Marketing Happy Hour - Top 3 Marketing Trends to Watch in Late 2025
Episode Date: June 17, 2025I’m joined by my friend and fellow marketer Ally Golden for Episode 1 of our POSSIBLE 2025 conference series. The POSSIBLE conference brings together key decision-makers and rising marketers through... 3 days of learning and networking. Ally and I were lucky to attend several interactive sessions and masterclass conversations that fostered meaningful connections among industry leaders and innovators. In this first episode of the series, we discuss our experience at POSSIBLE 2025, along with our three strategies to watch moving into the second half of this year. Key Takeaways:// Serial content is the new brand loyalty. Consumers crave consistency. Brands should be thinking like creators or showrunners.// Creators are the new media channels. “In today’s marketing landscape, creator partnerships aren’t an add-on—they’re the channel. Especially when they’re authentic fans of the product.”// AI influencers are on the rise - but humans still matter, for now. It’s likely we’ll have trouble identifying the difference within the next 18 months.// Unlock the many to many model with creative. “Creativity is the superpower that cuts through. Creativity makes the conversion happen.” // Get behind the content that works and get out of the content that doesn’t. Focusing on differentiating through awareness, engagement and demand to help create desire at scale.Connect with Ally: LinkedIn | Instagram____Say hi! DM me on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - I can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. Join our FREE Open Jobs group on LinkedIn: Join nowGet the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: Join our email list!Follow MHH on Social: Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | Facebook
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Serial content is the new brand loyalty. Audiences really don't want one hit wonders anymore.
Just this one off content that has no sort of story to it. They want consistency. They
want story arcs and content that they can follow along with and expect.
Giving people a reason to come back to your platform and listen or read or watch again
is really huge and obviously builds that trust and engagement. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. I'm Cassie, consultant, podcaster, and your host.
Every Thursday, you'll hear episodes packed with insights from brand leaders on an array of topics,
from crafting effective marketing strategies and hitting career goals,
to building leadership skills and launching your own business.
Inspired by those unfiltered happy hour combos with peers,
this show is all about practical, empowering chats
to support your professional journey.
So grab your favorite drink and let's get to the episode.
Welcome to another episode of Marketing Happy Hour.
If you are watching, you'll see that I have
a very special guest with me in person. We are going to be diving into three takeaways or strategies for marketers to be paying attention to
today as it stands in 2025. And also just touch on a recap of our time at the Possible Conference
in Miami. But before we get into that, Ali, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
But before we get into that, Ali, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
Hello.
Absolutely.
OK, well, as always, you are a recurring co-host
slash guest at this point.
But I have to know just recently what's been in your glass.
What are you having lately?
Yeah, I am super into protein coffee lately,
protein iced coffee specifically.
We have an espresso machine that we live by by and I have been using the own plant protein to put in the coffee as creamer
instead and it's been really really good and helps keep you full longer which I
love yes speaking of coffee I've been loving Dutch Bros recently we just got
them in central Florida and they have protein coffee, which I wasn't aware
until this weekend.
That's awesome.
I can't wait to try it.
I know.
I want to try that.
But love Dutch Bros, love coffee, got to stay caffeinated.
Yes, always.
Yes.
Well, Ali, again, you've been here.
We recently did a episode on Digital Summit, which was another conference that we attended.
And Rob was a part of that conversation.
But if a listener has not met you yet, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Awesome, awesome.
Well, it's been about four years since I was on Marketing Happy Hour talking about
empathy in the workplace, which is crazy.
Something I still practice every day and take really seriously.
And so I'm really proud of that episode and proud of that topic for sure. My career journey since then has brought me from Upwork to TIDAL, the music streaming service,
where I had the incredible opportunity to lead our partner marketing efforts,
launching large scale co-marketing programs to help support both TIDAL and the partner brand,
working with brands like Meta, Alaska Airlines, Dolby, Cash App, and more.
And now, I am a freelance marketing consultant working with global partners
on the go-to-market strategy side of things,
and then ensuring a consistent brand approach across channels.
Yes. Ali's a wealth of knowledge, so please connect with her if you have not already.
But I'm excited to dive into this again.
We attended this amazing conference in Miami.
We'll definitely share more about that here in a minute,
but I wanted to kind of tease quickly
to these takeaways that we're gonna talk about
or these strategies to watch.
These are things that I feel like came up
over and over again from a lot of the different speakers
and that's obviously a sign that marketers
need to be paying attention because if multiple speakers and brands are thinking of this stuff
that it's stuff that we should be thinking about. So what we're gonna dive
into today number one is on serialized content and what that means. Number two
is creators as new media channels and of course what that means as well and then the many to
many model also. But yeah we just wanted to give you access to these event
insights and what we need to be paying attention to and this is I feel like
both of our year of conferences. It's been it's been great so far you know as
we're recording this it's June but we've already attended two conferences and I feel like we've just had a lot of great insights from those.
So I guess just a reminder to go to conferences.
Yeah, I think it's really easy to forget to advocate for yourself, especially in the corporate
world to go to conferences, use your professional development budget, find something and make the
business case to be able to go. I think it's really important to extend your knowledge outside of your career area and
look at the broader industry.
A lot of these things that we're talking about, as Cassie mentioned, are being talked about
over and over and over.
And if you are in your kind of bubble and in your day to day, it can be hard to leverage
those industry insights and really get them to implement into your own sort of strategy and your own sort of
bubble where you're at.
So really advocate for yourself, use your professional development budget.
It's a huge win for you and for the company as well.
Yeah.
And there's so much benefit to a company sending you to these conferences.
So even outside of just, oh, I have this budget to use, let me use it.
It's how can this conference help to push forward goals
or whatever that your organization has.
And there's a really great way to communicate that.
I'm pretty sure Possible has like a template
that you can send to your boss,
like asking to attend a conference.
I think that's such a great idea,
but I'll have to fact check that
and I'll drop it below if they do have one.
But regardless, there's a way to kind of
do a little bit of your research
and figure out a way to approach your boss about that
and ask and there's so much that you can bring back
to an organization, but also personally, of course,
there's a lot of development opportunities.
And you showing up there, as Cassie mentioned,
is a representation of the company.
So it's also an opportunity for you to kind of advance
yourself and be a little bit more visible.
You can use it for LinkedIn content.
You can use it for personal social media content.
However you want to really market yourself
and have that sort of personal branding moment as well
is a huge win.
Absolutely. I want to do a quick little recap of this conference just because like outside of the takeaways that we're gonna share,
it was such a fun time. It was such a wild time.
Like, first of all, we ended up on a yacht with Gary Vee at one point, which is insane.
He was speaking later in the day and we got invited to this event, which
we're so grateful to the VaynerX team for that.
But wild.
It was, yeah.
It felt like a full circle moment for me.
I saw Gary speak at Inbound, which
is another giant marketing conference, possibly
the most visible these days, in 2016, which is crazy.
And I saw Gary speak there. And to be able to be in the same room as him and in a very
intimate setting was incredible.
I could not believe I was in the same room with him.
He's a pioneer of marketing as far as I'm concerned.
And I think it was such a unique opportunity to be in his presence and his orbit among
the VaynerX team, but also, you
know, friends of Gary's as well and other industry professionals that he really
values. He took so much time with each individual guest and person to be able
to listen to them, hear about their strategies, ask for his advice, and can't
say enough good things about him. Yes, for sure. Yeah, it was awesome. And the whole VaynerX VaynerMedia team is amazing.
Again, big fans of theirs and love,
always getting a chance to chat with them.
So thanks to them for having us.
Yes, that was awesome.
Yes, and we got to do a lot of other cool things.
There of course was an expo area, but outside of that,
there were a couple of different lounges
for these different brands. And Femal Quotient was, I think, both of our one of our favorite activations that a brand had.
They kind of had this private lounge area where they had their own sessions going on and it was
it was so well done. It really was. It was, first of all, branding wise, it was gorgeous. It was all
of their shades of pink and gold and green.
And it was an incredible,
did their own themed coffee drinks,
matcha drinks of which we had many.
They were doing custom tote bags
with different patches on it,
with different like empowerment sayings on them.
There was a place to get your hair done and makeup done.
That was crazy.
But like Cass mentioned, they had the sort of sessions
going on as well.
So you could be kind of networking outside of the session.
But if you wanted to be sort of in that middle area
where there were multiple speakers from different brands
and some people that were doing kind of the bigger sessions
also did female quotient sessions
like Avery from VaynerX and Stephanie from Nextdoor who we are lucky enough to have on the show very soon.
It was really, really impactful.
And I felt like an interesting way for female quotient to one, kind of launch their brand
and be in that space, but also like from an experiential perspective to have something
like a lounge and something that was a little bit more just for them
and also invite only, which was really cool. Yeah, absolutely. That was great. And again,
I mentioned expo area. So a lot of different brands set up Reddit, Giphy, Pinterest. There were so
many. It was very cool. NBC Universal, there was like Paramount advertising, like so many different ways to connect and
integrate with these brands and they did some really fun things in activations as well at
their tents and it was all outdoors like right on the beach in Miami.
It was perfect.
Cannot recommend a conference in Miami highly enough.
Being able to have the beach as your backdrop is amazing. But brands that
you and I both really love and look to for trends. So very cool to be in the same kind
of space as a lot of those brands.
Yeah, absolutely. Gary V had a keynote, which was fantastic. It was more of like a Q&A style.
So marketers kind of in the weeds asking him questions about things, which was great and super helpful.
He really talked a lot about their framework
that they're focusing on as a company right now,
which is owned, then earned, then paid.
And so that was just a helpful reminder
of where we should be focusing our time and energy
content wise.
And he's very bullish, I would say,
on just organic owned content right now.
So again something for us to be paying attention to.
We also have Lego which is great.
Yeah man the chief brand officer of Lego, Julia Golden, she is fantastic.
Lego was a keynote that we were both very excited about mainly because we interact with
the brand in so many different ways. Um, whether it be a theme park, like Lego land or just a Lego store
and buying a set. Um, Julia talked a lot about their collaborations and partnerships, which
I was super interested in personally as it relates to sort of my career path. Um, and
one of the quotes that she said was, you know, some collaborations you can't buy, they just
happen. And I think that's a testament to a lot
of these conversations that are happening
at these conferences, these sort of organic moments
where you're just chatting with someone about an idea.
And one of those moments happened for Lego
and it was Formula One.
And frankly, this was such a cool thing to learn about
because the Formula One Grand Prix
was actually that weekend in Miami.
So Julia was actually staying with the LEGO team through then.
One of the takeaways from the sessions was actually a physical Formula One LEGO set,
which was so cool.
That was all being handed out at the end of the session, in addition to all of the great
takeaways that we got from Julia and the LEGO group.
Yeah, yeah.
She was awesome.
It was just more to around how do you build a legacy brand that really connects
with all ages and in all walks of life.
And so it was just some good reminders again, for marketers.
I know not every brand touches every person in the world, but how do you kind of build
that brand affinity over time?
We had some other great sessions from partners at Paramount Advertising.
Really loved that one. And then learn from people including Stephanie at Nextdoor, like we said. We'll
have her on the podcast. We're gonna be talking to Lauren of JP Morgan Chase who
we met on the yacht with Gary Vee. Jessica from Dig or Diggin as they were
formerly known who we also met during that event with Vayner and then Michael of now this, he was just talking about Gen Z
entertainment and how do we connect with Gen Z and also talked a lot about
serialized content as well, which again was a theme of the conference.
I can't wait for y'all to hear that one.
That one was, was a standout for sure.
Absolutely.
Well, before we get to those episodes again, want to share our takeaways with
you today and again, just things that us those episodes again, want to share our takeaways with you today.
And again, just things that us marketers should be paying attention to.
So Ali has our first takeaway for us.
Awesome.
Awesome.
So as Cass mentioned, this is a really big one right now.
Serial content is the new brand loyalty.
Audiences really don't want one hit wonders anymore.
Just this one off content that has no sort of story to it.
They want consistency, they want story arcs and content that they can follow along with
and expect. Think really like episodic social series, brand and formats, recurring characters,
people that they can count on and look forward to in their scrolling and in their content
sort of planning. So a quoted insight that we have from Avery, who is from the VaynerX team, serial
content and repetition.
How can you engage audiences long-term throughout a series?
So again, there's thinking through consumers are craving that consistency.
Brands should really be thinking like creators and show runners that are able to step into
this long form mindset, whether it's on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
But there's also some other channel strategies
that I think are important for brands to lean into
that we heard about for more series-suited channels.
So LinkedIn, Substack, those are other ones
that I think we heard come up quite frequently.
Yeah.
And it's really this idea around,
is there a set topic that
maybe you can go deep on long term throughout a number of different channels like maybe getting
really focused on each individual piece of content but you're talking about that content over a long
term. Honestly podcasting is a form of that too you know it's something that people are expecting
every single week or once every other week or whatever that cadence is.
And so I think giving people a reason to come back to your platform and listen or
read or watch again is really huge and obviously builds that trust and
engagement long-term.
So yeah, there's a number of ways to approach this.
For example, like with now this, This, they are building these really fun content series
for Gen Z females and it's very like culturally driven and, but it's a series. So it's one
set show has its own name and you can expect the same host to show up and to interview
different people around a specific topic. And there's kind of like a key phrase or key
question that they're always asking. So it's kind of like a key phrase or key question
that they're always asking.
So it's really great.
Yeah.
Are you okay?
It's awesome.
So again, there's a lot we can learn from that.
And I think really the biggest reason or goal again,
is to keep people coming back for more,
to keep them engaged with your content long-term.
And typically I feel like it's a science to do that,
but it's so simple just to think about like,
how can we create this repeated format of content that people expect they come
to love and they come back for more.
And I think niches, the new mainstream as part of this, right?
So creating this content, it can be on a very simple idea,
like asking someone if they're okay.
And now this does that in a really great and fun way that people are
continually coming back to finding those niches for your brand is
Ultimately going to lead to those ideas and it starts with knowing your audience as a result of that
And I think now this is a great example and Michael will talk about this in that episode
About how they were able to really identify that audience and then create that
about how they were able to really identify that audience and then create that serialized contents for that audience that would make them come back and be excited about continual
episodes. So I'm excited for you all to hear that one for sure.
Yes, absolutely. That's one of my favorite takeaways personally from the conference. It was
so simple, but it's like, duh. Why haven't we been doing this before?
Yeah. Yeah. We heard it multiple, multiple times outside so solid-splendid for it. Right, right. Why haven't we been doing this before? Yeah, yeah.
I asked her why.
But we heard it multiple, multiple times outside of just Michael's session.
And that was one that we really wanted to share because we feel like it can hopefully
spark some ideas for companies that you're working for or if you're working for yourself
and you're a creator, making sure that you think in serialized content moving forward.
Absolutely.
So takeaway number two is creators are the new media channels.
In today's marketing landscape, creator partnerships aren't an add-on.
So we typically think of them as an extension of our social media strategy.
But I think that we can start thinking about it as its own channel,
like its own strategy.
I know we're, we're already kind of shifting in that direction and we have
been trying to for a while, but I think a lot of brands are still
Thinking about it as just kind of an extension versus its own thing that really needs the same fuel and strategy that you'd put towards
another marketing channel the other thing too is
Thinking about creators as an extension of fans, right? Who's already a fan of your product?
Who can you tap into that's already talking about your products
with their audience as well.
And I think that's something just again, to remember.
We heard a number of different speakers share this Gary V was definitely one of
them. And again, we talked about how he's really pushing organic content again.
Um, and the organic engagement that comes from influencers, for example,
is really those earned views that lead to sales.
I think too, you know, we're seeing how much creators are building that
trust at scale with their audience.
And so why wouldn't we tap into that versus trying to build trust ourselves?
Um, we can obviously develop that over time,
but why not tap into people who already have an audience
of connected fans and followers that love every single thing
that they're sharing and saying.
And so just bringing that again
to the forefront of our strategies.
Adobe, for example, so their team is really doing this
where they're tapping current users of the platforms
and utilizing them as creators.
And this is from a UGC sense,
or even just using them for paid partnerships as well.
And then lastly on this too,
one thing that we're starting to see a lot of
is AI influencers.
So kind of crazy.
I know I've seen them a couple of times already,
but Gary V talked about this in his keynote
that that's gonna continue to increase and be on the rise.
And he even said that very soon,
at a certain point we won't be able to tell the difference
between AI creators and real creators, which is crazy.
Wild, wild, wild.
One thing I wanna circle back onto on the Adobe side,
then tapping existing users as creators,
I think is so smart because when creators feel
like they are an extension of your team,
they are going to create better content for you,
period finished, because they are more invested
in the product and in the experience
that it's going to give to the end consumer,
and they're just more excited to talk about it.
It feels more authentic, It feels more organic.
It doesn't feel like your hashtag ad, hashtag sponsored post.
I do think that if we are using creators the right way
and in the right capacity, there's such a big opportunity
to have them be full-time brand ambassadors for you,
especially when they're using the product already and really
love it.
They're way more likely to talk about it organically, even outside of paid partnerships.
I love, love, love that from Adobe and really kind of noted that for myself as a strategy
to think about.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's a number of ways to do this.
Just like with serialized content, it's really whatever you make of it.
But I think the biggest thing that a lot of these speakers were mentioning is paying attention,
doing a lot of social listening, who's talking about you on a regular basis, what are their
unique skill sets or the way that they're positioning their content, and just getting
creative with these partnerships, I think is the biggest thing.
And don't be afraid to test long-term engagements too, and just see where this stuff can go. For sure. All right, Ali.
Awesome. Takeaway number three. The last takeaway we have and I know that maybe
this sounds a little bit confusing so I'll break it down but unlock the many
to many model with creative. So creativity is really the superpower
that that cuts through and creativity is what makes the actual conversion happen
right. Essie from Unilever said that in her keynote and both Cassie and I found
that really impactful because the unlock is really finding the big idea from a
creative sense and identifying what you need from that big idea as part of the
content supply chain and ecosystem.
So what SE really highlighted was moving from one asset to many, to many, to many.
So what that means is essentially like ask yourself first what you need and for which channels.
Are you going to use creators and influencers or trusted voices to communicate to your audience?
Or are you going to use it, do it as the brand? Is it community content like UGC experiences with
your brand from an experiential activation or some other event or pop-up?
Or is it branded content,
like bespoke and personalized content
meeting different needs of the consumer?
So really getting behind the content that works
and getting out of the content that doesn't.
So again, making sure that you're in the data,
you're looking at what's working on social organically
and otherwise, taking cues from Gary with the owned, earned, paid strategy, identifying that creative that's
actually breaking through and then optimizing it for the individual channels that you're
working in.
Helping optimize that builds persuasion and engagement because people are used to seeing
that creative in different channels and it's formulated for the individual channels, whether
that be short form or long form.
So it's really about that big idea
and then plugging it in to that many to many model, right?
I think people's needs are so diverse.
And one thing that Essie said that I think, again,
seems like an sort of aha moment
that you're not really thinking about,
but marketing has always been about people.
What we need and what we want,
we are looking for out of marketing. Um, so focusing really on that differentiation of your messaging through awareness, engagement,
demand, it helps to create that desire at scale through your creative and creative is
the unlock here, um, full stop.
And I think we heard that many, many times at this conference, that having a strong creative team, having strong design, straightforward content messaging,
et cetera, is the key in this day
where we see so much content all the time.
I think that many to many model is hopefully something
that you'll all take and use.
I know I will for sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
And on that too, again, creative,
as Ali mentioned, was talked about a lot.
One of the things that Gary Vee really ran with too was the fact that no amount of paid can save bad creative.
And so just this reminder that we have to make sure we are putting out quality content.
And it's even if it's organic feeling or authentic feeling, like really putting time and intention into what you're creating and putting out there because a lot of brands nowadays have
a paid budget, right?
And so our goal is to amplify that organic with paid.
But if we're not putting out good organic content in the first place, there's no point
in putting paid behind it because it's not going to convert.
So I think we just have to be, again, very intentional with the way we're developing
this messaging and this creative, making sure it's really communicating well with our audience,
and then amplifying good creative.
Like how can we let it kind of sit and run and make sure it performs well and organically
boosts on its own before we're actually putting paid spend behind it?
And so that was a helpful reminder too, with Creative.
Totally.
And all of our creative teams out there will know that strong briefs are the most important
part of that.
So as marketers, we can help our creative teams by really making strong briefs.
Ask for what you want, ask for what you need, but leave room for creative teams to be creative.
That's what they are there for. And it is important to give them the opportunity to
create something that they're really proud of for you to then go market. So I put that
little plug because I think creative teams are really important.
Yeah, I would say too, I think as marketers, we need to also listen to our creatives on
our team as well, because they have a lot of really
the knowledge that they have of our brands is a little bit different than ours.
And I think we need to kind of be able to communicate with each other, but also hear
what they have to say from their perspective.
And so I think this unlock takes a lot of time to develop this rapport and this connection
within our company
and organizations. Don't be afraid to test and try things. But again, remembering that
our creative has to be intentional and aligned with our audiences first and foremost.
Totally.
Yes. Well, that is pretty much it. Those are three takeaways. So again, as we talked about
today, testing serialized content,
it's a huge trend we're gonna keep seeing
and how can you just connect and engage
with your audiences long-term through a repeatable format.
Number two, creators as new media channels.
So how can we look at creators as a whole category
or channel in and of itself within our team.
And then the many to many model with creative,
as we talked about before.
Yeah, this was a great conference. Highly recommend.
Pay attention to some of the upcoming dates.
I'll link their information below, but I think we had a great time.
Yeah, I was super grateful to be there.
I think it was a really good opportunity to stretch some networking skills,
hear from some really, really, really awesome people in the industry,
get to meet a bunch of new people, and that is where we're going with our upcoming series.
Yes, yeah. So the next few weeks we're going to have some really awesome interviews
with some people that we either met or heard speak at the conference.
So first up that you'll hear, if you're listening to this in chronological order, I should say,
you'll hear Michael Vito Valentino from NowThis. So stay tuned for his conversation. We're going
to do an extension on his panel talk or what Gen Z sees as entertainment and just talk more about
NowThis and what they're doing with serialized content. Stephanie Lawrence of Nextdoor, which
was an amazing conversation. Big fan of Stephanie. Jessica Serrano, and then Lauren of JP Morgan Chase on
brand integration and just really tapping into consumers where they're already utilizing
shopping, where they're already engaging on a regular basis. How do you speak to them right
where they're at? And her conversation was really interesting on the VaynerYacht. So I'm excited to
go deeper into all of that. But
Ali, thanks for joining me. Thank you so much for having me and excited to be on the series and
excited to keep talking to these wonderful people and to you and looking forward to it. Absolutely.
Well, thank you for listening or watching and stay tuned for upcoming series and all these episodes
coming Tuesdays and Thursdays.
So look out for more episodes throughout the week.
Super stoked for you to hear everything we have in store.
Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode.
If you enjoyed this conversation, I would love your feedback.
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I'll see you next Thursday.