Here’s What’s Happening IRL: Six Top Trends for 2025’s Second Half

With questions flying fast and furious about everything from tariffs rising to travel falling wouldnamp8217t it be nice to have a few answersWell hereamp8217s some good news OUTFRONT has you coveredOur Advertising Trends Report is all new with fresh insights for the second half of 2025 a toolkit for navigating the changing worlds of consumers advertising media at large and IRL out of home advertising specifically Itamp8217s over 50 pages of essential information and you can download the full report for free now at OUTFRONTcomBut if youamp8217d like a sneak preview here are six of the most important trends that brand marketers agencies and media buyers need to know as we head into the home stretch of the yearAuthenticity and trust play a significant role in consumersamp8217 relationships with brandsAlt Poster billboard in San Diego for the Broken Yolk Cafamp233 with the copy line amp8220size mattersamp8221As the online environment becomes more and more polluted with AI slop bots fraudulent reviews and deepfakes authenticity has become more critical than ever with 98 of consumers saying that itamp8217s important and nearly six in ten saying itamp8217s very or extremely important Itamp8217s the topranked factor in building brand trust SOURCE Atom Radar And brand trust is ranked equally with quality and price for driving product consideration SOURCE Edelman As for what authenticity looks like in practice consistent quality and honest communication top the list for 56 and 43 respectively SOURCE Atom RadarConsumers seek out brands whose values match their own and they want those brands to take a standAlt Bank of America Boston Marathon advertising on Kenmore ElevatorIn an era where every purchase has seemingly become a political act consumers demand that brands stand for something bigger than themselves 88 of consumers strive to support brands that share their values when consumers share values with a brand 84 will recommend the brand 55 say theyamp8217re more loyal because of those shared values and 64 will even pay a premium for that alignment SOURCE GWIGivslyBut brands that adopt values inauthentically should beware because taking a stand and backing down from it can be orders of magnitude worse for a brand than staying quietly above the fray which poses threats of its own amp8211 53 feel disappointed when brands remain neutral on important issues and the same number interpret a brandamp8217s silence as either doing nothing or worse hiding something SOURCE EdelmanTrust is even more important than in years past because the stakes are now higherAlt Digital billboard for Norcal HondaIn the Csuite two out of three recognize that trust is more important than previously The biggest reasons are that more of our personal information is at risk 62 and human interaction is harder to come by 51 SOURCE Institute of Practitioners in AdvertisingFinancial TimesBut a trustful relationship benefits everyone Consumers can feel more confident and less concerned about their dealings with a company while brands benefit from improvements to loyalty brand equity profits and resiliencyBrands can bolster their trust by advertising exclusively on amp8220gatekeeperamp8221 channels amp8211mediums where only curated professionally produced content is shown such as out of home amp8211 as opposed to channels with usergenerated content such as X formerly Twitter This is critically important 59 of decisionmakers say gatekeeper media is important or very important for building trust and consumers consider gatekeepers more trustworthy by a 50point margin SOURCE IPAFTMedia buyers are rethinking their emphasis on shortterm performance marketing as they recognize the longterm dividends paid by investment in brandAlt Nike wallscape on Hotel Figueroa in downtown Los AngelesThe performance vs brand debate rages on amp8211 but should it 84 of the time a buyeramp8217s journey ends where it began with the brand they expected to buy in the first place which means that if youamp8217re introducing your brand to new buyers when theyamp8217re actively looking to buy youamp8217re already too late SOURCE Saamp239d Business School Oxford UniversityUltimately chasing shortterm objectives like impressions social engagement and conversion rates comes at the expense of brand effects like awareness trust differentiation and distinctiveness And the latter contributes much more to business results like market share loyalty and profit In fact over the long term the campaigns in the top quartile of brand impact achieve nearly 50 more of those business results than the bottom quartile SOURCE System1 By entertaining and creating emotional resonance brands can establish themselves for consideration before the buyer starts their searchIRL out of home media is more trusted than all online formatsAlt Leviamp8217s DOOH advertisement on The Cube at 2 Times SquareOUTFRONT recently partnered with MFour to study consumersamp8217 attitudes on trust in media and the results confirmed what we already knew IRL out of home advertising is more trusted than every single online format Consumers rank OOH most trusted most honestauthentic and amp8220most likely to be believedamp8221 more frequently than any digital channel SOURCE MFourOUTFRONT And when we asked consumers about straightup preference the results remained the sameOut of homeamp8217s physical presence translating into greater trust makes perfect sense After all thereamp8217s no driving past a deepfakeThe trustworthiness of IRL out of home media creates a amp8220halo effectamp8221 for the brands that advertise on itAlt Bus advertisement for Big Al attorney in Los AngelesBrand safety risks have been at the front of media buyersamp8217 minds for the past few years but thereamp8217s been little talk about the flipside until now That flipside is called the halo effect and hereamp8217s what it means consumers are more likely to trust a brand that advertises in a trusted media environment Sixty percent of them in fact SOURCE Institute of Practitioners in AdvertisingFinancial TimesWhat determines whether or not consumers trust a medium The big variable is gatekeeping limiting content on the channel to the curated professionally produced variety Gatekeeping platforms like newspapers and OOH are a stark contrast to usergenerated content platforms like TikTok and X fka Twitter where anyone can post anything at any timeThereamp8217s a significant trust gap between gatekeeping and nongatekeeping platforms when advertised on gatekeeper media consumers trust brands to deliver on their promise 37 of the time For nongatekeepers that number plummets to just 5 SOURCE IPAFTThese six trends are just the beginning of the actionable insights youamp8217ll find in OUTFRONTamp8217s Late 2025 Advertising Trends Report Want the rest Download the full report for free right nowPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Here’s What’s Happening IRL: Six Top Trends for 2025’s Second Half

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