Consumers say they vote with their wallets. Soon, they might start hearing less about brands’ political bona fides.

Ahead of the second Trump administration, experts told Marketing Brew that they anticipate many brands to continue rolling back messaging around progressive ideals and social causes. Before the election, the pullback had already begun, with some companies quieting initiatives around sustainability and DE&I as a rash of right-wing boycotts, including one targeting Bud Light, has made corporate America queasy.

Last summer, attorneys general from 13 states, including Kentucky and Iowa, sent a letter to business leaders claiming that DE&I initiatives could be classified as a form of discrimination, and Trump has been outspoken in his opposition to DE&I efforts. In late November, Walmart announced that it was rolling back some of its DE&I initiatives and would prevent third-party sellers from listing some LGBTQ-related products on its website.

With an incoming Republican trifecta in Congress and the White House, a growing brand silence on social and progressive causes seems all but certain, experts told us.

“If the political pressure ramps up, then we will continue to see...a deceleration or a de-emphasis, at least from an external comms perspective,” Jay Wilson, VP and analyst at Gartner, told Marketing Brew.

Continue reading here.—KH, RB

Goodbye, clean-girl minimalism. Hello, AI-inspired futurism.

As marketers begin to roll out their 2025 campaigns, the simplicity of last year’s design styles might just give way to more futuristic aesthetics, Adobe predicts in its 2025 Creative Trends Report. While the company broke down its design trend findings into four categories—Fantastic Frontiers, Levity and Laughter, Time Warp, and Immersive Appeal—all four are united by the undeniable influence of AI.

“This is the year that using AI to push the boundaries of creativity has cemented itself as a scaling trend,” Claude Alexandre, VP of digital media, B2B product, and campaign marketing at Adobe, said in the report’s foreword. “AI is already having a profound effect on the output of businesses, brands, and creatives, from design and video to animation and marketing.”

AI’s artistic effect: So how exactly will AI appear in creative campaigns? Adobe’s report suggests that more brands will show off product images “against ethereal backdrops,” creating an “otherworldly” experience around their products.

Emma Chiu, global director of VML Intelligence, wrote in the report that generative AI will play a major part in creating these surreal images, as the tool helps allow “for more complex subject matter to be brought forward because it’s more accessible visually now.”

Even if generative AI isn’t used to actually create brand images, the tech could still affect the traditional creative process.

• According to Adobe, the growing presence of AI in the creative industry is fueling a renewed appreciation for “sleek and surreal design.”

Read more here.—JN

This story is the eighth in a series about how marketers for sports teams and leagues around the world approach social media strategy.

Motorsports fandom in the US is getting turbocharged. And while many people may associate the boost with Formula 1 and Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries, F1 isn’t the only motorsport that’s revving its engines.

In the past year, Nascar has shown signs of audience growth in the US, adding about 1 million followers on Instagram, a 41% YoY increase in 2024, Torey Fox, Nascar’s director of social content, told Marketing Brew. On both TikTok and YouTube, follower count is up by 14% YoY, he said.

Highlights are almost always guaranteed to please sports fans on social, but Fox said his team is also focused on posting educational content about Nascar, as well as other types of content designed to help get newer fans hooked and keep them coming back for more.

“The real work begins, in my opinion…once we get them in the door,” Fox said. “I’ve been very confident in what we do here, that not only can we keep them, we can convert them into someone who not only is going to follow us on Instagram, they’re going to follow us on other platforms, they’re going to tune into the race on Sunday, and then they’re going to come to the racetrack, too.”

Continue reading here.—AM