‘Opportunities for brands to step up’: We Are Social’s Think Forward 2025 report unearths internet trends for marketers
Social-centric creative agency, We Are Social, has revealed the five major trends that are defining how marketing decision-makers are engaging with the internet, via its Think Forward 2025: The Liveable Web report.
Put together by the agency’s Cultural Insights team, with survey responses from 500 marketing decision-makers based across the world, the Think Forward report found that people are rejecting “more” culture – a need to produce more content, create more unrealistic goals, engage in “faster trend cycles”, etc. – in order to identify “new modes of joy online”.
The findings also found an overall backlash against “a treadmill of micro-trends, notifications and noise online”.
“We know that a lot of people feel overwhelmed by their online experiences today; even spending time on social can be exhausting at times,” commented Mobbie Nazir, global chief strategy officer at We Are Social.
“That’s why it’s been so encouraging to see the emergence of ‘The Liveable Web’ as a theme this year – separating joy from progress and prioritising slower consumption.
“We also see more audiences actively seeking out more raw emotion and less sanitisation; this in itself is a creative gift to marketers everywhere – particularly those willing to take a few risks.”
According to Think Forward 2025, the main trends permeating The Liveable Web are primal renaissance, low-stakes social, intentional consumerism, modern mythmaking and new intimacies.
Regarding primal renaissance, the research found 2024 saw the social landscape readily embrace “rawness, gore, sleaze and hedonism” or “messiness”. More than 50% of marketers undertook risky behaviour within the last 12 months, such as developing content intended to promote backlash or entering a partnership with controversial creators. 98% of respondents said that these types of risky moves resulted in “a successful or neutral outcome”.
The intentional consumerism trend relates to an online ethos that champions sustainability over gaudy displays of money spending – a mindset that caused 66% of respondents to increase sustainability and ethical messaging within their social content.
That sense of community lends itself to the new intimacies trend, which relates to how marketers are generating their own communities as a response to people actively engaging within fandoms. 61% of international marketers are actively engaging with this by surrounding their content with gate-keeping tactics – for example, “customer-only groups or closed social channels”.
The last two Liveable Web trends, modern mythmaking and low-stakes social, encapsulate the status quo of creator-led content being a significant influence on pop culture, and a general sense that the internet is a less volatile place with a nostalgic outlook on the “levity and kindness” of the 2000’s internet “peak”, respectively.
The We Are Social teams’ findings also unearthed that marketers bear a sizeable knowledge gap surrounding online culture, particularly in the meaning of certain terms.
“The social media landscape is at a pivotal moment, where people are increasingly seeking authenticity, levity, and genuine connection amid rising concerns about its impact,” We Are Social Australia’s chief executive officer, Suzie Shaw, said.
“Our Think Forward 2025 report delves into these cultural shifts, from the raw energy of the Primal Renaissance to the emergence of low-stakes social spaces that embrace kindness and creativity.
“These trends reveal not just the challenges but the profound opportunities for brands to step up. By championing intentional consumerism, fostering meaningful communities, and embracing cultural nuances, brands can be part of creating a healthier, more human digital world—something Australians are clearly craving.”
The full Think Forward 2025 report can be downloaded here.
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Matthew is the editorial assistant at Mumbrella. He joined the company at the end of September 2023.
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