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The Evolving Digital Landscape – Five Trends We’re Watching at the Start of 2025
January 2025
This article is from Sandpiper’s Digital team, which develops integrated marketing and communications strategies and campaigns for clients across digital and social media channels.
With the first few days of 2025 behind us, we already know that we’re in for another year of profound changes across the APAC region and the globe. This flux is equally evident in digital and social media, as our digital lives and lifestyles continue to evolve alongside rapid technological change.
While the only constant for digital marketers is the increasing pace of change, there are several unexpected trends we’re seeing that could reshape the landscape in new and interesting ways. Businesses that consider these changes as a part of their plans for 2025 and beyond can better reach their stakeholders and deepen authentic engagement.
AI growth, and AI fatigue
In the 2020s, every tech trends list has to lead with AI – it’s simply unavoidable. But while we view the staggering growth of AI capabilities as the top trend for the upcoming year, we’re starting to see divergence from the narrative of disruption. In particular, AI has further stoked digital marketers’ worries about ongoing platform decay (often described with more colourful language). At the same time, the dream of GAI is quickly being replaced with hyper-specialised tools used to execute very specific tasks. We appear to be reaching a point in the AI goldrush reminiscent of the dotcom boom at the turn of the millennium, where many companies fail to monetise and either merge or go bankrupt.
In addition, businesses are becoming more aware of the need to prove business value through AI investments and manage risks. As businesses have rushed to understand AI and find use cases, there still needs to be a focus on how it adds value to the business, either by unleashing new ideas or driving more efficient processes. Using AI to quickly produce content or organise information can add efficiency, but there is also the risk that, if not validated, the information resulting from AI can be misleading or just plain incorrect. These risks also need to be closely managed.
What does this mean for businesses? First, the media frenzy of the past few years is quickly approaching media fatigue. Breaking through the noise with new use cases and applications of AI will become increasingly difficult. Second, businesses need to be laser-focused on how AI use cases and tools contribute to their businesses, and must continue to look for ways these tools can be augmented by their human workforces.
New platforms, the same battles for users and monetisation
Another year, and another cycle of stories on the latest platforms to break through. ByteDance has made headlines with Lemon8, Blue Sky has stepped into the void left by hotly debated decisions at X, Reddit (one of the oldest social networks) is unexpectedly on a growth trajectory after monetising its users’ data post-IPO, and Instagram/Xiahongshu/TikTok continue to monetise social shopping through the evolving creator economy.
While each of these developments warrants its own analysis, one overall takeaway is clear: user acquisition and subsequent monetisation is here to stay in 2025. Whether filling a niche in the social landscape to attract users or presenting new formats to deliver ads and drive sales, the model cemented in the late aughts (acquisition and monetisation) shows no signs of changing nearly 20 years later.
In the coming year, businesses will need to maintain their footprint across relevant channels, while also looking at the ways monetisation changes platforms over time and shifts the flow of users from one platform to the next. Being a frontrunner in platform adoption can keep the user experience fresh and ensure you’re connected to important stakeholders.
Adapting to voice, visual, and AI-driven search
Search patterns are changing.
Once a desktop and browser-dominated function, search has jumped into mobile, social apps, voice, and video. Gartner estimates that search engine traffic could decline by 25% by the end of 2026.
Enter the new search experience. Xiahongshu and Instagram are continually improving their curation of lifestyle content and making it searchable to create instant popularity for businesses. Samsung and Google introduced Circle to Search to much fanfare last year, while ChatGPT Search and Perplexity are gathering die-hard followings.
However, usership is still fragmented and there is no universal access point to the modern web. As a result, businesses need to ensure their web presence is optimised for multiple access points, whether traditional search engines or social platforms. In the new landscape, the essential point is to be present at the key online junctions for your disaggregated user base.
Legislation will impact how Gen Alpha accesses digital content, potentially starting a new conversation on web ethics
With each successive generation since the start of social media, there have been predictions about the fundamental shifts that lay ahead. Millennials reshaped the world around them, Gen Z re-wrote the rules of authenticity and trust in the digital world. Now it’s Gen Alpha’s turn.
While marketers are starting to look at ways to reach and influence the latest generation, governments are also turning their eyes to the way we interact with digital content.
Australia, often at the forefront of legislation, recently passed a law limiting platform use for those under 16. As Millennials become parents and are increasingly aware of the effects of screen time and always-on digital lives, we should anticipate more direct input from governments to help manage our digital lives.
We expect to see legislation evolve in the coming year, as more research becomes available about the impact of digital media on our lives.
This creates an opportunity for businesses to message their approach. In particular, they can issue clear statements on digital policies, targeting, and ethics to communicate their values in reaching target audiences.
Employee-generated content will continue to redefine employer value propositions
LinkedIn has been around since 2003, but continues to evolve as employees communicate in new ways about their careers. What started as a way for individuals to connect with their professional network has evolved into a holistic platform for people to communicate and manage their professional lives.
In this ecosystem, thought capital has flourished, giving people a platform to share professional opinions, advice, and recommendations.
Even in APAC markets where its adoption was slower, it is becoming entrenched in the professional sphere.
This means employees also have a growing platform to communicate about their employers and research future employers. It doesn’t stop at LinkedIn though. Employees are also taking to non-career-oriented platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and more to post about their day-to-day roles, and employers have followed. Employees are posting content about the lived experience of working for an organisation, and the expectation is that businesses will also share this content to provide a realistic picture of what work looks like at their organisation.
In this landscape, employee content has essential value for companies’ reputations. Employees’ contributions are not only the lifeblood of any organisation, but their views and opinions shape the reputation of the brand among potential future employees and the public.
Looking ahead
As the technology driving digital communications evolves, so too will user behaviours and needs. We’re sure these won’t be the only trends that impact the digital and social media landscapes in 2025, but they will be vital themes for businesses to watch.
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