😎Wake up, babe. State of Marketing just dropped.

Lesson 1: Authenticity, personality, and values-led content are winning marketing

Message-driven content has been a pillar of B2C marketing for decades, but now even B2B audiences want content that reflects a “mission, vision, and core values.”

But, more than that, brands are finding the most success with content that reflects authentic personality over the buttoned-up “brand voice” that worked for so long.

In the quest for authenticity, brands are leaning into the individual voices of employees and content creators — and even executives are getting into the social media game.

Remember when past marketing master Jenna Kutcher, host of The Goal Digger podcast, advised us, “As creators, we need to get back into the creation of our content. We need to go back to what worked a decade ago and share our lives and what we love online"?

Or when Lia Haberman, founder of ICYMI, warned us about companies using the “royal we” instead of assigning an employee to be the voice of your newsletter/videos/social media?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Lesson 2: Both B2B and B2C are focusing on Millennial and Gen Z audiences

The times, they are a-changin’. In 2025, over 65% of business decision-makers will be Gen Z or millennial.

Which makes that Bob Dylan reference as risky as it is relevant.

So perhaps it's no surprise that marketers’ interest in targeting millennials and Gen Z increased year over year — while targeting for Gen X and baby boomers fell over 30%.

It’s definitely no shock to Irina Novoselsky, CEO of Hootsuite and recent Masters in Marketing guest. She pointed out that 2024 is the first year where Gen Zers outnumbered Boomers in the workplace.

Novoselsky personally spent time with over 500 Gen Zers, and shared that their buying habits are disrupting traditional marketing playbooks.

Are you ready?

Lesson 3: Businesses are investing in brand-led marketing