In the 2025 report we share the facts, societal observations and brand behaviours behind each trend, guiding you in how best to respond to the rapidly shifting landscape.

The four trends we identify are:

1. We want to make less effort. Life is challenging and decisions feel increasingly complex. People are rejecting pressure and social norms, enjoying more downtime and outsourcing.
2. We are switching sources. We don’t know what’s real or who to trust. People are increasingly distrustful, countering elite narratives and searching for new connections.
3. We want honest utility. Complex campaigns and brand overpromising have alienated audiences. People are opposing overclaims, looking for product, driving leader and brand retreat from politics.
4. We are seeking proactive protection. The world feels scary and risky, with new hazards appearing every year.  People are protecting childhood, foreseeing future health risk, and prepping and panicking.

Our report shows that audiences are finding life increasingly challenging and turning to brands and businesses to help them.

64% of people are finding life harder than 5 years ago, 70% are more worried about life and 66% are more fearful of trusting what they see online. From Meta’s end to fact checking, to Haidt’s Anxious Generation, to Arla’s use of Bovaer, distrustful audiences have found wide-ranging proof points to back up their sense of discomfort.

And they want brands to respond to this. 71% (rising to 78% of parents) are looking to brands to make life easier for them, with 78% looking for business to focus on delivering their core services and nearly 2/3 are looking for brands to provide more than one service.  58% want opportunities to test brand claims for themselves.

And brands are stepping up. From Corona to St John’s Ambulance and John Lewis to Experian, businesses are finding new and creative ways to respond to audience challenges and engage them on the issues that truly matter to them.

By bringing together data, observations and examples of successful campaigns, we derive twelve rules for brands to truly connect with their audiences this year.

1. Be less elaborate and more day to day.
2. Deliver new opportunities to take time out.
3. Be bold in challenging things that make the public’s lives harder.
4. Make it easier for audiences to find the facts for themselves.
5. Give consumers and stakeholders the opportunity to do something in real life.
6. Go where your target audience is.
7. Lean into your brand heritage and iconography.
8. Bring product back to the heart of your message.
9. Harness the “blemish principle”.
10. Helps customers feel in control.
11. Be bold when highlighting risks.
12. Celebrate and amplify times of innocence and freedom from worry.

Download the full report here.