Walk the talk - 5 ways marketers can succeed in 2025
Marketers face a fragmented media landscape, pressured budgets, and rapid technology developments. Political and macroeconomic events add unpredictability. Kantar’s Blueprint for Brand Growth shows brands with strong predisposition have 9x volume share, 2x price command, and 4x likelihood to grow value share.
Success comes from touchpoints and interactions with consumers, making media landscape understanding crucial. Kantar Media Reactions 2024 surveyed over 1,000 senior marketers globally, revealing five ways to succeed in 2025.
1 - Meaningful data is key in making informed budget decisions
Half of marketers say multiple factors influence their budget allocation, with consumer preference, campaign objectives, and ROI being major influences. However, 36% feel their media mix isn't optimal.
Consumer preference is crucial, with 60% of marketers considering it. In 2024, point of sale ads were most preferred by consumers, but marketers increased spending on sponsored events and digital channels like online video and social media stories.
In 2025, marketers plan to boost spending on digital media, especially online video and TV streaming. Meaningful data and consistent measurement are essential for better investment decisions.
2 - Don’t just say brand-building matters; build your brand.
81% of marketers value both short-term and long-term ROI, with the optimal split being 60% long-term and 40% short-term. Despite this, 16% measure only short-term ROI.
All channels can build brands. Recently, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and online display ads have shown high brand contributions, following broadcast TV and POS ads. These figures are expected to rise as marketers better customize ads per platform and context.
3 - Campaigns need to be integrated and customised
Integrated and customized campaigns perform 57% better. However, 35% of marketers lack confidence in understanding context, and 46% don't tailor content to channels. Testing ads early and in different contexts is crucial to avoid wasting marketing dollars.
Advertisers’ confidence about tailoring content to contexts continues to fall 
4 - Skill up and be efficient: AI is your ally
AI enhances effectiveness and efficiency in ad testing, customization, and measurement. Only 9% of marketers view AI negatively, while 74% are excited about its application, and 55% see AI predictions as valuable for testing ads.
However, 36% of marketers feel their team lacks the skills to use generative AI. Training is essential to leverage AI's capabilities and stay competitive in creative and media planning.
5 - Don’t let your eyes glaze over: pay attention to attention
Attention is crucial for media effectiveness, influencing budget plans and creative impact. Consumers prefer outdoor, cinema, and POS ads, while marketers favor influencer content, TV, and cinema ads.
Behavioral measures like time viewed and clicks are common, but facial coding, eye-tracking, and AI predictions should guide attention measurement to capture active emotional engagement.
Curious for more after reading this short extract? Read the full article now.
Would you like to learn more about the media landscape in Belgium?
Get in touch to learn more about these 5 ways or to explore about the opportunities the Kantar Media Reactions report can provide for you.
Connecting with people in the age of AI
In an increasingly information-saturated environment, brands need to find creative ways to connect with consumers meaningfully.
We know that the winning ads in Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards have made real connections with consumers. How? Because they are judged by consumers.
Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards celebrate the most creative and effective ads from the thousands we tested last year.
In an age where AI is redefining the industry, our winners connected with people on a very human level, whether to laugh, cry or share in their experiences, all helping to build brand affinity and that all important future demand for their brand.
Join us on Wednesday 9 April to discover the best ads from around the world and what makes them great.
This year, we’re thrilled to host a panel with some of our winning brands, who will bring the ideas behind their award-winning creativity to life. Register now and find out what winning brands will be joining us. You won’t want to miss it!
Discover the winners from all the ads researched at Kantar in 2024, and learn how to engage with your audiences through connected creativity in the age of AI
We will reveal:
- Top 10 TV winners
- Top 10 digital/social winners
- Top 10 print/outdoor winners
- Top 10 LINK AI tested winners
What makes or breaks a product launch?
Uncover the “why” behind your launch’s performance
Whilst product launches are always exciting, Kantar data reveals that almost two-thirds of product launches are dead or dying by the end of their second year. The difference between a launch that achieves liftoff and one that fizzles out is often small, and knowing what drives that difference is what can separate success from failure.
Based on years of knowledge and experience helping brands innovate, we have consolidated our learnings into a guide that will help your launches drive meaningful growth with post-launch insights.
This guide will equip you with the insights needed to navigate the highs and lows of your launch performance, fine-tune your strategy, and chart a path to long-term growth.
What happens when data meets creativity?
The biggest open night for the creative industry
Discover the answer together with us during ADNIGHT BXL
Kantar's brand and creative experts will explore the connection between data and creativity. This event will showcase how consumer insights and AI can inspire and enhance the creative process. It’s all about blending data with imagination to create work that truly resonates.
Kantar proves that data isn’t just numbers it’s the spark behind every great idea.
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NEEDSCOPE AI - Demo session Put your positioning skills to the test! Use your creativity to design an ad and align the correct emotion to it.
Our demo stand is open: |
| LINK AI - Info session Secrets behind ideas that work: A Belgian Brew of Creativity
Time your visit for our speaker session: |
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Discover WPP City, a journey through creativity
The route
- A Night Shop by VML | Discover unexpected Antwerp finds and creative takeaways.
- Game Night by GROUP M |Play, engage, and experience media creativity in action.
- A Speakeasy by AKQA | A creative hub where big creative ideas are celebrated.
- A Gallery by OSL | Immerse yourself in social culture.
- A Monument by KANTAR | Step into a space that explores the intersection of data and creativity.
Interested in the full creative route through BXL?
A modern marketer’s toolkit: early-stage insights
Our data shows that brands who embrace early-stage research can more than 2x their chances of creating top-performing ads. Researching creative ideas earlier helps marketers futureproof campaigns, preventing wasted spend on ideas that don’t resonate with consumers.
We are excited to announce early-stage creative insights are now available on LINK+ and LINK AI! Revolutionise your ad development process by identifying and nurturing winning creative concepts early to help build campaigns that grow your brand and maximise your media investment.
Discover how early-stage creative development capabilities on Kantar Marketplace can supercharge your marketing investments today!
LINK early insight on Kantar Marketplace helps you:
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Screen and nurture ad ideas, concepts, scripts, summaries, mood films or any type of early-stage creative |
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Build a creative platform that will deliver campaigns that can grow your brand long term |
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Save time and money by gaining scalable, robust insights using survey and AI-based technology |
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Maximise ROI with ads that are right for your audience, brand and strategic objectives |
Nurturing Early-Stage Creative Ideas and Concepts
The new LINK+ and LINK AI capabilities aimed at supercharging early-stage creative development are now available in Kantar Marketplace, Kantar’s agile market research platform. I’d love to guide you through in a quick demo and show how you can benefit from these innovative additions to the LINK tool kit.
How AI is transforming marketing to help drive brand growth
Artificial intelligence is transforming the marketing landscape at an unprecedented pace, making it essential for survival in today's competitive market. By 2025, AI will revolutionise marketing through automation, personalisation, and decision-making.
Don’t risk being left behind: Join the AI Innovators Summit to learn how to leverage AI for competitive advantage. Our event brings together industry leaders and Kantar AI experts to explore key trends, applications, and future directions in AI marketing.
- Stay Competitive: Learn how AI is transforming marketing.
- Unlock Growth: Discover the latest AI trends and applications.
- Mitigate Risks: Understand challenges and best practices for AI adoption.
Secure Your Spot Today and ensure your business remains at the forefront of marketing innovation.
Four unique sessions to focus on
Register for all four session or only for the once you are interested in. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your marketing measurement approach with AI.
| GenAI in Marketing: Fear or FOMO | Exploring the impact of AI on the marketing organisation. |
| From Concept to Creation: How AI transforms every stage of creative development | Discover how AI is reshaping every stage of the creative development process, from concept ideation to final execution, enabling brands to unlock unprecedented levels of innovation and effectiveness in their marketing strategies |
| Innovate or Imitate: Cutting through the hype of AI ideation | Use AI to explore new spaces by examining how businesses can effectively navigate the noise and hype surrounding artificial intelligence to foster genuine innovation and drive impactful results. |
| The New Era of Marketing: Leveraging AI for Effective Performance Measurement | Explore how AI is revolutionising marketing performance measurement, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions, optimise strategies, and significantly improve campaign effectiveness. |
AI for brand growth
The exchange of thought leadership and ideas that this event facilitates helps us come together to find solutions to common challenges and encourage new conversations that are imperative to our industries, and the role of AI. Get in touch to discover how Kantar can assist you in implementing AI solutions in your business.
Data Meets Creativity
The biggest open night for the creative industry
Join us for the first ADNIGHT BXL
We are thrilled to invite you to ADNIGHT BXL, where Kantar's brand and creative experts will explore the connection between data and creativity. This event will showcase how consumer insights and AI can inspire and enhance the creative process. It’s all about blending data with imagination to create work that truly resonates.
Join us where data meets creativity
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NEEDSCOPE AI - Demo session Put your positioning skills to the test! Use your creativity to design an ad and align the correct emotion to it.
Our demo stand is open: |
| LINK AI - Info session Secrets behind ideas that work: A Belgian Brew of Creativity
Time your visit for our speaker session: |
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New Opportunities with the 2025 Sustainability Sector Index
Contact us to get the new Belgium results you need!
Sustainability offers new opportunities to connect with consumers, create competitive advantage and drive long term value creation. Consumers have a different approach to sustainability in each sector and market, there is no one-size fits all solution for a brand sustainability strategy. Delve into the nuances between consumers sustainability values and behaviours across different sectors with our just launched 2025 Sustainability Sector Index that will show you where to play to make your sustainable transformation a success.
In 2025, the Sustainability Sector Index offers a consistent foundational understanding of sustainability in 42 sectors, across 22 countries around the globe, with insights collected from 23,000 interviews. The insights are designed to allow you to build, or sense check the foundations of your brand sustainability strategy and activation plan to make sure that it is consumer relevant.
Kickstart your sustainability journey with our conference this Thursday
The event will comprise four 30-minute webinars across a range of timeslots to accommodate a global audience. Note: If you can't attend, register to watch on demand.
Discover the power moves that will help you build resilient Brands in 2025 and beyond.
We know from our recent study that emotional connections can elevate your brand and command a price premium. However, only 15% of brands get it right. Why?
- Common questions we often receive are:
- Why is emotion so important for Brand positioning?
- How can I find smarter assets to invest in?
- What can brands do to convert short term gain to long term wins from brand collaborations?
- How can you supercharge your brand connections?
We have combined all answers in a data-packed Masterclass series on Brand Strategy launching on Wednesday 26 February. All you have to do is making sure you sign up, to receive them directly in your inbox on this date.
Sign up to the free Masterclass
We're bringing you three video lessons on Brand Strategy
- How to build emotional brand connection and command a price premium
- Smarter ways to use distinctive brand assets to achieve Brand Equity and Salience
- Super charging growth - the power of strategic brand collaborations
If you sign up today, you’ll receive the links to the video lessons, led by world-renowned Kantar brand experts - directly to your inbox on 26 February.
Elevate Your Marketing Game with Kantar's Expert Insights
We look forward to helping you unlock your brand's full potential through our Brand Strategy Masterclass. Together, let's shape the future of your brand.
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Machteld Andries |
Sustainable Brand Growth conference
Only a few brands have successfully earned consumer trust when it comes to sustainability, and yet more and more people are looking for action from businesses. This is a space where marketers need to deliver on consumer demands if they want to maintain relevance and drive growth.
Kantar’s annual conference on sustainability will provide what you need to know to help your brand drive value in 2025. The sessions will deliver key insights on leveraging sustainability as a growth driver, equipping you with concrete strategies to operationalise sustainability effectively and build stronger, more trusted brands for the future.
The event on Thursday, February 20, 2025 will comprise four 30-minute webinars across a range of timeslots to accommodate a global audience.
APAC session: 5 AM GMT | 1 PM Singapore
EMEA session: 9 AM GMT | 12 PM Nairobi
Americas session: 5 PM GMT | 9 AM Los Angeles
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