Exploring 2025âs Marketing Developments
As we continue to explore what the start of 2025 has to offer, weâre seeing a range of employment updates and marketing trends that continue to develop. With guidance and regulations being amended on a frequent basis, itâs more important than ever to stay up to date with current movements in marketing, but doing so in an effective and appropriate manner.
Weâve put together an overview of current marketing trends, and how that is affecting digital and marketing companies. If youâre wondering how recent developments in the marketing industry are influencing recruitment, or you just want to know what to keep an eye on, have a look below.
What Does Employment Law Think About AI?
In January, we saw the launch of the AI Opportunities Action Plan. This is a document from the government that includes their proposals for AI and how theyâre going to take advantage of it.
Their main aim is to remove barriers to growth â they want to help businesses and departments to take advantage of AI to improve efficiency, especially in the workplace. Whilst being mindful of not allowing AI to take over jobs, the proposals detail the intention of helping employees improve quality and quantity of work.
Itâs useful to note that these current proposals have just been laid out and are yet to progress. So, for now, until there are more concrete changes to how AI is used for businesses, itâs important to keep an eye on current regulation and guidance until we see any changes, especially with AI in recruitment.
Whilst there are different points of guidance, we feel that Automated Decision Making is core aspect of recruitment that needs to be monitored due to its potential impact from AI.
The UK Data Protection Act 2018 prevents fully automated decision making, including âe-recruiting practices without human interventionâ. Now, this may be set to change to allow automated decision-making processes with the provisions of safeguards to include human oversight. However, its current state forbids any program at any stage of a recruitment process that eliminates the requirement for human intervention.
At Headliners, we immerse ourselves in job descriptions and requirements, fully vetting our candidates to ensure they are a perfect skill and character fit for our clients. With AI decision making, itâs possible to remove professional human interpretation, meaning that potentially great candidates are missed. Itâs a key bugbear with both applicants and recruiting organisations alike. At Headliners we still ensure that all application and CVs are reviewed by an experienced human recruiter, to provide the most personal and professional recruitment solutions that deliver the best results for your business.
If you want to learn more about employment law changes in January 2025, you can do so here.
The Human Experience in Marketing
Weâre seeing an increase in the way that AI is used across marketing, and not just for recruitment.
AI can create content that is more personalised to the user and businesses are looking to take advantage of this by automating their customer service channels and predict customer behaviour.
Without weighing up every argument of introducing AI in business operations, one thing remains: automation canât replace authenticity.
AI models can be used to create more efficient workflows and work smarter, but itâs important to not lose the human touch, especially in customer-facing areas. A key reason why the human touch needs to be regained is because of marketing trends that are developing in 2025.
Human phrases and long tail keywords are becoming a focus, because of an increase in voice search (which is done through the likes of Siri or Alexa). For voice activated technology to find content online, youâre going to want to provide human-sounding content for smart speakers or AI assistants to find and relay to users.
Posts and content uploaded to company social platforms is now contributing to your SEO, so you need to maintain your expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trust as a business.
Employee-generated content is performing very well for businesses. Employees can develop their own content about their experience working for a company, and describe what life at work looks like, which creates a much-improved online presence for businesses. This is also hugely helpful when prospective employees are researching your company online.
Thatâs why itâs key to remember that a human touch is still valuable for your business as we monitor the developing marketing trends in 2025.
How Charities Can Now Take Advantage of Data
Another technology enabled incoming change for 2025 is around the use of personal data for charities. Those of you who have their inbox full of marketing emails that you never signed up for, may be aware that this is because of something called âsoft opt-in’ and the rules that surround it. This soft opt-in allows businesses and commercial organisations to send marketing emails without prior consent, if your details were once collected during a purchase.
Prior to the General Election last year, a bill was presented by the Conservative Government to aimed to include charities and non-commercial organisations in the bodies that could also take advantage of this soft opt-in opportunity. However, the bill did not reach its conclusion, and when Labour came to Government, this clause was initially removed.
But now, with changes being made, the clause is back again, meaning that charities will be able to utilise the soft opt-in.
By placing charities and non-commercial organisations on the same level as other businesses, they will be able to connect with more customers and donors. This move should lead to an increase in fundraising opportunities, while multiplying the attention and awareness of charitable organisations to reach new audiences.
Once this amendment is finally passed, it would enable charities and non-commercial organisations to continue their work in front of a larger audience, and it is estimated ÂŁ290M of additional income could be achieved.
A Regulatory Outlook on AI in Advertising
Thereâs certainly a fine line when it comes to AI in marketing. It can be used to increase the efficiency in processes, but you need to be aware if youâre making AI related claims that arenât true.
The Advertising Standards Authority detailed in a report towards the end of last year about current trends in the use of AI in marketing. To unblur the lines, the ASA published some guidance and top tips for advertisers that claim a product has or uses AI.
Advertisers shouldnât:
- Claim that a product uses AI or has AI features when it doesnât
- Exaggerate the functionality of AI features
- Claim that an AI product does something better than a non-AI product without evidence
Itâs simple advice that not only protects over-promising and under-delivering, but avoids the glorification of AI-related promises. The ASA are proceeding to monitor AI product ads, making sure everything complies with guidance and advertising codes.
If your advertising or marketing of AI related products falls in scope of this criteria, itâs worth a check to make sure you are fully compliant with ASA guidance. With the ASAâs systems scanning over 3 million ads monthly, any marketing communications that fall foul of the guidelines will be highlighted so please ensure your marketing activities can bear their scrutiny! You can find out more about Januaryâs updates to Advertising and Marketing regulation here.
Where Is 2025 Going to Lead?
With focus on AI developments in the digital and marketing industry affecting every aspect of operations, itâs important to remember how to use developing technology effectively, efficiently and in ways that can help you grow.
With current regulations and marketing trends evolving, the influence of maintaining a human influence has never been more important.
At Headliners, we monitor and keep up with evolving trends whilst maintaining our high-quality recruitment services to clients. Providing you with highly regarded recruitment services that improve the efficiency of your hiring processes, you can count on the personal, professional experience that our reputation has been built on.
Weâd love to have a chat with you to hear about your digital and marketing recruitment plans for 2025, and how we can provide you with the best, most professional recruitment solutions to constantly bring top talent to your team.