September 29, 2025 – The Latest in Marketing and Copywriting
By R. Michael Brown, Brand Storyteller
Forget the glossy ads. The big winners in brand storytelling right now are the ones showing their scars.
Imperfection sells. “Brands and organizations have come to recognize that authenticity is the key to resonating with increasingly discerning and skeptical audiences,” notes a 2025 PR forecast from Fletcher Communications.
That shift is reshaping the way organizations talk to their audience. The polished pitch is out. Human, transparent stories are in. Even a stumble, if told honestly, can boost credibility.
“Our campaign for Greater Manchester’s recent stop-smoking charge, ‘You’ll miss much more,’ had to buck the soft and gentle trend in a big way and deliver an altogether different creative energy, said Mark Beaumont of Dinosaur, a UK agency. “The creative team leaned heavily on personal storytelling. In the TV spot, we see a daughter on her wedding day and, as the camera focuses on her wedding speech, the scene twists and dissolves to her father in a hospital bed. The sound design is brutal, as the bride’s joy gives way to the chilling audio of a death rattle. The casting made it more powerful, as the actor playing the father was a former smoker turned stop-smoking counsellor, adding authenticity to every strained breath.”
Data is also becoming narrative fuel. Instead of hiding behind spreadsheets, brands are using numbers to tell personal stories. “Today’s brands aren’t just data collectors. They’re data storytellers too,” says research firm GWI.
That means consumer habits, sustainability scores, and local insights are driving the next wave of campaigns.
Meanwhile, long-form is back. Podcasts, essays, and documentaries are cutting through the clutter. In a 2025 forecast, 68% of marketers said they increased long-form creator content last year. More than 70% plan to do more this year according to the Social Media Strategies Summit. Audiences, it seems, are hungry for depth.
Surprise is another tactic gaining traction. Designit calls it “strategic friction” — small jolts that make people stop scrolling. BMF Media on The PR Net adds that brands leaning into “cultural rebellion” and “wisdom” are making the biggest cultural splash. Translation: don’t play it safe.
And the format? It’s no longer flat. Immersive media — from YouTube and Tiktok, to VR and AR, to interactive advergames — is pulling audiences inside the story instead of asking them to watch passively says Visual Soldiers.
The takeaway: in 2025, the best brand stories aren’t just told. They’re lived.
