“What do you imply AI gained’t repair all the pieces?” That dialog with a advertising government final month sparked my journey into creating this advertising government playbook for 2025.
As I dove into knowledge and interviewed executives throughout industries, I found one thing stunning: Whereas 56% of selling leaders imagine advertising has modified extra prior to now three years than the earlier 50, probably the most profitable leaders are taking a way more nuanced method than I anticipated.
To grasp the place advertising is headed, HubSpot surveyed 724 advertising leaders on the director stage and above throughout main markets, together with:
- The U.S. (27.49%),
- Nice Britain (18.78%),
- Netherlands (11.74%), and
- Japan (10.91%).
Then, to carry these findings to life, I spoke with advertising executives from corporations like Wrike, Atlassian, Sendoso, and extra about how they’re approaching these challenges of their organizations.
Our analysis reveals three clear priorities for 2025:
- Rising income and gross sales (20%).
- Deepening buyer understanding (16%).
- Increasing model consciousness (16%).
What fascinated me most in my conversations with advertising executives was how these priorities typically create productive pressure, pushing leaders to seek out artistic options that steadiness innovation with confirmed fundamentals.
Let’s dive into what’s working now and what’s subsequent, with sensible insights from each our analysis and real-world advertising leaders.
Desk of Contents
The Progress–Model Steadiness: A New Playbook for 2025
Keep in mind when advertising groups had to decide on between driving rapid income or constructing long-term model worth? That line is blurring.
Our analysis reveals advertising leaders are rejecting this false dichotomy.
Whereas 20% prioritize rising income and gross sales as their prime aim, there’s additionally a robust emphasis on deeper buyer understanding (16%) and model consciousness (16%).
And these aren’t both/or selections — many leaders reported pursuing a number of strategic priorities concurrently.
Sarah Reece, director of demand technology at Orum, a gross sales acceleration platform, captures this shift completely.
“My philosophy is that model is demand, and each touchpoint is a model touchpoint,” she explains.
“From our social presence to our web site to the best way our gross sales group outbounds, we’re constructing a model status that creates belief, builds affinity, and drives desire so that folk default to Orum after they come into the market.”
And the numbers again up this built-in method. “We truly noticed a fairly rapid influence on our demand gen objectives when taking decisive motion to emphasise model,” Reece shares.
“Direct and natural internet visitors elevated, social attain climbed, pipeline and income grew, and deal velocity elevated too … If something, development was exponential and has continued to tick up with each massive model second we introduce.”
With this basis of balanced priorities in place, let’s take a look at how advertising leaders are utilizing AI and automation to execute these objectives successfully.
How Advertising and marketing Executives Are Approaching AI and Automation
Advertising and marketing leaders are shifting previous the “AI will repair all the pieces” mindset to a extra strategic method. Our analysis reveals advertising leaders are prioritizing three key AI initiatives for 2025:
- Leveraging AI to create multi-modal campaigns (24%).
- Utilizing AI brokers for end-to-end advertising automation (22%).
- Implementing AI-powered reporting instruments for ROI analysis (21%).
Discovering the Proper Steadiness
What fascinates me most about these numbers isn’t simply the excessive adoption charges — it’s how leaders thoughtfully combine AI into present workflows.
Christine Royston, chief advertising officer at Wrike, a workflow administration platform, has noticed this evolution firsthand.
“We’ve definitely seen loads of change prior to now three years with the rise, recognition, and accessibility of AI,” she explains.
“Essentially the most dramatic change I’ve witnessed is an rising shift in the direction of delivering environment friendly development by means of data-driven decision-making.”
In keeping with Wrike’s 2024 Impactful Work Report, greater than 80% of enterprise leaders have named effectivity their major focus for sustaining competitiveness.
Royston and her group are responding by investing closely in AI-powered predictive analytics.
From Principle to Apply
Whereas many advertising groups are nonetheless experimenting with AI, some are already seeing concrete advantages. At Goldcast, a B2B video platform, CEO Palash Soni sees AI remodeling content material creation and distribution.
“The basics of what makes a B2B model profitable haven’t modified,” he explains.
“Excessive-quality thought management, differentiated PoV, standout attention-grabbing content material, and a bulletproof operations base have at all times gained and can proceed profitable. Making these items scale nicely is the place AI is available in for prime manufacturers.”
Ashley Faus, head of lifecycle advertising at Atlassian — a office collaboration and productiveness software program firm — takes a focused method with Rovo, Atlassian’s AI-powered device.
“We used it to work on a content audit, brainstorm subjects, and even create a custom agent so as to add context on a number of the messaging for our merchandise,” Faus explains.
Her group plans to develop these capabilities: “I foresee us creating extra brokers to assist analyze asset and channel efficiency, shut gaps in our content material technique, and personalize the journey for various personas.”
At Orum, Sarah Reece has discovered sensible purposes throughout a number of capabilities.
“AI in venture administration has been extraordinarily useful for creating venture boards, automating standing updates, and protecting work shifting ahead,” she explains.
“We’re additionally heavy customers of AI for video and podcast modifying and manufacturing. AI has made all the pieces associated to modifying video and audio, selecting out clips for social, and transcribing for social posts, captions, and content material repurposing past simple.”
Balancing AI and Human Creativity
What struck me most in my conversations with leaders was their emphasis on sustaining human oversight.
Kacie Jenkins, senior vp of selling at Sendoso, an enterprise gifting and advertising engagement platform, put it completely:
“Human connection and considerate personalization are the guts of all the pieces we do at Sendoso as a result of they’re the beating coronary heart of excellent advertising. We imagine that AI is an incredible approach to increase human workflows, nevertheless it wants a human on the helm, and oversight is essential.”
Jenkins’ group has discovered success by specializing in utilizing AI to reinforce relatively than exchange human capabilities:
“We use AI for analysis, to assist us goal our advertising efforts extra successfully, to remove mundane, guide work, and to ship the fitting personalised reward and message to the fitting individual on the proper time throughout the complete buyer journey.”
Whereas AI adoption is accelerating, advertising executives emphasize the significance of considerate implementation. Wrike’s Royston advocates for steadiness.
“Though we welcome AI implementation because it permits for elevated alternatives for high-impact work and collaboration,” she explains, “human creativity and empathy are irreplaceable in crafting compelling storytelling, growing progressive methods, and fostering genuine buyer connections.”
This balanced method to AI units up one of many greatest challenges advertising leaders face in 2025: scaling personalization with out dropping authenticity. Let’s take a look at how probably the most profitable executives are tackling this problem.
Professional tip: Establish areas the place AI can deal with routine duties, releasing your group to give attention to strategic considering and artistic improvement.
How Advertising and marketing Executives Are Scaling Personalization
The numbers from our analysis inform a compelling story about personalization in 2025:
- 90% of selling leaders supply considerably or very personalised experiences.
- 86% report that personalization will increase gross sales reasonably or considerably.
- 18% cite quickly altering viewers lives as their major problem.
Past Fundamental Personalization
These statistics solely inform a part of the story. In my conversations with advertising leaders, I found they’re fully rethinking what “personalised” means in 2025. VP of Advertising and marketing Deb Garber emphasizes this evolution at Kount, an Equifax firm targeted on fraud prevention and digital identification options.
“Advertising and marketing is continually evolving, and so are our goal audiences,” Garber explains. “What they need, how they behave, how they need to be communicated with is frequently shifting and may make it difficult to maintain up.”
Knowledge-Pushed Personalization at Scale
For monetary companies corporations, this problem is especially acute. Marla Pieton, senior director of influencer advertising at Alkami, a digital banking platform, has seen how refined personalization drives precise enterprise outcomes.
“In digital banking, the sooner we will analyze account holder conduct, the sooner we will tailor services and products to fulfill their wants,” she explains. “This stage of personalization may be the deciding think about whether or not an account holder stays loyal to their monetary establishment or seeks alternate options.”
The answer? In keeping with Pieton, it’s about modernizing your expertise stack:
“To remain forward, modernizing knowledge expertise with superior analytics, significantly predictive analytics, can present worthwhile foresight under consideration holder wants and preferences, enabling extra proactive and personalised experiences.”
Professional tip: Deal with refining your knowledge assortment and analytics course of. Prioritizing behavioral insights and predictive analytics will enable you to anticipate buyer wants and guarantee campaigns stay impactful and related.
Constructing Belief By Transparency
One of the crucial attention-grabbing approaches I encountered got here from Huntress, a cybersecurity firm. Chief Advertising and marketing Officer Jason Marshall takes a radically clear method to personalization.
“We offer a full audit log so clients can see how we use their enterprise info,” says Marshall. “We additionally publish detailed insurance policies concerning knowledge assortment and the way we use it.”
Marshall emphasizes that whereas extra shoppers are aware of their data-sharing practices, having clear-minded insurance policies and sincere dialogue helps keep belief.
This give attention to belief turns into much more essential as personalization will get extra refined. At GRIN, a creator administration platform, Senior Director of Product Advertising and marketing and Partnerships Olivia McNaughten sees co-selling as the following frontier.
“Once you let creators select merchandise they genuinely love and share them with their viewers, you create an unforgettable purchasing expertise for audiences who genuinely belief these creators on the subject of product suggestions.”
Professional tip: “Empower creators to take the result in curate and promote merchandise,” says McNaughten. “It’s extra private, extra impactful, and delivers stronger outcomes for each manufacturers and creators.”
Scaling Personalization With out Dropping the Human Contact
The true magic occurs when corporations discover methods to personalize at scale whereas sustaining authenticity. Kacie Jenkins and her group at Sendoso mix AI, intent knowledge, and automation to personalize interactions at scale, producing over $1M in outbound certified pipeline per quarter.
This balanced method to scaling personalization pays off. Jenkins’ group efficiently makes use of AI and knowledge to ship “the fitting personalised reward and message to the fitting individual on the proper time throughout the complete buyer journey.”
The important thing? Taking knowledge upkeep severely. “Don’t use AI if you happen to can’t belief your knowledge!” Jenkins emphasizes.
This steadiness of expertise and belief units up one other essential problem advertising leaders face in 2025: creating content material that resonates throughout a number of channels whereas sustaining consistency and worth. Let’s discover how executives are remodeling their content material methods to fulfill this problem.
Professional tip: Begin with clear, dependable knowledge earlier than implementing AI-driven personalization instruments. The standard of your personalization efforts can solely be pretty much as good as the info that drives them.
How Advertising and marketing Executives Are Remodeling Content material Technique
Our analysis reveals advertising leaders are evolving their content material technique past primary product promotion. Three key tendencies emerged from our knowledge:
- 20% prioritize value-aligned content material.
- 21% are rising model content material that includes trade specialists.
- 17% give attention to repurposing content material throughout channels.
The Rise of Genuine Video Content material
One of the crucial dramatic shifts I’ve noticed is in video advertising. Jennifer Burak, vp of selling at Socialive, a video content material platform, explains the basic change in viewers preferences:
“The largest change in video advertising is the shift to short-form, genuine video as a approach to entice audiences with the aim to get them to go deeper.”
This shift, she notes, is pushed by evolving social media habits and rising shopper desire for relatable content material over polished advertising supplies.
Constructing Skilled Communities
At Atlassian, Ashley Faus has taken this authenticity precept even additional. “We’ve a practices and evangelist group to assist us join with extra technical audiences,” she explains.
The outcomes converse for themselves: Their technical evangelists have constructed important followings, with one receiving LinkedIn’s Prime Voice badge in 2024 and one other changing into an everyday keynote speaker at main tech conferences.
However what actually caught my consideration was Atlassian’s method to neighborhood content material. Fairly than limiting themselves to exterior specialists, they’ve created a program that turns their most engaged customers into content material creators.
By month-to-month coaching periods on new options, trade tendencies, and platform greatest practices, they’re serving to their neighborhood members develop into genuine voices for the model.
Worth-First Content material Improvement
“Fall in love with the shopper’s downside, not your product.”
This recommendation from Joanie Kindblade, senior director of product advertising at Lumen Technologies, a Fortune 500 tech firm offering enterprise-level networking, cloud, and safety options, captures how advertising executives are rethinking content material technique.
Fairly than main with product options, they’re specializing in understanding and addressing buyer challenges first.
Professional tip: Kindblade suggests creating content material that “resonates with buyer values by understanding their wants, preferences, and ache factors.” This customer-centric method is reshaping how advertising executives take into consideration content material.
Ashleigh Cook, CMO at RainFocus, an occasion advertising platform, places this precept into observe by means of direct buyer engagement.
“We depend on insights from our personal consumer convention and buyer surveys to raised perceive the place alternatives exist for broader market training in addition to extra technical training on our platform,” she explains.
“It’s additionally essential to have direct conversations with clients and a relentless suggestions loop between gross sales and advertising.”
Noah Dye, government vp of worldwide strategic consumer engagement at international advertising company TEAM LEWIS, reinforces this shift.
“Content material stays king. Nevertheless, it has develop into extra of a ‘present, don’t inform’ method,” he explains. He factors to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Video Marketing survey, which discovered that 89% of shoppers need to see extra movies from manufacturers, with 75% particularly preferring short-form video content material on cell gadgets.
Socialive VP of Advertising and marketing Jennifer Burak agrees.
“Transfer from promoting merchandise to fixing issues by highlighting how your model’s mission aligns along with your prospects’ values, akin to sustainability, variety, or innovation,” Burak says. “Use storytelling to attach emotionally and collaborate with staff and clients to create relatable video content material.”
Content material Effectivity and Sensible Repurposing
Whereas high-quality content material stays important, advertising leaders are discovering progressive methods to maximise its influence. At Goldcast, Palash Soni sees AI as a vital device for content material amplification.
“Excessive-quality video content material calls for loads of work and prices so much to create,” Soni explains. “AI will help that work and value go so much farther by serving to take present video property throughout channels and campaigns.”
Jason Marshall at Huntress has taken a complete method to content material by means of Huntress’s new accomplice portal. The platform combines cybersecurity coaching, product updates, and trade insights in a single place, serving to construct buyer experience whereas strengthening their connection to the model.
“By offering ongoing entry to info on Huntress merchandise alongside deep dives into trade subjects and advertising and gross sales suggestions, constructing the cybersecurity experience of our shoppers will ideally carry them nearer to our firm,” explains Marshall.
Sustaining High quality at Scale
“One concern I heard repeatedly was about sustaining content material high quality whereas scaling manufacturing. Marija Kojic, director of content material at CAKE.com, an organization that helps companies worldwide arrange and run operations by means of productiveness instruments like Plaky, Pumble, and Clockify, supplied a worthwhile perspective:
“Search engines like google are nonetheless giving priority to well-structured content material delivering excessive worth, in-depth info, infused with authentic knowledgeable opinions and insights — and it is best to, too.”
In observe, this implies being strategic about content material repurposing. Jennifer Burak of Socialive recommends in search of platforms that assist groups effectively rework long-form movies into quick clips for social, blogs, or e mail campaigns.
I’ve seen this multi-channel method work significantly nicely when the core content material is stable and value-driven.
Professional tip: Begin constructing your content material repurposing technique now. Establish your most useful content material items and plan how they are often reworked for various channels and audiences whereas sustaining their core worth.
Wanting Forward: Content material Technique in 2025
After analyzing lots of of responses and talking with dozens of selling leaders, I’m seeing a transparent sample emerge: Profitable content material methods in 2025 should steadiness authenticity, effectivity, and worth.
The simplest approaches mix:
- Deep understanding of buyer challenges.
- Skilled and community-generated content material.
- Sensible repurposing throughout channels.
- Constant high quality requirements.
This multi-faceted method to content material ties instantly into how advertising leaders are utilizing knowledge to drive choices. Let’s discover how executives are shifting past primary metrics to know and serve their audiences higher.
How Advertising and marketing Executives Are Utilizing Knowledge to Drive Choices
Our analysis reveals an enchanting evolution in how advertising leaders method knowledge. The priorities have shifted considerably, with leaders specializing in:
- Content material consumption habits (33%)
- Fundamental demographics (32%)
- Procuring habits (28%)
Transferring Past Fundamental Demographics
I’ve observed a big shift in my conversations with advertising leaders: They’re not happy with figuring out who their clients are — they need to perceive how their clients behave and what they like.
“Essentially the most important evolution in advertising prior to now decade has been with the digital engagement of audiences by means of a number of channels and the harvesting of that knowledge footprint for higher conduct,” explains Vibhor Kapoor, chief enterprise officer at NextRoll, a advertising and promoting expertise firm.
“Central to each efficient advertising group’s technique at present ought to be leveraging the info to seize intent indicators, perceive conduct, make suggestions, and predict the following greatest actions.”
The Monetary Providers Instance
I’ve seen this evolution play out significantly nicely in monetary companies. At Alkami, Marla Pieton reveals how refined knowledge evaluation drives personalization.
Her group makes use of superior analytics to attract on account holder conduct, “uncovering deeper patterns in classes like transaction historical past, service provider spend habits, channel utilization, and engagement with previous affords. This enables the data-informed digital banker to create extra related and well timed advertising campaigns.”
Navigating Knowledge Challenges
Nevertheless, advertising executives face important hurdles of their knowledge initiatives:
- 21% cite decreased shopper belief in sharing private knowledge.
- 18% face rising knowledge privateness rules.
- 16% wrestle with poor knowledge high quality.
Sarah Reece, director of demand technology at Orum, found an sudden answer: specializing in high quality over amount. Her group made the daring transfer to chop all its demand seize digital spend and de-emphasize low-intent conversions.
“Our general lead quantity undoubtedly went down,” Reece explains. “However we’ve been capable of present that leads are usually not a robust indicator of pipeline well being… Solely high-intent leads are helpful for predicting pipeline (demo requests, contact gross sales, and so forth.).”
The outcomes? “Whereas general leads decreased, we’ve been capable of develop our whole alternatives and enhance our alternative worth by focusing our intention on maximizing the fitting conversions.”
Inventive Options for 2025
Wanting forward, advertising leaders are discovering progressive methods to steadiness knowledge wants with privateness issues.
Chris Williams, CMO at Arima, a cloud-based shopper insights platform that creates privacy-compliant artificial knowledge mirroring actual shopper conduct, suggests an unconventional method: utilizing artificial knowledge to create inhabitants simulations that may inform advertising methods whereas defending particular person privateness.
“Fairly than try to gather huge knowledge units of hard-to-get knowledge on prospects, entrepreneurs need to corporations that create artificial knowledge as an alternative,” says Williams.
This evolving method to knowledge units up the broader problem advertising leaders face as they put together for 2025: balancing innovation with confirmed fundamentals. Let’s discover how executives are making ready their groups for what’s subsequent.
Professional tip: Deal with accumulating and analyzing the fitting knowledge, not simply extra knowledge. As our specialists present, focused, high-quality knowledge factors typically show extra worthwhile than huge portions of common info.
Advertising and marketing Govt Outlook: Getting ready for 2025
As I’ve analyzed our analysis and spoken with advertising executives throughout industries, I’ve observed a transparent theme rising: Success in 2025 would require a fragile steadiness of innovation and fundamentals.
Our analysis reveals advertising executives are making ready for a number of important shifts:
- 20% are specializing in personality-led content material and creator partnerships.
- 21% are diversifying paid media approaches.
- 19% are updating web optimization methods for AI-driven search.
Embracing Uncertainty
“Even with the U.S. elections behind us, uncertainty will persist in 2025,” observes Noah Dye from TEAM LEWIS. “As manufacturers put together for the 12 months forward, they should stay versatile. Make it possible for advertising plans can flex in response to vary.”
Strategic Useful resource Allocation
What’s shocked me most in these conversations isn’t simply what advertising leaders plan to do — it’s how thoughtfully they method the steadiness between innovation and fundamentals.
Take Kacie Jenkins, senior vp of selling at Sendoso, who plans to dedicate 60% of her 2025 funds to model and class constructing, with the remaining 40% targeted on demand technology.
Her reasoning?
“We all know that’s the approach to create the belief and desire that can put us within the consideration set for the huge share of potential patrons (95%) who are usually not but available in the market,” she explains.
“You understand while you do one thing at present as a result of your future self will profit from it, like filling up the gasoline tank or establishing automated financial savings deposits? Similar thought.”
Getting ready for A number of Futures
By my conversations with executives, three key approaches to future-proofing stand out:
- Worth First, Know-how Second. “Making these items scale nicely is the place AI is available in for prime manufacturers,” explains Palash Soni. His group focuses on utilizing expertise to amplify confirmed methods relatively than exchange them.
- Balanced Innovation. At Lumen Applied sciences, Joanie Kindblade and her group are “exploring potentialities of AR and LLMs in product presentation and moral content material technology” whereas sustaining give attention to “buyer pursuits and moral algorithm inference.”
- Belief-Based mostly Relationships. Ashley Faus emphasizes neighborhood and long-term relationships. Her group has expanded their Atlassian Creator program to include extra neighborhood members, internet hosting month-to-month coaching periods on new options, trade tendencies, and platform greatest practices to assist them improve their attain and engagement.
Professional tip: Begin making ready for 2025 now by auditing your present advertising stack and figuring out areas the place AI can increase (not exchange) your group’s capabilities.
Advertising and marketing Management Reimagined: Insights for 2025
As I wrapped up my conversations with these advertising executives, I discovered myself excited and humbled by their shared insights.
What struck me most wasn’t simply their technical data or strategic considering — although each had been spectacular — it was their means to remain grounded in advertising fundamentals whereas embracing transformation.
The information paints a transparent image of this steadiness: Whereas advertising leaders are specializing in AI for multi-modal campaigns (24%) and end-to-end automation (22%), they’re concurrently prioritizing human components — 90% are investing in personalised experiences, and 20% are specializing in value-aligned content material.
Discovering Steadiness in Change
Our analysis confirms that advertising has modified extra prior to now three years than within the earlier 50. But these leaders are doing greater than chasing the following shiny AI device or leaping on each new pattern.
As an alternative, they’re thoughtfully evaluating how new applied sciences and approaches can amplify what already works: understanding clients, creating worth, and constructing belief.
I began this analysis anticipating to write down about dramatic technological transformations.
As an alternative, I found one thing extra nuanced: Essentially the most profitable advertising executives are those that can steadiness innovation with authenticity, automation with human connection, and rapid outcomes with long-term model constructing.
Charting Your Course for 2025
As you propose your technique for 2025, do not forget that the aim isn’t to implement each new device or pattern. It’s to seek out the correct mix of innovation and fundamentals that works to your viewers, your group, and your objectives.
In any case, as a lot of our specialists jogged my memory, whereas the instruments of selling might change, the core precept stays the identical: It’s all about creating real connections with the folks we serve.
Editor’s be aware: This publish was initially revealed in January 2023 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
