8 MULO Ad Trends 2025
The 2025 advertising season kicks off annually with the Super Bowl. Brands spend millions and attempt to out-do each other with cinematic artistry and celebrity appearances. Savvy brands take those trends and enhance them throughout their digital footprints, ensuring that visitors to TikTok, Instagram, and brick-and-mortar stores will notice and, ultimately, pull out their wallets (physical or digital).
What other trends are we seeing in the advertising landscape this year?
- Involvement of social media influencers as stars and supporters of brand campaigns.
- More elaborate physical brand activations, like Whataburger’s “Museum of Art” at SXSW. Gamification and immersive experiences are also part of the new activation ecosystem as MULO brands need to work harder to grab the attention of consumers at high-traffic locations and established events.
- Celebrity involvement in brand promotion. In many cases, these celebrities are investors in the MULO brands themselves, seeing investment in restaurants and retailers as a long-term revenue-generating play.
- Outdoor and retail media options abound. Making marketing spending decisions has become more complex and challenging than ever. However…
- AI is enabling faster and more precise feedback on ad effectiveness. Although attribution is still elusive, marketers have more immediate and personalized data to use in spending decision-making.
- Independent and specialized agencies that understand automation are taking business away from some of the larger agency conglomerates who specialize in “traditional branding.”
- Sustainability is still essential to many consumers, and smart marketers continue to lean toward earth-friendly principles. Diversity has been a hot topic in the U.S. recently, but some MULO brands are staying true to their principles and attracting a wide range of talent and customers.
- Transparency and consumer focus will become even more critical as brand loyalty can be fleeting. Poor experiences or unpopular policies are now broadcast on social media and can sway consumer opinion.
Speaking of consumer perception, “personalization at scale” will be critical to MULO brand growth in the months and years to come.
Mass market advertising will continue to exist, but more and better data will (hopefully) enable advertisers to reach the best prospects at the right time with the right offers.
A brand can have the right celebrities, an award-winning writer and director for their ad campaign, a high-profile ad agency, and a big budget. But if they don’t know exactly who is shopping or dining at their locations, what media they are consuming, and what messages are prompting them to visit and buy, they will ultimately fall behind.
Join us at Street Fight LIVE 2025 for more trends and predictions about the MULO ecosystem!
