Held in early November, Advertising Week offers a preview of the ideas and themes set to drive the industry’s agenda in the year ahead. Whether you missed it or just want the highlights, here are the trends poised to shape the road to 2025.

We’re entering a new era for creators and brand ambassadors.

If you attended Advertising Week at the Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City on November 5–7, you probably noticed the prominent role of content creators across multiple panels. Judging by how quickly these rooms filled up, these sessions captured special interest, highlighting the growing value brands and marketers place on creators. We are in an era where connecting authentically, relevantly, and in real-time with audiences is not just desirable but essential—and that is redefining the relationship between brands and creators.

“The importance of creators lies in their deep connection with the audience,” says Alejandra Chiang, Account Director at Monks. “When communities trust a creator, and that creator partners with a brand that shares their values, the metrics always reflect that synergy.” But gone are the days when a promotional post was enough. Today, forging genuine connections requires actively engaging in dialogue with audiences and moving in tune with culture.

Expectations are rising while attention spans are shrinking. For brands and creators alike, the secret to thriving in this environment is delivering genuine value to audiences. A case in point: in a campaign for Sinuberase, a probiotic treatment by Opella, we collaborated with a diverse set of creators, including Mexican influencer Arturo Lemmen. The key to success was giving each creator creative freedom to generate content that genuinely interests their audience, allowing for a deeper connection with the product.

The power of data and large-scale personalization.

Creating value for consumers is essential, but it’s also easier said than done. It all starts with a deep understanding of the audience, requiring brands to prioritize data analysis to unlock consumer insights—and sometimes uncover surprising behaviors.

“Consumers don’t always use platforms for their intended purposes, which requires constant data analysis to adjust strategies,” says our Group Creative Director, Camilo Monsalve. A standout example shared during one panel came from the ecommerce giant Mercado Libre, where some users treat the platform as a search engine rather than a shopping destination. 

Similarly, Heineken discovered its content resonates not just with its customers but also with non-beer drinkers. This is largely because the brand skillfully taps into major cultural moments, creating content that connects with people through shared passions and meaningful experiences. “What matters most is recognizing these behaviors, seizing opportunities around music festivals, sports events, or culinary experiences, and engaging with people’s interests beyond just the product,” explains Monsalve.

Efficient data management also helps brands elevate personalization to new heights. “Rather than focusing on a narrow niche, data allows us to segment and customize messages for diverse groups with greater precision,” explains Andreia Tavares, VP, Head of Social, LATAM. “This enables sharper communication across segments, maximizing the impact for both brands and their portfolios.”

In today’s landscape, where a brand’s relevance depends on staying in constant dialogue with its audience, the combination of creativity and data is essential. “We have to operate in real time, moving at the same speed as consumers, to ensure brands remain relevant,” says Tavares.

AI enhances engagement and creativity.

It’s impossible to discuss real-time interaction without considering the impact of artificial intelligence. During Advertising Week, it became clear that AI not only improves how marketers present and sell ideas—whether to clients or within their own organizations—but also expands team capabilities. “AI enables smaller teams to offer full-scale services without becoming overwhelmed by tasks they can’t fully manage,” explains Chiang. Success isn’t about team size but about striking the right balance between creative talent and technology.

Part of achieving that balance is realizing it goes beyond just automating tasks to gain speed and efficiency at a lower cost. The real shift lies in using AI to foster deeper connections—restoring a sense of humanity in interactions between brands and people and reimagining what’s possible in that relationship. AI helps ensure the right message reaches the right audience on the right channel.

This combination of technology, data, personalization, and empathy will define leading brands by 2025 and beyond. Audiences increasingly value authentic and personalized connections, and brands must not only adapt to cultural changes in real-time but also actively participate in the creation of culture. A significant year lies ahead for those who manage to find the balance between creativity and technological precision while engaging in ongoing dialogue with their audiences.

Together, these events painted a vivid picture of an industry in the midst of profound change, driven by technology and data-driven insights—and as you can imagine, we attended all three. Whether you were elsewhere in the world or only had the chance to attend one of the three overlapping events, find some key insights that were shared below.

At Advertising Week NY, we shared the secrets to prompting AI for ideal outputs.

As one can imagine, AI was a hot topic throughout Advertising Week, with many speakers mentioning the balance of “art and science” in their creative workflows. Our EVP of Digital Media Brittany Blanchard walked us through exactly what that looks like in a conversation with Noël Paasch, Global Head of Creative Strategy & Programs at YouTube Ads Marketing. In the conversation, Blanchard gave us a glimpse behind the scenes at our work with sleep wellness company Hatch, in which Google Gemini played a key role in the ideation phase.

While generative AI helps us achieve a workable draft or proof of concept in seconds, users may still feel a sense of writer’s block when faced with an empty prompt: how do I verbalize what it is that I’m looking for from the LLM? Blanchard offered insight into how she and her team prompt LLMs like Google Gemini to ensure high-quality outputs.

“You need to give Gemini or the LLM a lot of information to get what you want,” she said. “We use the ‘COSTAR’ method, which is an acronym for the inputs you should provide to Gemini: context, objective, style, tone, audience and response.” For example, context would mean explaining your role and your business, while the objective would be the ultimate goal of the campaign you’re building.

Sometimes, the LLM will react in a way that wasn’t anticipated—in which Blanchard suggests taking a flexible approach. She gave the example of asking Gemini for direct quotes from social media and product reviews left by customers, which the LLM denied citing privacy concerns. But it could provide anonymized paraphrases of that content instead, which benefited the team’s consumer research all the same.

A new twist on a traditional tactic: contextual advertising had its moment in the spotlight.

In addition to AI, another common theme at Advertising Week NY was a more traditional marketing tactic that has been given a new lease on life: contextual advertising. What was once the traditional approach of linking ads with relevant content in print or linear TV has now become more robust thanks to analytics tools and CTV. This helps brands ensure their content is relevant to consumers without the creepiness factor that can come with other forms of personalization that rely primarily on demographic data.

Nick Fairbairn, VP of Marketing at Chime, shared another key benefit of this approach: brand safety, which is especially important when you are a startup that is still working to establish the voice and values of your brand with audiences.

Marketing experts shared how to speak the language of Gen Z.

If the frenzy around Taylor Swift’s Eras tour (and subsequent romance with Travis Kelce) taught us anything, it’s that fandoms are the lifeblood of culture—particularly with Gen Z— propelling trends and conversations into the mainstream with unmatched fervor. Brands looking to engage authentically with Gen Z must immerse themselves in these communities, recognizing their power to shape narratives and influence broader cultural movements.

Megan Weales, Social Media Manager at Wattpad, a platform that thrives on user-generated creativity and fandom, put it this way: “We aim to be one of our users—that’s how we stay engaged with Gen Z.” This approach is about more than just understanding what interests their audience; it’s about digging deeper to understand why consumers gravitate toward their favorite fandoms. For Wattpad, this means participating in communities like #BookTok to learn about what stories and tropes resonate with audiences.

At Mirren AI & Tech Summit, we gave a peek into the development of tools like Monks.Flow.

While Advertising Week NY took place, some of our Monks went downtown to participate in Mirren AI & Tech Summit, focused on artificial intelligent and technology in advertising and marketing. Speakers shared how to implement AI and new technologies across various aspects of agency operations, ultimately helping the community better leverage the technology for client management, strategic development, creative work, new business acquisition, and back-end operations.

Our SVP of Media Solutions & Emerging Technology Victoria Milo gave insight into our end-to-end, AI-powered professional managed service Monks.Flow and the principles that shaped it: the need for a tool that is future-proof, flexible and has ease of management. But another key need that she addressed is interoperability into the brand’s existing tech stack.

Like Blanchard, Milo discussed our work with Hatch to make the case for how AI is encouraging multidisciplinary teams to collaborate more strategically. “Think about who the players are when you're using AI, because it's usually not just you and a client—there's usually a tech partner involved and a platform,” she said. “We're seeing the full spectrum of your marketing department work together--it's not just a creative conversation, a media conversation. You'll have multiple discipline at the table, so the way of working has to adapt.”

A demo of Stable Diffusion walked audiences through ways to build incredible visuals.

Speaking of AI tools, Group Creative Director of Innovation Vanessa Lai and Senior Director of Technology & AI Samuel Snider-Held walked the audience through how to use Stable Diffusion to generate impressive visual results. In addition to weighing the pros and cons of the tool compared to others—for example, it’s more technically complex, but that also opens up greater control of different parameters and enhanced customizability—the two showcased how Stable Diffusion integrates with other platforms like Blender and Photoshop to accelerate visual creativity.

At Brand Innovators, the move toward first-party data strategies remained a key topic.

AI and first-party data were key themes at a recent industry conference, where our VP of Enterprise Data & Digital Media Consulting Kosta Demopoulos sat with Randip Mitra, Head of Global Data Strategy at Kenvue, to discuss first-party data collection and activation. The conversation drew from our work with Kenvue to build an industry-leading global privacy-compliant adtech solution to efficiently use first-party data through modeling, segmentation, and measurement.

Mitra provided insights on adapting to Google’s decision not to deprecate third-party cookies and emphasized that the importance of building robust first-party data ecosystems remained. “The overall destination is still the same, right? We need to move towards a kind of a third-party independent, more consented marketing approach," he said.

Beyond protecting consumer privacy, a robust first-party data strategy unearths incredible behavioral insights that can ultimately help drive targeted marketing. "Understanding what our consumers are doing—what actions they’re taking, are they downloading coupons, are they going to retailer sites—it really helps us understand the content they’re interacting with, the seasonal trends, how should we tweak our messaging and promotions," he said. Furthermore, these insights can enhance precision targeting with AI and machine learning.

Insights from Mars showcased the evolving dynamics of brand strategy and AI integration.

Elsewhere at Brand Innovators, our VP of Growth Samantha Lynch engaged in a conversation with Heather Stuckey, VP of Brands and Content Marketing, North America at Mars. They discussed the evolving landscape of brand strategy, agency partnerships, and the integration of AI in marketing. Stuckey, who has transitioned from a robust career in advertising to a leading role at Mars, shared insights into leveraging agency experience for brand-side innovation. “I loved being on the advertising side, but I was curious about brand building beyond communications,” she mentioned, highlighting the significance of understanding brand dynamics from a holistic perspective.

The two also explored the crucial role agency partnerships play in fostering creativity and challenging brand perspectives. Stuckey emphasized, "What I appreciate so much about our agency partners is they're able to challenge us, bringing new ideas that help us engage with our consumers on a deeper level."

AI's transformative potential was a key theme, with examples like the Starburst “Different Every Time” campaign, where AI-generated assets were used to resonate with consumer behavior. “It's things like that we're just testing and learning,” Stuckey noted, pointing to AI's role in content creation and consumer engagement. “We're focused on modern approaches to brand building, driving personalization at scale and ensuring connected brand experiences.”

Driving impactful marketing solutions demands embracing innovation and adaptability.

As the curtain falls on a week of intense exploration and dialogue across Advertising Week NY, Mirren AI & Tech Summit, and Brand Innovators, one thing is clear: our work continues to be reshaped by the dynamic interplay of AI, data-driven insights and innovative strategies. These events not only highlighted the cutting-edge technologies and methodologies poised to define the future but also emphasized the importance of adapting to these shifts to maintain relevance in a rapidly evolving industry.

Embracing the themes discussed, from leveraging AI for creative processes to refining data strategies for enhanced consumer engagement, is crucial for brands and agencies looking to stay ahead. As we integrate these insights into our own practices, we continue to foster a collaborative environment where creativity, technology, and data converge to drive impactful marketing solutions. The path forward is as much about embracing change as it is about leading it, and these events have provided the roadmap to help teams do just that.

I always look forward to Advertising Week LATAM as it’s a rare opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues face-to-face—and in the city I call home, no less. Despite partially coinciding with the Day of the Dead, I have to say the event was more alive than ever, as I bumped into every imaginable brand manager, marketing director, client and podcaster. Representatives from world-class brands like Netflix, Spotify, Toyota were in attendance, and not a single seat was empty by the time Sir Martin Sorrell stepped onto the stage. Needless to say, our time spent in meetings and attending (and hosting) a diverse range of sessions has left us with some valuable insights. Here are some of those takeaways. 

As digital environments expand, AI is the key to maintaining brand relevance.

In today’s changing landscape, CMOs need to align strategies with transformative technology to optimize operations, improve customer engagement and drive conversion. That was the theme explored by our Co-CEO, Content Bruno Lambertini and Associate Vice President, Innovation Technology Carlos Tejeda as they took the stage on October 31. Rather than a conventional session, their discussion served as an exploration, beginning with an overview of the challenges that businesses encounter in the present day. 

"We surveyed top CMOs from major global brands, and they all agreed on four key points,” Lambertini explained to introduce the topic. “Firstly, the complexity of making decisions and seeing short-term results. Secondly, the fragmented media landscape makes it difficult to determine which channels truly yield outcomes. Thirdly, the delicate nature of brand reputation. And last but not least, how do we take advantage of AI?”

The truth is that as digital environments expand, driving conversions can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. For Lambertini, social media is the key (and I wholeheartedly agree).  As marketers, we constantly ponder how brands can secure or expand their market position, enhance brand equity and drive business performance in today’s technological context. The answer lies in two key aspects, the first of which can be summed up in one word: intimacy. No, not the romantic kind, but the kind that harnesses the power of genuine human connections and community. Audiences crave a sense of belonging, and by establishing a brand that fosters this feeling, we lay the foundation for success. An important consideration: social media is the only space where this can happen on a large scale. The second aspect involves how we achieve this.

AI helps us understand what is organically happening online, what people care about and the spaces where they connect with each other, both within and outside the brand context. We can then use these insights to inform the creation of assets. “Working with Meta, we analyzed input drivers for our AI algorithm to generate the best result. This allowed us to produce 500 assets, so when the brand noticed creative fatigue in the campaign, we already had these new assets prepared and sorted by their probability of success,” Tejeda exemplified.

Furthermore, AI assists community managers by handling repetitive queries at scale, in real-time, and in a personalized manner. The cherry on top? AI enhances measurement by enabling us to extract learnings from a centralized source that connects platforms and contains information from all our marketing efforts.

In times of global uncertainty, activation and performance take center stage.

Speaking of the nature of AI, S4 Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell sat down with Insider’s Director, Matías Stetson, to chat about this particular topic as it relates to the prevailing macroeconomic and political conditions in the region. Amid global uncertainties and geographical fragmentation, Sorrell explained, businesses need to carefully pick their territories. He went on to say: “If I look at the world now, I’m very bullish on North and South America.”

The second consideration is digital transformation. With businesses becoming more cautious not only in choosing their markets but in their general spending, we need to look at digital platforms. “Clients are becoming much more short-term in their thinking, so activation and performance are important,” said Sorrell. “It is quite extraordinary that platforms are growing by 6-11% this year. The money from package goods companies has gone into the platforms, and the reason is that they see better performance, better activation, better measurements and better results from those platforms. AI is going to make them even more important than they are today.”

In summary, technological advancements and the current political and economic uncertainties have led brands to focus more on their short-term return on investment. Now, the competition revolves around acquiring and leveraging first-party data, which plays a crucial role in understanding consumer behavior and making informed business decisions. “To my mind, the best model is the Netflix model. They are the greatest proponents of hyper-personalization at scale,” said Sorrell.

That’s one of the areas where AI will have the most impact, as it transforms the way first-party data and platform signals are harnessed, decoded and utilized. When it comes to the realm of personalization and data-driven decision-making for brands, AI enhances brands’ ability to tailor their strategies to individual customers with precision and effectiveness. “We thought the web would drive personalization, but AI will take it to a totally different level. We may produce one and a half million creative assets. What took us three weeks, takes us three hours,” said Sorrell. This, coupled with the overall efficiency in areas like media buying, broadcasting and knowledge sharing, will shape the business models of brands and agencies in the years to come. 

Across industries and platforms, creative effectiveness reigns supreme.

During the two-day event, Advertising Week emphasized the importance of creativity in exploring fresh opportunities for growth across various industries and sectors. An illustrative panel by Eucerin, featuring our very own VP Creative Pablo Tajer, showcased how creativity in retail media can yield impressive returns, even when collaborating with third-party ecommerce platforms.

To distill the role of branding in retail, the speakers used a recent example of our work with the brand on the Mercado Ads platform. “We used storytelling to demystify the abundance of information we see on social media and provided consumers with accurate recommendations based on their skin type,” said Tajer. “This sector thrives on ideas and creativity. That’s why we partner with Mercado Ads and constantly push the boundaries of creativity, working on different proposals for major advertisers in the region.”

To emphasize a similar point, our VP Creative Francesco Vicenzi joined our partners at KFC Mexico and representatives from IAB to spill their secrets on creating award-winning campaigns that gain international acclaim. The key ingredients? Data, which uncovers valuable insights; creativity, which generates captivating concepts; and a comprehensive vision that brings everything together. Vicenzi exemplified this through our work on KFC’s The Battle of the Chickens: “We began by noting two important observations. Firstly, rap and freestyle ranked among the top three genres for Gen Z. Secondly, Gen Z has a fondness for promotions and discounts. These served as our starting points, and we recognized that to effectively engage with Gen Z, we needed to empower them. Thus, we provided them with a platform and space to express themselves.”

Striking a balance between short-term results and long-term brand growth.

If there’s one thing I learned from this massive event, it’s that CMOs face numerous challenges that demand immediate results without sacrificing long-term brand development. They must find a way to achieve short-term goals while also making significant contributions towards a larger impact. Those who establish robust data pipelines and effectively leverage new technologies are gaining a competitive edge, propelling their brands far ahead of the competition. It’s time to seize every opportunity within the social and digital landscape in order to become more agile, perceptive and responsive.