🎭 Entertain or Die - Brand Fit 2025
People no longer pay attention to advertising. How can we make a brand desirable? How do we make our communication emotional? And how do we sell sustainability without it sounding like a sacrifice?
Hi 👋 I’m Florian Schleicher. This is the FutureStrategies newsletter of FUTURES. Thank you so much for reading along 💚
When was the last time you watched a commercial to the end?
When was the last time you really read a newsletter?
When was the last time you changed your buying behavior?
2025 shows us one thing above all:
An overload of (world) news.
We feel like we're under constant stress.
Everything is so fast.
The.
All.
Time.
And it's not just us marketers who feel this way.
So do the customers we try to reach.
According to a study, women usually spend around 84 seconds evaluating a partner profile in a dating app, while men only need 58 seconds.
If we don't even pay attention to choosing a partner, then we can assume what is happening to our expensively produced and carefully considered marketing.
On a mailing 2 seconds.
On a social media post 1.3 seconds.
Our brand content is literally eaten up by people's everyday lives.
And they prefer to forget this everyday life when they are entertained.
Who hasn't experienced this?
After a long day at work, you just want to relax on the couch.
Just scroll TikTok or watch Netflix... (or both at the same time).
And escaping the omnipresent and constantly changing algorithm seems almost impossible.
“The Algorithm” doesn’t measure what people want.
It measures what people pay attention to.”
Brands will have a hard time in 2025.
This is not just a challenge for companies:
53% of all creators also think it is harder to reach their followers than it was five years ago.
People are overwhelmed by communication, choice, products, services and advertising.
Nobody wants to buy products.
And people want to buy sustainability even less.
They want to be rewarded, to feel a bit of nostalgia in uncertain times. And in essence, they want a benefit for their lives.
So what will brands have to create in 2025?
Let's take a look at that today:
1️⃣ From purchase to desire
2️⃣ Emotions on eye level
3️⃣ Green marketing reframed
This is part 3/3 of my marketing trend diagnosis for 2025.
1️⃣ From purchase to desire
Some brands are simply bought.
Others are desired.
In the incredible amount of content and choice, brands need to stand out with emotion.
Consumers are searching for a deeper meaning. The value of a product or service will increasingly be judged by its ability to evoke a profound emotional response.
We forget the majority of brands relatively quickly.
A few live somewhere in the hinterland of our consciousness. We buy and consume on the basis of habit. We buy because we want to satisfy a need.
And when we buy, 99% of the time it's a transaction.
Sounds harsh.
But unfortunately it is the reality of marketing in 2025.
Let's take a change of perspective from this dreary thought:
Think of a product that you really want. Something you want right now.
Nobody buys a Rolex because they need it. Nobody buys a house because a spontaneous desire has just arisen. We spend days, weeks, months rationalizing why we make big purchase decisions.
This is desire.
Luxury brands have been working with it for decades.
Why do we buy a Rolex but ignore sustainable products?
But what happens when we apply these mechanics to more everyday products?
What happens when we work with it around sustainability communication?
That's where we need to start.
From transaction to transformation.
From “here's what we do” to “here's what we help you do”.
In a very practical way:
🍎 What does Apple sell?
At first glance, they are electronic devices.
But at second glance, they are a tool to connect us, to express ourselves (and our status) and to pay more and more attention to our health.
It is not for nothing that the Apple Watch is the best-selling watch in the world, which incidentally communicates with one argument at the top of the list: Health.
So it's not just about the WHAT behind products, but more and more about the HOW and WHY.
“Consumers are no longer buying just items, but are buying into sensations and visions of themselves. Brands need to understand the emotional journeys of the customers and display and position their products not just as objects of desire, but as integral parts of larger lifestyle aspirations.”
© Next Atlas Unveiling 2025
A few more examples that show how an everyday product can stand for more:
