Highlights from 2025 Adweek

Our Highlights from this year’s AdWeek:

The untapped potential of diversity: working with creators 

In a session hosted by Saffiyah Bennington from Connect Management, we heard from content creators Monique Amaka and Seyi Classic on the Black Pound, truthful experiences and the power of genuine community engagement. They urged brands to diversify their network of content creators vs relying on the ‘same Black person’ all the time. They both also reiterated the importance of giving creators the freedom to create the content they know will resonate with their audiences. Definitely check them out. 

PS If you’re a travel brand, definitely reach out - they’re both keen to work more in the travel space.

Building communities in the era of DEI fatigue

Hosted by MEFA’s General Manager Nikki Sehgal, we heard from Lynne Jarrett, Senior Insights Director at GroupM (OOH) and Demi Abiola, founder of Konfluence.  Lynne talked through some incredibly powerful statistics including:

• By 2050, one in three people will be from minority ethnic groups

• The combined economic power of these groups will be £3.06 trillion by 2031 and £16.7 trillion by 2061

Demi remarked that brands rolling back on DEI and community engagement will be hurt later on down the line. 

Another interesting point was around targeted media buying feeling quite ‘othering’ - something that, once said out loud, made complete sense. 

Taxi-talks: Road signs for Advertisers

“Advertising…most people I spoke to don’t pay the blindest bit of attention and the ones that do, see through the BS. It doesn’t stimulate them much. If anything there’s too much. It's oversaturated. Even on YouTube, you get bombarded unless you pay the subscription and everyone just skips them, they’re not interested in them. From an advertising POV it’s just a game of numbers. They know that most people don’t care but the more they put it out the more potential people will enquire. So on the whole, there’s too much of it and people aren’t interested.”

This frustration is backed by data:

• 74% of US social media users say they’re exhausted by ads (2024 SurveyMonkey)

• 52% of US internet users (2024 Censuswide) now use ad blockers, up from 34% just two years ago.

That means more than half of internet users never even see those “highly targeted” Facebook or YouTube ads.

So, where does advertising go from here? Increasingly, trust is driving purchases. Influencer marketing built on authentic, human connections is on the rise. According to a Q1 2025 survey from Sprout Social (surveying marketers from the US, UK and Australia):

• 59% of marketers plan to partner with more influencers this year, while only 37% plan to maintain current levels.

This links back to Saffiyah Bennington’s session on an even broader scale than just minority communities; brands that build genuine relationships with creators and influencers seem poised to stay ahead. Yet, as some companies pull back on DEI and community engagement, they risk losing connection.

Consumers are tuning out inauthentic messaging. The brands that listen, learn, and collaborate will be the ones that thrive.

But what do you think? With conversations around ad gathering pace, what’s next for the industry?