In 2024, brands embraced brat summer, the mob wife trend, and being demure. They turned employees into brand ambassadors, recreated music videos with big-name stars, worked with kidfluencers, and collaborated with unlikely creators.
But a new year means the opportunity for new social playbooks, and there’s no telling what new trends and creators will emerge.
To ring in the new year, we asked people in the influencer marketing industry what they think will be the biggest trends to watch for in 2025—as well as which trends they expect could be on their way out the door.
Trends to watch in 2025
A more democratized influencer strategy: In 2024, brands like 818 made it a priority to open up events to customers in addition to influencers, and Free People’s director of brand marketing, Libby Strachan, told us the brand plans to cut back on influencer trips in favor of more customer-centric events in 2025.
Mae Karwowski, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Obviously, predicts more of that approach in 2025, as brands start inviting top customers to go on trips, too. She cited Waterboy’s trip to Cabo last summer with 12 customers (and at least one influencer) as an example of that strategy.
Bringing both customers and influencers along, she said, can provide twofold benefits: “Influencers provide their engaged communities and content creation skills, while top customers support the brand from a monetary standpoint,” she said in an email.
The rise of social commerce: Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of influencer marketing platform Captiv8, said that marketers have only scratched the surface when it comes to social commerce and expects to see even more growth in the next year and beyond.
“Affiliate marketing has not only proven successful for brands, but also as an incredibly enticing monetization stream for creators,” he said in an email. “Black Friday and Cyber Monday further showed the success of creator-led campaigns with affiliate marketing driving a significant amount of retail sales.”
Influencer brand—and platform—extensions: Experts told us they expect to see more influencers expanding their businesses beyond static and video posts.
That could include founding a brand, like Paige Lorenze’s Dairy Boy or Alex Cooper’s Unwell Hydration, or starting a podcast, like Jake Shane’s Therapuss or Haliey Welch’s Talk Tuah. It could also take the form of newsletters and subscription-only content, which Subramanian said he expects to see more of this year. Creator content on platforms like LinkedIn, particularly in the B2B and tech space, also seems to be on the rise, according to Karwowski.
But an uptick in activity could also mean the influencer brand market becomes oversaturated, Ansley Williams, head of influencer in North America at Ogilvy, told us via email.
“Standing out requires a truly unique product or offering, not just a famous face attached to it,” she said.
Long form > short form: Maybe our attention spans aren’t completely cooked. Subramanian expects long-form audio and video content to be big next year considering the popularity of episodic content last year. (Think the TikTok series Who TF Did I Marry? from last year, which is now getting its own TV show)
Thomas Markland, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Hydp, told us in an email that he expects to see more creators put money into highly produced series with “sponsorship budgets aligning to the levels of network television.” He also anticipates YouTube will continue to grow this year as older demographics choose the platform over traditional TV.
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“This puts YouTube in a unique position, striving towards a media monopoly in the next decade,” he said.
Sportsfluencers: Expect to see more athletes off the field and on your phone. Markland, who noted that Tom Brady and Cristiano Ronaldo both started YouTube channels last year, thinks 2025 will be a “big year for sports on social media.”
Williams agreed, saying to expect more BTS content from athletes, whether they’re training or playing in major events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the NFL playoffs. “Athletes will increasingly control their narratives through personal platforms and podcasts, providing unfiltered perspectives and fostering deeper engagement,” she said.
If Travis and Jason Kelce are any indication, there’s no shortage of demand from brands or fans for that type of content.
Trends that may be on their way out
Posting on TikTok, period? With the future of the app TBD, there’s a chance that usingTikTok could soon be banned in the US. Even without an all-out ban, there could be less enthusiasm for the app this year, Markland said, citing slowing user growth and demands for constant content creation as potential roadblocks for the platform.
“Compared to Instagram and YouTube, which have reduced their demands on creators, TikTok continues to favor quantity over quality,” he said.
Should a ban occur, Karwowski said she’s not worried about its impact on influencer marketing as a whole. “The industry is well insulated from this possibility with the rise of IG Reels and YouTube Shorts for short-form video content,” she said.
The one-creator hard sell: It’s no longer enough to partner with one creator who outright promotes a product. Subramanian said brands should look to work with a “true mix of influencers,” including anyone from microinfluencers to celebrities, while Karwowski advised brands to start thinking more about entertaining their audiences through comedy and storytelling.
The end of TV? With declining TV viewership numbers and this year’s growth numbers for linear TV advertising projected to be grim, Markland predicts that more traditional media advertisers will shift their focus to content creators. He pointed to Chris Wallace’s recent departure from CNN to pursue podcasting and the decision by the presidential candidates last year to do more podcast interviews instead of traditional media as evidence of linear TV’s decline.
“With this, CMOs and agencies will begin drastically increasing influencer marketing budgets to help capture a larger proportion of this market quickly ahead of the competition,” he said.
AI-generated influencers: Turns out, people like getting recommendations from real people. Karwowski noted that brands that work with AI-generated influencers often face backlash, whether those influencers are selling jeans or making trip recommendations.
Williams agreed: “While AI can assist with content creation, fully relying on AI-generated influencers risks losing the human element that makes influencer marketing effective,” she said. “Audiences connect with personalities and genuine creativity, which AI struggles to replicate convincingly.”
That doesn’t mean everyone’s soured on AI altogether. Subramanian said he continues to see potential with AI in predictive analytics and automating tasks like creator selection. Just be aware of the risks—and maybe don’t make AI the focus of your next campaign.