by Abraham Espinosa, SVP Executive Strategy Director
GOLIN summarized 250+ industry trend reports and 3000+ emerging trends and put them all into one place.
The driving force of 2025 is expansion, winning territory, playing a new role, leaving your comfort zone. This year everyone is trying to eat someone else’s lunch. The key drivers of this phenomenon are economic and geopolitical. The combination of a tight economy and a fragmented world are establishing an ecosystem where limits are being redefined, and boundaries that have long defined our lives, work, and relationships are being systematically dissolved. We are witnessing tech billionaires taping into politics, videogames launching movies, adults flocking to the toy aisle, and ChatGPT acting as a therapist.
This concept of expansion emerged from our agency’s most comprehensive trends analysis yet, synthesizing insights from over 250 trend reports, 3,000 emerging trends, and a year of cultural observations from our global strategy teams. The result reveals three key dimensions of expansion that will shape communications in 2025:
The World: Redrawing Lines of the competitive map
Something remarkable is occurring in mid-sized cities. These once-overlooked urban centers are transforming into vibrant innovation hubs, powered by strategic AI investments. It’s a shift that challenges the long-held influence of traditional metropolitan centers. Meanwhile, the authenticity, the natural spaces, and community-focused values often associated with “Middle America” are finding surprising resonance on a larger scale.
The People: A Generational Buffet of Blurred Boundaries
Perhaps most intriguingly, we’re watching the very concept of age and life stages undergo a radical reformation. Today’s children are sipping sophisticated mocktails and curating skincare routines, while their parents embrace “kidult” culture with unprecedented enthusiasm. The over-60 crowd? They’re swiping right on dating apps and launching new careers with the energy of twenty-somethings. And waiting in the wings is Generation Beta – the first humans who will never know a world without AI as their constant companion.
The Media: Digital Overflow into Reality
This blurring of boundaries extends into the media landscape, where the digital world refuses to stay contained within our screens. AI agents are becoming active participants in our daily lives, while independent digital creators are building entertainment empires that rival traditional media giants. Even our parks and public spaces are being reimagined as physical social networks.
Strategic Implications and Actions for Communications Leaders
In a tight economy with blurred boundaries where the driving force is expansion, brands must protect what is theirs while seeking opportunities in unexpected territories. Put simply: ‘Be who you are and be who you’ve never been.’ Strengthen your brand’s core benefits while exploring new expressions of your essence among new audiences.
As communications professionals navigate this expansionist era, here are the key areas to envision new possibilities:
1. Audience Understanding & Engagement
Why It Matters: Traditional demographic targeting is giving way to fluid life stages and complex emotional needs.
Key Actions:
- Review demographic assumptions against new generational fluidity
- Map emotional territories relevant to your brand
- Track emerging linguistic patterns affecting your category
- Create engagement strategies that acknowledge life-stage flexibility
- Build relationships with next-generation creators and influencers
2. Brand Territory & Narrative
Why It Matters: Category boundaries are dissolving while stakeholder expectations for authenticity increase.
Key Actions:
- Map potential category expansion opportunities and risks
- Assess your brand’s authenticity credentials for expansion
- Develop narratives that balance human ingenuity with technological advancement
- Create messaging frameworks that accommodate complex emotional spectrums
- Test story elements across both traditional and emerging platforms
3. Channel Strategy Evolution
Why It Matters: Media fragmentation and the digital-physical blur demand a more sophisticated approach to channel strategy.
Key Actions:
- Spot a growing fandom base and bring their digital world to real life
- Audit your current channel mix against emerging platforms and spaces
- Identify opportunities in mid-sized markets and alternative platforms
- Develop content that seamlessly transitions between digital and physical spaces
- Consider how public spaces can become channels for brand storytelling
- Build expertise in new content formats driven by AI and emerging technologies
Looking Ahead
As we look ahead, the organizations that will thrive won’t just be those that can expand the furthest – they’ll be the ones that bring value to new categories, maintaining their core truth while venturing into new territories. They’ll be the ones who understand that in a world of endless expansion, the ability to remain genuinely connected to your audience is the ultimate competitive advantage.
The future belongs to those who can master this delicate balance: being ambitious yet grounded, technical yet human, expansive yet focused. In 2025, the true art will lie not in how far we can expand, but in how well we can expand while keeping our essence.
For a deeper dive into these trends and their implications for your business, reach out to our team Paul Parton [email protected] and Abraham Espinosa [email protected]
The 2025 Trend Compendium is a collaborative effort from Golin’s global strategy teams across North America, Europe, and Asia, synthesizing insights from over 250 trend reports and 3,000 emerging trends to identify the forces shaping communications in the year ahead.