GUEST COLUMN: How 2025 reshaped marketing in silence

MUMBAI: 2025 looked like a year in which nothing really happened. No seismic cultural wave, no creative renaissance, no industry-defining moment. Yet beneath that deceptive stillness, the ground shifted. In this guest column, Adnan Pocketwala, growth partner at Ormax WhatNext, unpacks how a year that appeared uneventful on the surface quietly restructured consumer behaviour, brand-building and creativity – and why 2025 may ultimately be remembered as the year everything changed under the surface.

2025 almost seems like a year that slipped through our fingers. No great cultural tidal wave, no category-defining shock, just a year that many marketers will remember as uneventful. But in hindsight, the stillness feels deceptive. Beneath it, the tectonic plates of consumer behaviour and brand-building have shifted far more than they appeared to.

If 2023 was the year of Peak Purpose, and 2024 the year of Culture and the Creator Economy, 2025 will be remembered for something paradoxical: not much really happened — except AI happened everywhere. A year when AI and LLMs stopped being a novelty and became infrastructure, rewiring briefs, decisions, media plans and consumer journeys with unnerving quietness.

What started with cute haikus soon moved into headlines, media plans, brand architectures and once-sacrosanct “strategic thinking” on an LLM window that refused to blink.

And for the first time, marketers genuinely asked: “Why does the world need us — there is AI now?”

A year that quietly rearranged the marketplace

Several brands became the subtext of modern life without ever shouting for attention. Zomato continued its march from food-delivery app to lifestyle utility, teaching a generation that convenience is culture. Zepto found its footing; Swiggy lost some. Air India’s reinvention restored national pride, while Indigo began showing the creaks of incumbency.

2025 also marked a decisive shift in Indian nutrition. Amul’s entry into the “protein revolution” signalled that health wasn’t a specialist segment anymore — it had become mass culture. When the country’s most democratic dairy brand says protein matters, the conversation moves from gyms to dining tables.

Tech seeped into everything: rings, patches, lenses, fabrics, foods. Wearables became wellness companions; diagnostics moved from labs to living rooms. Investment demigods emerged — health-tech, life-tech, food-tech, fabric-tech.

Yet ed-tech remained in reputational rehab, still paying for the sins of Byju’s and a trust deficit that refuses to heal.

Insurance finally woke up from its creative slumber. “Accha kiya insurance liya” gave the category a long-overdue reason-to-believe, rooted in protection rather than wealth creation — arguably the first time the category stopped bringing a knife to the mutual-fund-sized gunfight.

Diamonds fought their own ideological battle. Lab-grown diamonds leaned into rationality and financial prudence; De Beers returned to an emotionally charged defence of “real,” doubling down on myth, yearning and what true love should feel like.

Culture was rewired – and controversies came and went

K-pop moved from trend to infrastructure. Kids could list ramen SKUs faster than multiplication tables. Streetwear turned Korean, snacks turned Korean, beauty turned Korean — and Kay Beauty found its groove.

India’s fashion landscape tilted too. Menswear, long the cautious category, received its first wave of real occasionwear visibility as disruptors made boldness acceptable.

Cultural flare-ups — the American Eagle backlash, the Prada India moment — reminded brands that marketing is as much art as science.

And in the same year, Mahindra became India’s unexpected Tesla, shifting EVs from price-led to desire-led. A reminder that aspiration remains India’s favourite operating system.

The middle-class consumer quietly revolted

Perhaps the most under-discussed shift of the year: the silent death walk of the “middle-class brand.” The Indian consumer stopped rewarding “good enough,” and a new buying logic emerged:

If I’m paying a premium, it should be worth bragging about.

If I’m saving money, it should be worth the compromise.

If it’s neither, it belongs nowhere.

Caught in the crossfire, mid-tier D2C brands plateaued — too expensive for value seekers; too ordinary for premium seekers.

Influencer-first brands hit turbulence. The promise of “clean beauty” collapsed under scrutiny, sameness and influencer fatigue. Science-backed, truly clean entrants finally found breathing room.

Creativity gasped for breath

A crisis unfolded in advertising. Creative storytelling became optional. Creativity itself, already weakened by client-side nervousness, was in an accident. Agency closures and consolidations were symptoms of a bigger ailment: brands mistaking efficiency for imagination.

We also lost some giants on whose shoulders the industry once stood, making the landscape feel collectively shorter.

Yet the sparks were unmistakable:

• Flipkart entertained the country with SaSa LeLe and the immensely shareable Math Is Mathing.

• Dream11 made us fight for our teams but lost its own narrative along the way.

• Urban Company’s Native RO hit a sweet spot with product truth, cultural insight and category reframing.

• Asian Paints, with India Ka Har Doosra Ghar, rediscovered its storytelling muscle.

• Chupa Chups delighted with Samajh Ke Bahar, proving creativity can still make the mundane memorable.

Good work, yes — but nothing ready for the halls of fame.

Emotion took a back seat — but not forever

This year saw a shift in decision-making patterns. High-interest categories flipped from emotion → logic → habit to logic → habit → emotion — an arranged-marriage model of brand love: prove your practicality first; I’ll get attached later.

In the same period, the world’s most technical company, OpenAI, showed marketers how storytelling is done, proving craft is not a casualty of technology but its collaborator.

Some brands broke through

• Tanishq extended its cultural truth playbook without tipping into imported activism.

• Mother Dairy’s Aai Jaisi Mumbai delivered emotional resonance.

• Aditya Birla Capital reframed motherhood with nuance instead of sacrifice.

• WhatsApp clarified its stance on misinformation — an essential but uphill battle.

Founders became podcasters. Influencers became founders. A circular economy of clout creation emerged.
And Kusha Kapila found her lane with Underneat.

Where does all this leave us?

At a crossroads.

Brands today have reach, formats, creators, technology, precision – everything except the thing consumers want most: trust, now at its thinnest in years.

2026 is shaping up to be the year of better mousetraps – brands built on sharper product truths, scientific credibility and AI-native personalisation.

Health and wellness will confront their day of reckoning. “Good for you” will no longer be enough; consumers will demand specialisation, expertise and proof.

AI-native brands will rise.

Culture-first brands will return.

Middle-class brands will struggle.

Creativity will (hopefully) recover.

And 2025 may ultimately be remembered as the year nothing happened — and the year everything quietly began to change.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.