January 2025
At Jackson Spalding, we constantly keep an eye on what affects our clients, business trends and the business of communications. There are five trends we think you should be on the lookout for in 2025.
One of the things JS explored toward the end of last year was what we call “virality v. reality.” Things aren’t always as they appear in a world where bots are on the rise, artificial intelligence is increasingly leveraged, and people seemed to react in nanoseconds to any social media post.
The so-called “anti-woke” battle over corporate DEI efforts led by conservative pundit Robbie Starbuck is the best example. His social media attacks on companies with proactive DEI policies were credited by his fans for many of those same corporations reversing course. But as Jackson Spalding outlined through the great work of my uber-smart colleague, Justin Williams, much of the social chatter around this topic was driven by bots, not real people.
That didn’t stop the virality of the topic garnering headlines of its own and convincing people (and corporations) that the issue was blowing up. Bottom line, we communicators only have ourselves to blame. We’ve spent years trying to convince business leaders that one way to gauge the effectiveness of communications, or public relations and advertising campaigns, was by the level of engagement they triggered. “Virality” can be skewed to create a false narrative. Instead, what we need business leaders to understand is the quality and context of conversations – and the people doing the commenting – are what really matters.
Jackson Spalding’s data-driven approach drills down in ways few communications groups can, to accurately measure campaign effectiveness, accurately gauge traction, and define true “reality” for actionable KPIs.
At a recent event, an executive at a major corporation told me “sustainability” was bad for business. To them, DEI isn’t a bad idea, but they felt companies were over-indexing to address it and leaving themselves vulnerable to activists on both sides of the political spectrum (as we’ve seen in recent days with Costco and McDonald’s). This underscores the challenges we face communicating in a time of politically loaded trigger words. So, if you were hoping for a less political New Year post-election, sorry to disappoint.
Communicating about the potential effects of tariffs on cost of living and consumer products, the continued fragility of the supply chain, a deepening economic cold war with China, a likely emotional battle over vaccinations and, yes, hot-button terms such as sustainability and DEI will challenge every industry from manufacturing to healthcare. How we talk to employees, customers, investors, and each other will need thoughtful planning and consideration.
Whenever I talk about bots, AI, and misinformation, I think I know how Sarah Connor must have felt warning about Skynet in the Terminator franchise. While I don’t think AI is plotting to take over all machines and eliminate the human population (yet), I do believe the AI hype doesn’t jibe with reality.
Will AI make some tasks easier? Yes. As with any new technology, however, there are going to be glitches. Assuming AI can draft an employee message or replace an experienced strategic communications professional is Skynet dangerous, especially as we continue to slog through an era of misinformation.
As Jackson Spalding partner Randall Kirsch succinctly outlined in this recent post about PR trends, how can brands earn trust if nobody believes anything they read, hear or see? How can people believe you’re being transparent when they’ve bought into an entirely distinct set of facts?
As Randall says, “AI is adding fuel, accelerating the production of credible looking but inaccurate content and empowering almost anyone to drive false narratives and content at scale.”
In today’s climate, and with the sophistication AI can lend to a misinformation campaign, the fight for truth and accuracy needs to be an everyday battle. Watchdogging your reputation, and planning for “fact-fighting” through a consistent, thoughtful reputation and issues management strategy is essential. That includes implementing verification protocols for shared content and having a process for combating fake news.
Like Sarah Connor, you need to strap up for those future battles.
If you need more proof that the earned media landscape has changed, consider that Donald Trump’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast had 67 million views on YouTube by November 10. It’s true that “views” is a squishy metric, doesn’t consider how long people watched or even if they watched all three hours. But … Kamala Harris’ interview on Call Her Daddy ranked in the top five podcasts nationally. An estimated 47% of Americans – that’s about 135 million people – regularly listen to podcasts.
While I’m not ready to call the 2024 election the “podcast election” – the metrics are still too vague – it’s undeniable that podcasts played a critical role in this cycle. They are no longer “alternative” media and show that “legacy” media is quickly becoming the alt. In 2025, we need to rethink the definition of “earned media.”
The biggest fallacy we should crush in 2025 is that people are “turning away” from traditional media. The age group from 15 to 54 is the largest segment of the U.S. population and millennials are the largest adult group in the country. The 15 to 34 band isn’t “turning away” from legacy media – they were never there to begin with. My teen has never seen a complete local or national newscast. Which is saying something, considering I was a TV reporter for more than two decades and his mom was producer at a major network for 25 years. Young people are finding their own sources of news and information. And we need to go where they are.
Ok, this is a bit of a cheat because the PESO (Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned) model for communications is already well-known. There are two areas, though, where I think PESO will jump forward in 2025, both related to some of what we’ve already covered.
This is where AI could have a breakthrough, hyper-charging PESO efficiency through smarter audience targeting and connecting content performance to lead generation, sales conversion, and brand trust scores.
In the battle for information, there is going to be a greater need for – and greater skepticism of –company/brand-created and verified content. The media will especially be looking for verified sources (images, quotes, video) so they’re not “spoofed” and will be looking for help to differentiate between the real and the (deep) faked. They’ll also ask harder questions about that content and its background.
Working with clients, reaching customers, engaging employees – any type of communication – in 2025 will not be for the faint of heart. And if someone says to you, “it’s just communications,” wish them luck… and give their name to Skynet.
If you would like to discuss these topics further or are looking for a fiercely strategic and fiercely creative communications partner for 2025, reach out to us. We’d love to see how we can help you be well prepared for the tumultuous year ahead.
