Weekly Marketing Trends Report: Emotions, AI & Gen Z (June 23–28, 2025)
Digital marketing doesn’t stop and this week showed that. From courage from industry leader to changing consumer behaviors and AI led learning, this week provided new learning opportunities we can’t ignore. Whether you’re a brand strategist, content creator, or someone exploring a career in this space, staying updated isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. That’s why professionals and learners alike are turning to a trusted digital marketing training institute to make sense of the changing landscape. In this blog, we break down five standout developments from the past week that signal where digital marketing is headed next.
1. AI at the Center: Marketers Lead
A BrightEdge survey offers a clear perspective: 68% of organizations are changing their marketing practice to begin to utilize AI search methods. But let’s be clear, this is more than just a mailing list experiment in zapping automation in marketing, it is an existential shift in the operation of SEO teams. And 54% of these organizations also assigned their SEO and Digital Marketing teams to lead the AI change.
This is a change in strategy. SEO professionals are no longer only focusing on optimizing keywords and backlinks; they now combine AI with predictive analysis, real-time content optimization, and user intent modeling. BrightEdge’s CEO, Jim Yu, is quoted, saying that “AI tools are making experts more relevant than ever”.
That said, it’s not all cheerleading—57% of marketers characterize their take on using AI as “cautiously optimistic,” blending enthusiasm with realism, with the chief aim of using AI to boost performance with minimal loss of brand authenticity and human judgement.
This suggests a primary imperative: the digital marketing team will need to enhance their tool kits and capabilities, and develop AI literacy, data interpretation, and strategic capability if they are going to survive the rapidly changing search landscape.
2. C-Suite Push: AI Investment Surges After Cannes Lions
At the Cannes Lions CMO Insider Breakfast on June 26, 2025, a Boston Consulting Group survey confirmed findings suggesting that 71% of CMOs will invest over $10 million annually in AI investment next year vs. 57% from last year.
This isn’t just a line item in the tech budget but AI’s transformation from a low-level productivity tool to a strategic driver for data-driven marketing and creative decision making. It was emphasized in conversations at Cannes that, for the leaders in attendance, AI is not an optional add-on; instead, it will change everything from the ideation of campaigns to customer engagement, to optimizing performance, and even making decisions in real-time.
In real terms, this could mean:
- AI generated and enhanced smarter ad scripts that closely align with each audience segment.
- Automated A/B testing that continually optimizes visuals, headlines, and copy using live engagement metrics.
- Deep personalization, where AI is leveraged to customize messaging, offers, and content experiences at scale.
The bottom line: when AI is made this serious of an investment, it is transitioning from “pilot-mode” to a key component of marketing operations. When leadership invests, brands and agency teams must leverage AI into everything they do – from creativity and content strategy, to customer experience and analysis – to remain relevant.
3. Hashtags Are Out: Elon Musk’s Radical Move on Social Ads
Image credits: https://sociapanews.com/elon-musk-bans-hashtags-in-x-ads-for-cleaner-look
On June 27, 2025, Elon Musk announced hashtags can no longer be part of paid ads on X (former Twitter). Musk stated the hashtag was an “esthetic nightmare,” which needed to be eliminated for a cleaner ad laying area. The restriction on hashtags only applies to paid ads and won’t affect ordinary posts.
What this means for marketers:
- A total copy wipe: If brands have been using hashtag hooks with ad copy such as #Sale or #NewDrop, they’ll need to find a plain language alternative way to start their ads and promote it as a benefit.
- Our visuals are now job one: Without hashtags for discovery, brands will need ad imagery—an eye-catching image with bold graphics or short video for example—that grabs user attention.
- Calls to action: Brand CTAs like “Shop Now” or “Learn More” should be easily identified in the captions or addressed directly in the visuals.
Strategic actions that brands should take:
- Rewrite copy to emphasize immediacy and clarity.
- Use compelling visuals to engage an audience visually.
- Pull through CTAs strongly, above the fold.
- Use transparent disclosures so that there can be no confusion about compliance or platform policies.
If marketers can modify ad creative to remain concise, visual first, and transparent, the fight continues without embracing hashtags in italics, sponsored posts.
4. Nostalgia Marketing: The Revamped Emotional Playbook
A recent Axios roundtable discussion held at the Cannes Lions Festival, found that branded companies are using cultural nostalgia to build more emotional resonance with consumers—especially Millennials and Gen Z—than ever before. This not just throwing the nostalgia word around; it’s using real emotional insight and utilizing data from consumers that show there is truth behind the emotion.
These marketers lean in heavily to 90’s themes, retro GIFs, vintage jingles, and pop-culture callbacks to provide younger consumers with imagery that is comforting, recognizable, and familiar.
What makes it so effective? Emotion creates memory, memory creates action, and nostalgia sparks emotion that surfaces an emotional connection and drives actions.
🎯 Examples to consider from business:
Crocs partnered with streamer Valkyrae to reference early 00s pop-culture nostalgia in relaunching its iconic clogs—probably the only case of product relaunch meeting digital nostalgia.
Geico reused its Halloween insurance ad from a decade ago, given that Geico had the initial, narrative comedy and didn’t have to do much production, while still keeping humour familiar.
✔️ Tip for Brands:
Take a few moments, audit your brand voice, content catalogue, and assets, and, from the past several decades, capture and recognize moments and visuals that can now be recontextualized with new storytelling and contemporary relevance.
When done authentically, nostalgia is not merely a fad, but a real emotional shortcut to modern marketing success.
Source: https://www.axios.com/2025/06/27/axios-cannes-event-consumer-nostalgia-brand-marketing
5. BNPL and Gen Z: an increasing trend in digital commerce
A recent LendingTree study found that 64% of Gen Z consumers used Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) in the U.S. and 25% used BNPL for groceries—nearly double the previous year’s rate.
This shift presents a wider opportunity (and challenge) for e-commerce brands, as they consider the implications of Gen Z’s growing preference to use BNPL. Merchandising teams should rethink checkout messaging, CTA designs, and email workflows to fit this preference. For example, merchandising teams can run a test with banners that say “Split your payment in 3 – no interest,” at checkout or feature BNPL in abandoned cart emails to reduce friction and increase conversions.
Why marketers should care
- Flexible payments = content goldmine: Brands can easily product short guides (e.g. “How BNPL works”) or banners (“Pay over time, stress-free!”) that educate and build trust with consumers while browsing and checking out.
- Increase average order value: Research from various sources shows BNPL users often spend more – therefore, product bundles or peak purchases, as upsell strategies are very effective.
- Clearly SEO friendly: BNPL is becoming one of the search keywords. “Buy now pay later” should be part of product pages and FAQ for attracting traffic from retail, finance, etc.
In short, BNPL is not just a payment method, but a lever for content, conversion, and SEO that should not be overlooked by strategic e-commerce brands.
Conclusion: Embracing Change
Digital marketing is at a crossroads. AI is redefining strategy, emotional engagement through nostalgia is on the rise, and Gen Z insists on frictionless payment options, meaning we no longer can rely on yesterday’s playbook to be successful. We now need to integrate strategically smarter AI tools, authentic storytelling, and frictionless commerce.
For marketers and learners – this translates to changing your approach – whether you see this as an update to the creative process or an improving user journey. If you are a marketing professional who is joining a digital marketing course in Bengaluru, or any other location, you should also recognize not only that consumers today want more than just a message, they want relevance, transparency and personalization.
So be nimble, embrace the changes, and you’ll not only be successful in 2025, your brand is capable of leading it.
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