No Such Normal 2025: white paper launch event key takeaways
As we enter 2025, the media landscape is evolving fast. To help brands navigate these changes, we teamed up with our trusted media partners and Accord’s Digital experts to reflect on the past year and look ahead to what’s next. The result? No Such Normal 2025, our latest white paper, launched last week at Channel 4’s HQ in Victoria.
Accord’s Strategy Director, Jasman Ahmad, opened the event by introducing the report and the eight media channels it covers. From there, our media partners took centre stage to answer two key questions:
What was your favourite campaign of 2024?
What key trends do you predict for 2025?
Here’s what we learned.
TV & Audio: The future of viewing and listening
For The Kite Factory’s Gregor Chalmers and Victoria Abbott, TV planning is becoming audience-first, with traditional TV, Connected TV (CTV), and streaming working in harmony rather than competing. The "Movember Sky News" campaign was a perfect example, delivering an integrated, multi-platform experience by meeting audiences where they were already engaging.
Looking ahead, 2025 is set to be the year of TV, with all forms of content viewed on the big screen. The focus will shift to audience-centric planning, where viewer interaction and engagement will play a bigger role in shaping advertising strategies. AI will enhance measurement and spot attribution, helping brands make more informed media investments.
Representing Audio, Nick Gee from Radio Experts highlighted the growth of smart speaker listening, which accounts for 17% of all radio consumption, despite slowing growth. New engagement techniques, such as callback requests and experiential activations, are emerging, offering fresh opportunities for brands.
Meanwhile, podcasts are expanding beyond audio, with increasing investment from major radio groups. The future is multi-platform content, spanning video, social media, and live events, opening up more touchpoints for advertisers to reach engaged audiences.
OOH & Display: Impactful, data-driven advertising
Ali Nelson-Smith and Dan Wootton from Talon showcased Specsavers’ standout OOH campaign in Edinburgh, which generated significant social media buzz and press coverage.
For them, the trends for 2025 will be the convergence of OOH with experiential marketing, with brands creating sensory-driven experiences that increase recall. Plus,
Programmatic OOH (prOOH) will continue to grow, allowing brands to deliver real-time, data-driven targeting, while sustainability will play a larger role in OOH’s future, with brands focusing on carbon-conscious media solutions.
Over in Display, Alberto Ciot from Quantcast highlighted Singapore Airlines’ international campaign, which focused on maximising reach and ticket sales through targeted advertising.
Looking ahead, he highlighted how omnichannel advertising is essential for brand consistency across CTV, mobile and digital formats. Additionally, AI-powered predictive analytics will help brands refine targeting and personalisation across connected devices.
Publishing & Direct Mail: Engaging audiences in a digital-first world
Ryan D’Cruz and Katy Lorimer from Hearst showcased their Men’s Health & Women’s Health campaign with Lingo, a multi-touchpoint strategy integrating editorial, digital, and experiential elements.
For 2025, publishers are focusing on deeper audience relationships through memberships and exclusive events. Revenue diversification will be a key strategy, with more publisher-led experiences gaining traction.
Meanwhile, Gary Brandon from DBS Data highlighted the resilience of direct mail due to longer engagement times and high conversion rates.
He showcased ROL Cruise’s Blue Horizons magazine, which continues to deliver impressive response rates by combining precise audience segmentation with engaging creative.
Looking ahead, his focus is on AI-powered predictive modelling to enhance targeting, creative optimisation using AI to refine messaging and design, and personalisation through digital print, ensuring highly customised mail experiences.
Paid Social & Paid Search: The AI-driven future of performance marketing
Dominic Dennis from Accord examined how AI is reshaping paid social advertising, highlighting KitKat’s ‘Break Better’ campaign, which used emotional priming and strong brand distinctiveness to engage audiences last year.
In 2025, he predicts that AI will continue to transform paid social, with tools like Meta AI improving ad targeting and automation, whilst AI-driven creative optimisation will improve advertiser performance across all channels.
Alongside this, social platforms are evolving into one-stop shops, streamlining the customer journey from discovery to purchase.
Next, we heard from Accord’s Dan Ward, who, when talking about Paid Search, showcased Mitsubishi Motors’ innovative use of first-party data and machine learning, which boosted conversion rates by 14x while lowering costs by 1.8x.
Looking ahead, search advertising is changing, with social search (e.g. TikTok, Instagram) competing with Google for brand discovery. AI-driven dynamic creative will offer hyper-personalised ad placements based on user intent, and machine learning and first-party data strategies will enhance conversion rates while reducing costs.
He finished by saying that brands that balance automation with human oversight will be ahead of the curve.
Final thoughts: Navigating the future of media in 2025
Closing the event, Jasman shared four key takeaways:
Adapt to a blended media consumer: Audiences engage across multiple platforms - integrated strategies are essential.
Leverage AI for smarter decisions: AI-powered tools can optimise creativity, audience modelling, and media placement.
Prioritise sustainable media planning: Brands must consider carbon-conscious strategies in their media investments.
Make video your hero: Short-form video dominates, with YouTube and TikTok leading the way.
No Such Normal 2025 is now available for download. We hope it provides valuable insights to shape your marketing strategy. For expert advice on creating brilliantly joined-up campaigns, please contact Jasman Ahmad at jasman.ahmad@accordmarketing.com.
Jasman Ahmad
Jasman is our Strategy Director and responsible for combining creative thinking with factual and statistical data to plan and solve clients’ biggest challenges.
Ansley Hirstein
Our Strategy and Research Executive, Ansley, combines fresh perspectives with a strong analytical foundation to develop innovative marketing strategies for our clients.
