What the World’s Smartest Marketers Are Doing in 2025

I just got off an incredible round of talks at Marketing Brew Summit 2025, and wow, I came away with so many golden nuggets. If you weren’t there, here’s what stuck with me. If you were, consider this your recap and call to action. This is where marketing is headed… and how we can all ride the wave (instead of getting crushed by it).

1. Take the Chances Others Ignore | Duolingo’s Bold Moves

One of my favorite moments was hearing how Duolingo leaped at ideas that others brushed off. They didn’t wait for every scenario to be perfect. Instead, they pushed into newer content, meme-driven branding, social-first experiments, even AI-feature rollouts in ways that felt risky. But those risks paid off. Their voice got louder, their engagement grew, and their brand became unmistakable.

For example, their owl mascot “Duo” isn’t just a logo, it’s a personality that dances on TikTok, crashes culture conversations, and doesn’t fear being a little ridiculous.
They also leaned in on AI: more user-personalization, faster content creation, and launching many new courses (some thanks to shared content & generative AI) to scale without sacrificing quality. 

Takeaway: If everyone is playing it safe, you need to probe the edges. Strike when others hesitate. That’s where distinction lives.

2. Speed Without Losing the Human Touch | Kane Footwear’s Balance

Kane Footwear stood out for doing marketing fast but not cold. Their thing: yes to agility. Yes to fast iterations. But also yes to staying real. Keeping human stories, letting customers see the people behind the shoes. Speed + empathy = trust.

When speed becomes just automation or slick graphics, people feel it. But when speed is used to amplify real stories, real imperfections, real people… that’s what builds loyalty.

3. Grow by Building Fan Communities | Game Fan & Other Brand Archetypes

Another big theme: brands that don’t just have customers, they have fans. Game fan communities, interactive forums, loyal followings who participate, not just buy.

Think less about mass reach; think more about deep reach. Give people a platform, let them speak, let them belong. When Game Fan tapped into culture and made their audience feel like stakeholders, growth came organically.

4. Better Ways to Measure Real Growth

We also dug into how you really know a business is growing (beyond vanity metrics). It’s not just clicks, not just follows. It’s meaningful engagement, community retention, referrals, repeat purchase behavior.

Some of the metrics tossed around:

• Growth in active users/fans, not just sign-ups

• Contribution of new ideas / experiments to growth

• Strength of retention (how many people come back, tell friends)

• Qualitative feedback: what people feel about your brand

Because if numbers are growing but people aren't sticking or believe in you, you haven’t scaled meaningfully.

5. Helping Big Brands Grow by Trying Smart New Ideas

Even among established names, the stories of people who pushed fresh ideas were inspiring. Big brands are trying smaller, more nimble experiments—launching pilot campaigns, testing micro-influencers, using trends earlier.

It’s reminding me that “big brand” doesn’t mean “rigid.” If you build space (budget, team mindset) to try smart new things, even if 70% fail, you learn fast and win big.

6. Marketing Should Adapt for the Future

We talked a lot about what’s coming. Some of what we heard:

• AI is not optional anymore. It’s getting baked into content creation, personalization, scale.

• Social-first, short-form content is no longer experimental; it's core.

• The influencer/creator economy is evolving: you can’t just buy reach. You need partnership, authenticity, alignment.

• Teams must upskill: digital fluency, speed, being comfortable with ambiguity.

It’s not about abandoning what works; it’s about adapting how you do it so you’re ready for rapid change.

7. How Unilever Is Working Smarter & Faster

One big case study: Unilever. They’re pushing to move more into influencer-heavy strategy, to make “velocity, variety, virality, volume” (their 4Vs) central to how they think about content. 

They’re also future-proofing their workforce: training thousands of employees in AI and digital skills, rethinking internal processes so things move faster without sacrificing the values they stand for. 

What I’m Taking Home & What You Can Try Today

Here are some things I’m committing to — and some ideas you can steal if you want:

• Run at least one “bold idea” experiment this month. Something that scares you a little.

• Audit your metrics: Are you measuring retention, loyalty, community metrics, not just reach or impressions?

• Revisit how your content is made: Can you speed up creation without making it feel polished but sterile? Bring in humor, humanity.

• Train someone (or yourself!) in AI tools that automate the tedious so you can spend more time on strategy, voice, vision.

• Make room for community engagement: Forums, customer input, feedback loops, not just marketing at people, with people.

Final Thoughts

Marketing Brew Summit 2025 reminded me of something I always believe, growth doesn’t come from “doing more” but from “doing what matters”, and doing it with courage. The world’s moving fast. If you’re not trying, testing, adapting, you’ll get left behind.

If anything, this summit reinforced that the heart of marketing hasn’t changed. People. Stories. Trust. If you stay committed to those, then being agile, trying new tools, leveraging AI, they all become superpowers, not liabilities.

Here’s to the brands, big and small, who take chances. Here’s to doing work that feels real. And here’s to showing up with both speed and soul. Check out this quick video recap here