Media Trends in 2025: From Direct-to-Consumer to Dialogue with Consumers 2025 promises to weave GenAI even deeper into our everyday lives, broadening its capabilities and reach in all verticals of media

In 2024, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) reshaped industries across the board, from automating content creation to delivering hyper-personalized ads. The marketing, advertising, and media landscapes saw remarkable transformations. However, 2025 promises to weave GenAI even deeper into our everyday lives, broadening its capabilities and reach. According to Dentsu's "Algorithmic Era of Media" report, we can expect more advanced apps, with lighter models enhancing mobile and wearable experiences, and multimodal AI allowing more seamless, natural interactions via voice and a range of sensors. Here are the top media trends to watch in 2025:

AI-Driven Media Toolkit

By 2025, AI will be essential in how media is created, distributed, and managed. Brands will use AI not just for creative tasks but also for behind-the-scenes processes like budget planning, audience insights, and developing comprehensive media strategies that can track consumer behavior. AI will optimize campaigns in real-time, ensuring that media performance improves continuously. For brands, this means reaching broader audiences with fewer resources—maximizing their impact without overextending budgets.

A Million Micro-Moments

AI will play a central role in shaping personalized media "micro-moments" that nurture deeper bonds between consumers and brands. These small, one-on-one interactions, crafted at just the right time, will help brands guide consumers along their buying journey, ultimately fostering greater loyalty. In 2025, brands will need to seize these micro-moments to create meaningful, recurring engagements with their audiences.

The Disappearing Clicks

The age of hyperlinks is quietly coming to an end. As platforms like Google provide direct answers and social media algorithms curate user-preferred content, the need for clicks to find information has drastically reduced. By 2025, it's estimated that 60 per cent of Google searches may lead to no clicks. Despite this shift, brands can still reach their audience by offering surprising and relevant content outside the typical filter bubbles. Personalized, easy-to-discover content with consistent messaging will be key to staying visible.

Direct Dialogue with Consumers

Platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat are becoming critical spaces for brands to engage in direct conversations with their audiences. AI will supercharge these interactions, automating responses, managing high volumes of queries, and providing real-time feedback. As business messaging becomes increasingly personalized through a user's interaction history and click-to-message ads, brands that use AI to enable meaningful, one-on-one communication will build stronger relationships—and increase their profits.

Storytelling

Storytelling continues to be a powerful way for brands to stand out on social media and connect with their audiences. By 2025, storytelling will evolve further as brands collaborate with creators and tap into passionate fan communities. From working with major influencers to smaller niche groups, word-of-mouth amplification will become even more important. With 85 per cent of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) planning to maintain or increase their investments in short-form content, influencer marketing, and live streams, brands will explore new ways to harness the creator economy for long-term impact.

Television Meets Streaming

Streaming platforms are increasingly mirroring traditional broadcast TV, adding more live sports programming and ads. By 2025, advertisers will take advantage of automated ad-buying systems to reach targeted audiences on these platforms. Programmatic (automated ad-buying) buying will become the norm, with brands using it to engage viewers in a more personalized way. This shift presents new opportunities for advertisers, especially as streaming platforms continue to grow in prominence.

The Algorithm Era

The future of marketing lies in the algorithm era, where AI drives audience engagement. In 2025, brands will need to adapt their strategies to leverage automation and reach diverse, sometimes unexpected, audiences. Algorithms will personalize both content and advertisements, making AI the key decision-maker in marketing. Those who can harness these systems will have a significant advantage in capturing their target audiences' attention.

Retail Media Dominance

Retail media is expanding rapidly, fueled by rich shopper data. By 2025, the retail media market is expected to grow by 12.7 per cent, with retailers playing a more central role in advertising. Retailers will broaden their ad offerings, and media companies will incorporate shopper data into their campaigns. This convergence will reshape the advertising landscape, with retailers spearheading new ad models that blend shopping and media experiences.

Partnerships and Licensing Agreements

As streaming and GenAI platforms continue to grow, partnerships between media companies and tech firms will become more common. Streaming services will offer content bundles to reduce churn and provide more value to consumers. These partnerships and licensing agreements will create new avenues for marketers to reach audiences.

By 2025, three out of four consumers expect GenAI to be embedded in most aspects of their lives. However, a significant portion also believes that companies should label content if it is generated by AI.