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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

AI in marketing examples are everywhere these days. But for many marketers, bridging the gap between idea and application is still a struggle. 

Artificial intelligence and data analytics offer huge potential for businesses and brands. Along with obvious benefits like automation and time savings, AI can also personalize content and experiences, make predictions, and find hidden connections buried in data — all of which can help you run more impactful campaigns.

Let’s explore five specific use cases for AI in marketing and how marketers can apply these concepts to create tangible results.

Create Your Own AI in Marketing Examples with Meltwater

We define AI in marketing as the use of artificial intelligence technologies (think large language models, predictive analytics, generative AI, etc.) to perform marketing-related duties. 

One minute, chatbots are connecting with website visitors around the clock. The next, your AI marketing tools are extracting snappy snippets from your blogs to use as social media posts. 

AI and marketing are becoming increasingly intertwined. These technologies take on some of the heavy lifting so that human teams can focus on more strategic work. AI tools excel at:

Improving experiences with customization and faster response times

Providing actionable insights based on data

To harness these and other benefits, marketers are pushing the boundaries of what AI tools can do. AI can support one-off tasks and ongoing workflows alike, and businesses continuously discover more use cases. 

Use these five AI in marketing examples to inspire your own efforts.

AI technologies can offload tasks that were once highly hands-on and repetitive for marketing teams, specifically in CRM systems. 

Your CRM is packed with customer data — demographics, preferences, buying behaviors, spending, and more. AI analyzes all that info to create hyper-personalized experiences for each customer. 

Done the “human way,” it would take hours of data analysis, guesswork, and testing just for one customer. AI can do this at scale and in a fraction of the time.

AI-powered CRM systems analyze your leads to figure out who’s most likely to convert. It evaluates data like engagement history, website visits, email opens, and even sentiment from past interactions. 

With this data, your sales and marketing teams can find and connect with the most engaged audiences and avoid wasting time on cold leads.

You can also more easily spot trends and patterns in customer behavior that humans might miss. These trends can indicate what customers might need next and suggest the best time to reach them so you can offer additional (and timely) support.

Improve sales and retention with personalization

Prioritize customers who are most likely to buy

AI turns your CRM into more than just a database. CRMs become strategic partners by automating tasks, offering real-time insights, and personalizing every interaction. 

Meltwater offers a powerful suite of AI-driven tools to help marketers surface valuable insights. See our solutions in action when you request a demo by clicking here and filling out the form below!

Some of the benefits of AI in marketing automation and CRM spill over into the ecommerce space. With better personalization, real-time insights, and predictions, brands can better meet the needs of their customers.

For example, a customer who just browsed your website for winter jackets might get a timely promo for outerwear. Not every customer will receive this promo, just those who have expressed interest in a relevant product.

This kind of personalization doesn’t just build strong impressions and positive relationships; it also inspires action. Six out of 10 customers say they become repeat customers after a personalized shopping experience, while 89% of marketers say they see a positive ROI when using personalization in their campaigns.

Moving beyond sales, ecommerce brands can also use AI to power online customer service. Human service teams are limited in terms of how many customers they can serve at a time. Some needs are more complex than others, which require more time to solve — and keep other customers waiting longer.

Ticketmaster is a prime example of AI in customer service done right. They use AI-powered chatbots to provide human-like responses to customer needs. Chatbots can handle requests around the clock and handle more than one request at a time. 

Customers have another way to get in touch with Ticketmaster and don’t have to endure long hold times, while the company can scale its customer support and even make recommendations to customers. With the rise of agentic AI, eCommerce brands can further streamline operations and deliver highly adaptive, autonomous customer experiences.

Marketers are looking to AI to optimize ad creative and make every dollar count. With digital ad costs on the rise, marketers are scrutinizing more aspects of each campaign to ensure they’re connecting with the right people on the right channels at the right time.

AI can help in this area by improving targeting and analyzing multiple campaigns to see what’s working and what can be improved. AI reviews vast datasets in real time to make sense of patterns and recommend the next best steps. 

In advertising and campaign optimization, AI can:

Alert you to shifts in sentiment or trends that might impact your ad’s effectiveness

Optimize ad spend and placements to get better results

Segment audiences based on behaviors like purchase history, interests, demographics, and other fine details

Predict the campaigns that are most likely to perform the best based on data

Automate A/B testing so you can double down on your highest-performing campaigns 

There’s plenty of evidence to support AI’s role in advertising optimization. For instance, Imagine Business Development uses AI to improve email open rates. AI optimizes send times per individual rather than sending emails out in bulk. The company doubled its open and click-through rates and saw a 100% increase in conversions. 

Whole Foods also uses AI to deliver tailored messaging to its customers. In its Just Walk Out stores, AI tracks each customer’s shopping patterns and purchases to predict future behaviors. The company can use this data to send personalized offers or promos. 

One more example: Pepsi uses its proprietary AI platform, Ada, to improve its TV and digital advertising. Ada tests creative elements throughout the development stage and helps the brand build on its ideas so that it can deliver the most impactful ads. 

TIP: For an in-depth exploration of how AI can help your advertising campaigns, check out our blog on Generative AI for Ads!

AI is also taking on the role of social media marketing assistant. It engages with users at scale, learns who your audience is, and helps you understand user sentiments online. It can be everywhere on social media at once, learning the top trends and the meanings behind them so you can engage with your audience authentically.

Marketers are finding plenty of ways to test the limits of AI on social media, including:

Social media scheduling automation. AI figures out the best times to post on each channel and can schedule posts in advance to keep conversations flowing.

Content creation and curation. AI tools can generate content ideas, draft copy, and recommend content that will resonate with your audience.

Sentiment analysis. Understand what people are saying and how they’re saying it to know where your brand (or a competitor) stands.

Chatbots for instant support. Be responsive to customers at all hours by letting AI chatbots provide quick answers.

Collective insights. Get a bird’s eye view of your entire social media performance and maintain agility with data-driven insights.

The World Wildlife Fund uses Meltwater’s AI to drive engagement on social media. AI helped the organization identify key audiences for a specific event and send them targeted messages. Applied on multiple social media networks in different ways, AI helps the non-profit reach people who are most likely to drive action and change.

Mailchimp also uses Meltwater to manage its social media presence. A leader in marketing automation, the brand gets support from Meltwater to find relevant themes and trends that will inform its content creation. Meltwater automates social media activities so teams can focus on strategic work.

TIP: Download our free, comprehensive resource The Ultimate Guide to AI for Social Media Management, full of tips, tricks, and prompts to supercharge your social strategies!

The last of our examples of AI in marketing, content creation continues to create a deeply divisive buzz. The general consensus is that AI cannot and should not replace human creatives. Still, the allure of having AI create first drafts or time-consuming reports cannot be ignored.

AI can generate content creation faster, more efficiently, and sometimes more effectively. It can synthesize information from multiple sources and distill it into easy-to-understand terms. This can give marketers a better jumping-off point rather than poring through Google search results, articles, or social media feeds.

In marketing, AI works best for these use cases:

Suggesting ways to optimize content for search

Adapting content for different audiences or use cases

Heinz is a prime example of using AI in content creation the right way. In a recent campaign, it asked AI to draw ketchup, then asked its audience to use AI to do the same. The results were pretty spot on, underscoring Heinz’ strong stance in the ketchup market. As a bonus, the campaign resulted in tons of user-generated content for the brand. 

TIP: Check out our blog AI Content Creation: The Future of Creativity for a deeper explanation and more examples of how you can leverage generative AI in your own creative endeavors!

AI offers many advantages, from scalability to speed. But humans will always be an essential part of the process. Humans can build emotional connections, align with your brand voice and values, and infuse cultural context into content. 

Most importantly, we still need humans to generate new ideas. (AI can only produce content based on existing data.)

Before going all in on AI content creation, there are a few things to be aware of:

AI is a tool, not a strategist, so leave your overarching goals, direction, and creativity to your human team members.

Always refine AI-generated content, as this will help you avoid unintentional plagiarism while adding your own unique insights.

Trust your instincts when it comes to publishing good content; don’t be too reliant on AI outputs.

Train your team on how to work with AI while relieving any fears that AI might replace them.

AI can be an incredible ally when it comes to creating content. But it’s not a silver bullet, especially if you want your content to be meaningful and original.

AI and marketing examples are growing fast as more businesses and brands learn how to use AI tools to improve marketing outcomes. It augments the work of your human teams so they can focus on strategy and contribute to results rather than simply engage in busy work.

Meltwater puts AI in your hands by helping you learn more about your audience and online performance. Discover who your core demographics are, how they feel about you, what they’re sharing online, and what drives them to act. 

Leverage AI to decide how and when to engage with them for maximum results and prove the ROI of your efforts, all from a single platform.

Learn more when you request a demo by filling out the form below!

AI in Marketing: Examples and Use Cases

Though it wasn’t the most surprising telecast of recent years, the 2025 Oscars had its fair share of unexpected moments and wins. From triumphs to controversies, there was much for audiences to discuss in the lead-up and night of this year’s ceremony. We used our social listening and analytics solution to see what news, broadcast, and social media discussions worldwide looked like for the 2025 Academy Awards. The following data looks at relevant keyword mentions from the start of the day on March 1, the day before the 2025 Oscars, through midday on March 3, 2025, the day after.

What was the most talked about Best Picture nominee?

Oscar winner: Anora 
Digital conversation winner: I’m Still Here

While the indie film Anora was the big Oscar winner of the night, it was only the third most talked about Best Picture nominee. I’m Still Here generated the most mentions as of midday March 3 largely thanks to its win in the Best International Film category, the first ever for a Brazilian movie. Emilia Pérez, the most nominated film of the night, also generated more conversation than the Best Picture winner due to its acclaim as well as controversy surrounding the film’s representation of trans women, its depiction of Mexican culture, and lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive social media posts. 

As always, the most discussed films were different around the world. Anora was the most talked about Best Picture nominee in Spain, Canada, India, and the US. Wicked was the most talked about nominee in the UK, narrowly beating The Brutalist and Anora. I’m Still Here had the most buzz in Brazil, while Emilia Pérez took the top spot in Mexico, China, and Argentina. Last but not least, Conclave was the most talked about nominee in Australia. 

Who was the most talked about Best Actress nominee?

Digital conversation winner: Fernanda Torres

Anora star Mikey Madison won the Best Actress Oscar, but she generated less than half of the mentions that I’m Still Here star Fernanda Torres did overall. 

Torres’s large share of voice may surprise film fans based in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and China, where Madison got the most mentions. Demi Moore was the most talked about nominee in Spain, while Gascón generated the most conversation in Mexico.

Who was the most talked about Best Actor nominee?

Digital conversation winner: Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody won the Best Actor award while generating the most conversation overall and in the top 10 locations we analyzed. This is due to three viral moments: Halle Berry kissing him on the red carpet in a reenactment of their 2003 on-stage kiss, his tossing his used gum to his girlfriend Georgina Chapman before taking the stage to accept his award, and his breaking the world record for giving the longest acceptance speech in Oscars history.

Interestingly, one Best Actor nominee generated significant awards show buzz for a moment that wasn’t part of the telecast. 

“Commercial break” was the most used phrase in the conversation surrounding Colman Domingo due to an unprompted dance break he led during his on-stage, off-camera toast to Los Angeles first responders. Attendee and Variety Co-Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh posted smartphone footage of the moment on X and it quickly went viral.  

How big was Adam Sandler’s moment at the Oscars?

Despite not being nominated for any awards, Adam Sandler generated significant discussion due to a skit poking fun at his signature style. Host Conan O’Brien called attention to Sandler dressed in a baggy hoodie, basketball shorts, and sneakers before the actor embraced Chalamet and stormed out of the auditorium. The moment helped Sandler generate nearly 76,400 Oscar-related mentions, more than Best Actor nominees Domingo, Sebastian Stan, or Ralph Fiennes. It also brought some unexpected but welcome attention to Aviator Nation, the brand behind the now nearly sold out hoodie. 

Were the 2025 Oscars more or less popular than the 2024 Oscars?

The 2025 Oscars generated about 56% more mentions than the 2024 Oscars did in the days before, of, and after each ceremony. 

In India, Canada, China, the US, and the UK, the Oscars were about as popular in 2025 as in 2024. However, the awards got much more attention this year than last year in Brazil thanks to the success of I’m Still Here and in Mexico due to the controversy surrounding the depiction of Mexican culture in Emilia Pérez. Notably, Oscars mentions from Thailand were about 380% higher in 2025 than in 2024 due to Thai pop star Lisa’s red carpet look and on-stage performance during a tribute to James Bond films. On the flip side, the conversation around the Oscars declined from 2024 to 2025 in Japan.

International entertainment audiences are converging. The Oscars may take place in Hollywood, but its biggest conversations don’t necessarily revolve around the U.S. or English-speaking films. International films have had a bigger presence at the awards in recent years, which has shifted where some of the biggest Oscars conversations are happening. Marketers should keep an eye on how entertainment buzz looks when broken down by region and country to better understand the movies, TV shows, and stars with growing international, cross-cultural appeal.

Get more digital data broken down by country in our 2025 Global Digital Country Reports.

Candid moments take the spotlight. Nothing gets audiences excited like authentic, unscripted moments like Domingo’s commercial dance break and seemingly candid moments like Sandler’s Chalamet embrace. As one highly engaged comment on X expressed regarding the former, these are the moments viewers want to see.

Whenever possible, lean into authentic moments of human connection and away from ultra-choreographed and polished exchanges.

The Most Talked About 2025 Oscar Nominees: A Deep Dive into Digital Buzz

It’s no exaggeration to say that streaming and the COVID-19 pandemic both changed the entertainment industry forever. This is uniquely true for movie theaters, whose attendance rates have yet to rebound to pre-2020 levels, let alone the peak from way back in 2002. Still, moviegoing is steadily coming back, and not just among those who can remember renting VHS tapes. Gen-Zers are more likely to go to the movies in person at least once a month compared to older generations. So what’s behind this return to the big screen? We used our social listening and analytics solution to learn more. 

What makes consumers decide to see movies in theaters?

According to social media conversation it’s all about the overall magical experience of seeing movies on the big screen, not just the movie itself. Our social listening analysis found that attending movies in person is a hot topic, having been mentioned more than 600,000 times from February 15, 2024 to February 15, 2025. And while the conversation ranged from topics like theater seating etiquette to nostalgia for the pre-streaming services era of movies, many of the most engaging posts celebrated the overall magic of going to the movies, especially alone. 

For example, mentions in the second half of that 12-month period we analyzed were about 12% higher than in the first half, thanks in large part to an X post about going to the movies solo that went viral on November 20, just two days before the highly anticipated premiere of Wicked. That day, the going to the movies conversation spiked 20 times higher than average as people engaged with this post on X:

The take on the then-popular “chill guy” meme generated more than 190,000 engagement actions as other X users shared their own opinions about the experience of going to the movies alone and with others, with a telling 99% of non-neutral mentions being positive. The post (which IMAX jumped on with a simple but authentic reply that has since attracted about 16,000 views) was just one of multiple social media posts celebrating seeing movies alone that have gone viral over the past year.

Meanwhile, the second-largest spike in the past year of going-to-the-movies conversation was generated by none other than actor Kevin Bacon.

His post on X celebrating the experience of going to the movies featured a video of himself recounting all the films he had recently seen in theaters. It generated about 27,600 engagement actions and inspired thousands of comments and quote reposts from users sharing more about their own emotional connections to movies and nostalgia about past movie-going experiences. 

While the magic of the movies keeps audiences going back to theaters for more, the price of the experience is also a significant consideration. For example, there were about 10,900 mentions of  “cost” and about 8,000 of “price” in the conversations analyzed, with one highly engaged post breaking down the charges for a night at the movies for four people. Meanwhile, r/AMCsAList, a subreddit dedicated to the AMC theater chain’s membership program, was the third most popular Reddit community for moviegoing conversations, pointing to its popularity.

Could price sensitivity be a factor in the growing conversation about going to the movies alone? Perhaps! Though blockbusters like Barbie, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, and Wicked stand apart for having become occasions for groups of friends to dress up and see the movies together. In either case, going to the movies has seemingly become more of a special occasion for some consumers. So while streaming has given audiences more options for seeing their favorite films, it has yet to become a replacement for theater experience. In fact, it has only made the “in real life” option that much more purposeful.

Emotional engagement is key. For movie lovers, the theater is a portal to another realm where nostalgia or much-needed breaks from the world outside are crucial parts of the appeal. Marketers for brands in and around the movie theater world should engage with those emotional, immersive elements that can’t be replicated in front of the screen at home.

Dig into the ripple effects of price sensitivity. Concerns about cost aren’t going anywhere and they’re having major impacts on how consumers think about their leisure activities. Marketers and brands in any sector should dig further into conversations about cost to learn more about how the cost-of-living crunch is reshaping consumer considerations about everything from seeing movies to shopping to rewards programs and more.

Interested in digging deeper into what entertainment consumers want these days? Learn how with a personalized demo of the Meltwater Suite. 

Return to Cinema: The Social Media Insights on Why People Go to the Movies

Despite Facebook launching nearly two decades ago, social media and the digital landscape as a whole, is showing no signs of slowing down. Social media and digital marketing is as important now as it ever has been, which is why it is essential for brands to stay current.

Internet penetration continues to rise in South Africa, and with social media platforms incorporating checkout functionality, a strong social media presence is playing an increasing role in consumer decision-making.

These are, among others, two key reasons why the month-to-month set-and-forget approach to marketing strategies will not work in 2025. To remain relevant and recognisable, marketers and business decision-makers need to keep informed of the latest technologies, shifting consumer trends, and platform updates.

In this blog, we cover the emerging digital marketing trends in South Africa – from AI-driven content creation, to algorithm changes, to the dominance of short-form video. In short: the insights you need to future-proof your marketing strategy.

Using Tech & AI to Enhance Marketing Strategies

Leveraging AI and Machine Learning for Personalisation

The Challenges Social Media Managers & Marketing Professionals Face

Embracing the Future of Marketing in South Africa

Social media has come a long way from text-heavy status updates and posts. Users are now expecting brands to communicate through dynamic content that entertains and informs. Video is no longer optional. It isn’t a trend or passing phase. It’s essential. South African brands that fail to incorporate video into their marketing strategy in 2025 risk losing brand awareness and market share.

Video isn’t just the preferred form of content for consumers. Platforms are reshaping their algorithms to favour video content – specifically short-form video.

TikTok, the platform built on short, simple video content, has a South African audience of nearly 17 and a half million monthly active users (with a global audience of over 1 billion active users). YouTube Shorts amass billions of daily views, and Instagram Reels contributes to more than 40% of the time users spend on Instagram. 

This is driven by the preference for quick, easy, digestible content. It fits seamlessly into consumers’ fast-paced lives. For brands, this means crafting compelling creative content that fits within the tight time limitations.

Notably, when it comes to a South African audience, the Global Digital report shows that 58% of South African internet users watch video as a source of learning. This highlights a preference for informative video content, and why it is so important for brands to bring a video presence into their marketing strategies.

Fortunately, the creation of video content is not the Mount Everest it used to be. Thanks to tech developments and the widespread adoption of AI, video is now relatively easy to achieve.

There are numerous ways that South African brands can use the latest tech tools and AI alongside owned consumer data to enhance their marketing strategies in 2025. Among these, two trends are emerging as needle-movers: using AI machine learning tools to create hyper-personalised content, and using generative AI to automate workflows. 

AI enables brands to create more and more personalised marketing content, utilising consumer data to tailor messaging to individual preferences and interests. Machine learning algorithms analyse vast amounts of data, from purchase behaviour to browsing activity, to predict which content elements resonate most with which consumers.

The result of this is highly relevant messaging — personalised product recommendations, dynamically generated ads, tailored offers. It measurably increases engagement, improves conversion rates, and builds customer loyalty. Not only does this trend increase the authenticity of marketing messaging, it allows brands to make the most of their consumer data.

AI-powered marketing automation tools have incredible capabilities for streamlining workflows and reducing manual effort. Automation is especially effective for those repetitive tasks such as lead nurturing, social media posting, and ad targeting. By combining consumer data with predictive analytics, brands can also create automated email sequences and chatbots, complete with personalised responses.

Implementing AI automation frees up key resources to focus on more intensive tasks like decision-making or budget allocation, and allows brands to scale their efforts without scaling their workload. 


Social media marketing in South Africa in 2025 is set to follow the same global trends to both attract and engage consumers. However, because of the nature of these trends, success will be dependent on how well brands understand their audience.


Prioritise authentic and culturally relevant content

Focus on including user-generated content 

1. Authentic, Culturally Relevant Content

With every pixel of online space fighting for attention, consumers are quickly turned off by anything that doesn’t feel real. Companies that build genuine, relatable content don’t just promote their product or service, they create a deeper interest in their brand beyond what they sell. It’s important to note that there is a world of difference between being authentic and trying to position yourself as authentic. Consumers are quick to identify when a brand is feigning authenticity, and that lost trust can be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to win back. Similarly, when brands create content that is authentic to their vision and mission, they can build strong emotional connections and long-term loyalty.


Authentic, cultural relevance is about understanding exactly what your consumers want and how your brand delivers this. What are your values? What is your brand passionate about? What aligns with your consumers’ expectations? Using this as a north star, content that shows who the brand really is, rather than polished, perfect, content, often has wider reach and more receptive responses.

2. User-Generated Content & Community Building 

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful ways to build both trust and engagement. After all, nothing is more relatable to a consumer than the experiences of other consumers.

Brands can foster UGC by giving their audience a platform to share their experiences. Practically, this looks like reviews, testimonials, or social competitions or challenges. UGC is not only brand building, but it ties into the authenticity aspect of social media content too.

User-generated content, in its by-the-people-for-the-people nature, creates a sense of belonging – and this allows brands to build communities of their audience. Consumers that act as brand ambassadors is a trend that is unlikely to change soon, given the depth of loyalty and new consumer interest it generates.

Another marketing strategy brands can adopt is to partner with micro-influencers. These influencers, especially ones with significant overlap to a brand’s values or persona, can attract the right consumer profile – people that will only only show interest in the brand, but actively advocate for the brand to other similar-minded consumers.

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