• by Shoshana Winter , Yesterday

If 2025 had a soundtrack, it would have been a long unresolved chord, tension without release, motion without movement. On paper, it looked like a breakthrough year. AI promised acceleration, markets hinted at recovery, and brand leaders felt early sparks of momentum. But somewhere along the way, the industry sunk into quicksand.

After three decades in this business, I thought I’d seen it all: the commercial internet boom, ecommerce, mobile, social media, streaming wars. Each disruption forced adaptation—testing new channels, hiring digital-first partners, failing fast. We didn’t always swing right, but at least we swung. In 2025, that spirit stalled.

Marketers Did a Lot of Thinking and Not a Lot of Doing
As I spoke with colleagues, one word defined the year: inertia. The C-suite spent more time scenario planning than executing. AI fears, tariffs, and macro uncertainty became excuses for indecision. Budgets froze. Briefs languished. RFP timelines stretched from three months to nine. Media budgets were revised endlessly as every dollar demanded legal justification.

AI: Disruption or Distraction?
AI wasn’t catastrophic, but it was paralyzing. It became scapegoat, savior, and boogeyman. The truth? AI didn’t break marketing. It exposed deeper issues: lack of skill development, obsession with short-term savings, and vanity metrics that never reflected real impact. Clients noticed. Trust wavered. Agencies scrambled to prove value beyond dashboards.

The Great Measurement Meltdown
AI quietly rewrote the rules. Search visibility destabilized. Organic and paid channels reshuffled. Attribution—the industry’s security blanket—frayed. The scaffolding built for incremental ROI proved flimsy. Yet chaos brought clarity. Studies like the World Advertising Research Center’s “The Multiplier Effect” reminded us: User-centric storytelling matters; trust is infrastructure; brand health outlasts channel hacks. Affiliate content blurred lines, Reddit rewired influence, and neglected narratives showed fragility.

Fear is Not a Marketing Strategy
2025 felt heavy. Holding companies preached consolidation while cutting jobs. Creatives questioned their worth. Media planners wondered if platforms would erase “hands on keyboards.” Both client and agency teams reassessed careers and priorities.

The dust hasn’t settled. We don’t know what the next five years hold—but maybe this reckoning was overdue. Many admitted the year forced uncomfortable soul-searching, the kind that precedes progress.

So, was 2025 a loss? No, it was a wake-up call. Automation won’t solve an identity crisis. Measurement was humbled. Legacy models cracked. Brands rediscovered connection. If 2024 was AI hype, 2025 was the hangover: messy, revealing, necessary.

2026: The Year of AI Action
The fear fog is lifting. Marketers can’t sit still. The mandate: Make AI-driven marketing effective now. Reinvent performance marketing—balance brand and demand, measure full-funnel, prove impact. Integrate AI into that mindset. New roles will emerge to manage AI like media once was. Storytelling will democratize as AI enables premium creative for all. Pricing will shift to outcomes, not usage. Performance marketing evolves from ROI to orchestrating results across human and machine contributors. The brands that thrive will embrace complexity, leverage AI for efficiency, and double down on creativity.