI and Machine learning revolutionizes the ability to create hyper-personalized experiences for consumers across all touch points. AI is enabling brands to tailor their content as per the consumption of their targeted audience, allowing them to curate more dynamic and efficient campaigns.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

These two technologies will enable brand marketers to create more engaging, interactive experiences that allow customers to experience products or services beforehand that make them to take their purchasing decision. These technologies will enhance storytelling, improve product demos, and create virtual showrooms, and do wonders for industries like fashion, retail, and real estate.

Metaverse in Marketing

Metaverse is making its entering point in the marketing industry for so long, and continues to develop. Metaverse help brands to look for different ways to interact with customers in virtual spaces, either through branded environments, sponsored events, or even digital avatars.

Sustainability and Ethical Marketing

This trend of marketing is growing due to the inclination of Gen Z and Millennial generation of the population toward sustainability. It will continue to be a key focus for brands in 2025. Audience is increasingly aligning with companies that prioritize environmental responsibility, ethical practices, and social causes. Marketers will need to build trust by communicating genuine sustainability efforts and impact.

Voice Search and Audio Content

Today, voice assistants become more ingrained in daily life; voice search will continue to grow in importance. Brands are required to optimize their content and SEO strategies for voice queries, focusing on natural language processing and conversational tone.

When it comes to audio content, the popularity of podcasts and audio-based content is evident to showcase the growing demand of audio content among consumers. Brands will definitely plan to invest in creating branded audio content, leveraging both the intimacy of voice and the growing market for on-demand audio experiences.

The Rise of Influencer and Creator Economies

We all have already witnessed the surge in demand of influencers among brands to promote their offerings, products, or services on social media channels. Everyone is trying to leverage the potential of the influencer by targeting their set of followers, and content quality.

What are your expectations for 2025?

In the year 2025, we are looking forward to see the magic of new technologies like AI, AR/VR, 5G, and blockchain, and how these technologies will open new avenues for marketing innovations. It will be great to see brands adapting these new technologies and integrating them into their marketing strategies to get the best return on their investments (ROI).

Brands can integrate these technologies with human-centered strategies, like personalization, sustainability, and privacy-conscious marketing to shape the future of the marketing and technology landscape.

Considering the fact that brands has started integrating data from different sources, I am very much excited to see the potential opportunities to create more customer-centric marketing strategies that respond to consumer needs in real-time.

At last, the rise of privacy concerns in the industry is becoming a concerning issue that consumers are expecting more control over their data. It will be very much crucial for agencies to prioritize data security and transparent data handling. As regulations continue to evolve, I look forward to helping clients navigate these changes and implement best practices to ensure compliance and build trust with consumers.

What are the headwinds and tailwinds that you foresee in the year ahead?

It is expected that 2025 is the year of opportunities for the marketing and advertising industry. As per the Dentsu Digital Advertising Report 2024, by 2025, digital is expected to reach a 55% share, while television might decline to 25%. Print media continues its downward trend, projected to be at 16% by 2025.

Headwinds: Challenges Ahead

Data Privacy will be at utmost importance, because consumers are expecting their data to be safe and secured online. Data privacy concerns are growing, and will continue to impact how marketers collect, store, and use consumer data. Effective marketing strategies will be successfully implemented by navigating these rules, and follow them at the same time.
Economic conditions are uncertain, brands may feel pressure to reduce their marketing and advertising spends. This factor is definitely going to affect agencies’ ability to execute large-scale campaigns and create innovative content while ensuring ROI.
The rapid development of technology, and the increasing number of platforms (social, search, email, analytics, etc.) can lead to fragmentation. The challenge will be to ensure seamless integration and manage diverse tools effectively.
Professionals in the marketing and advertising industry should develop their skills in data science, AI/ML, AR/VR, and other emerging technologies to stay relevant, and agencies will need to invest in training and development.

Tailwinds: Opportunities Ahead

Marketers should leverage the potential of AI to deliver tailored content, optimize campaigns in real time, and provide more personalized customer experiences, driving stronger engagement and ROI.
Purpose-driven marketing is not just a trend to follow, but it’s becoming a long-term marketing strategy among brands. Being transparent to customers will help brands to build strong and long-lasting relationships.
The power of data will be huge, and ability to leverage it and perform predictive analysis will help marketers to understand their consumer’s behavior in a much better way, and follow market trends to enhance customer engagement.