Editorial
The Gist
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Content ROI focus. Content is under scrutiny as leaders prioritize ROI and omnichannel strategies to meet growing customer expectations and business goals.
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Hyper-relevant experiences. Personalization is vital, but scaling it globally requires AI and automation to address data gaps and integration challenges.
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AI roadmap needed. Brands seek clarity on AI adoption. They must balance innovation with responsible use and upskill teams to navigate fast-paced advancements.
Customer advisory boards (CABs) provide a real-time space for global brand leaders to discuss challenges, successes and digital customer experience trends. Our CAB gathers tech, digital and customer experience executives from industries including luxury, airlines, consumer goods, manufacturing, grocery and publishing. The conversations reflect how their greater industries are rethinking approaches to content, technology and customer experience.
Here’s what brands are focused on to stay competitive in 2025 and beyond.
Content Strategies That Align With Customer Experience Trends
For brand leaders, the content landscape has been like the Wild West in recent years. Anyone could publish anything without too much scrutiny. But that era of free-for-all content creation is coming to an end as customer experience trends push for a more ROI-driven approach.
We’ve all come to understand that content is one of the primary ways customers and potential customers experience a brand. People with positive brand experiences are four times more likely to trust them, five times more likely to recommend them and three times more likely to purchase again. Company stakeholders know that content is capable of turning the tide of customer sentiment in a brand’s favor, establishing trust and loyalty, and accomplishing long-term brand and revenue goals.
Consider the outdoor brand REI and its “Opt Outside” campaign. Through workshops, social media, user-generated content and email, the brand pushes for inclusivity in outdoor access by spotlighting stories from underrepresented communities. Since the campaign launched, more than 50,000 people voiced their support for the brand, which has allowed REI to widen its community, strengthen customer trust and build loyalty through shared values.
Because content is now a recognized contribution to revenue, leaders face increased scrutiny on what’s created, why and how it will be reused. Repurposing, which used to be an “after creation” conversation, now happens before the process even begins.
You can’t maximize ROI without also having a smart omnichannel strategy for adapting and reusing content. Videos aren’t just best used on the website and social media; they’re also great for signage and other physical-digital touchpoints. And, like the REI example above, user content can be promoted organically and through paid efforts.
The takeaway is clear. All eyes are on content now, and it must earn its keep.
Related Article: Customer Loyalty Strategies: Why Positive Memories Matter
Hyper-Relevant Experiences Are a Top Priority for Brands
Brand leaders feel an urgency to make sure experiences are hyper-relevant to their consumers. Projects such as translation and “glocalization” — moving from creating and translating global campaigns to working with local markets to co-create campaigns -– are important.
One executive from a well-known airline calls this movement "whateverization," saying the C-Suite doesn’t always care about the “how” behind hyper-relevancy as long as it happens.
Personalization is a major priority for most brands. However, there are many roadblocks to achieving this.
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Data: Do we have enough real-time data to make informed decisions?
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Integration of systems: Brands often feel stuck on this. How can they integrate correctly and quickly?
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Team expertise: Do we have enough knowledge to pull off personalization?
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Persona management: How will we keep up with personas and deliver satisfying content to each?
There are also concerns about scale. Delivering to a few different markets and personas is one thing, but 30? 50? It’s not feasible without automation and AI.
With the right tools, AI enables companies to quickly create brand-relevant content by processing the brand’s voice and knowledge, analyzing consumer behavior and preferences, and tailoring interactions in ways that feel personal. Automation makes that “personal feel” scalable for as many markets — and eventually, people -– as necessary.
Balancing Innovation and Responsibility in AI
Another major theme for brand leaders is the need for balance and a clearer roadmap for AI tools. For now, many are focused on using AI to save time, cut costs, improve workflows and make data more actionable.
But many executives are also raising concerns around AI. Keeping up with the pace of change is a most pressing concern, since internal compliance limitations often don’t allow brands to experiment as fast as they need.
To overcome this, many of their teams conduct small experiments to prove that the value of AI far outweighs the risk. Some use AI to build internal-only models that help them better understand their customers' needs or streamline creative tasks. Many even create their own LLMs to bypass legal concerns about mainstream tools.
These leaders are driving new conversations around digital literacy within their organizations. It’s no longer just about adopting new technology; it’s about educating teams to use it responsibly. Deloitte research has found that 63% of executives actively upskill their teams to ensure the ethical and effective use of AI.
While there are promising leads to address their questions and concerns, brand leaders agree that the search for the best solutions will continue to emerge over the next year.
Brands Demand Flexible Tech to Meet Customer Experience Trends
Brands want tools to be centered around their needs. Instead of “best of breed” technologies, everyone is looking for the “best of need.” The limits of walled vendor experiences don’t cut it any longer. They need to pick the right tools for their unique situations.
Brands must maintain their tools post-implementation and a push to make the most of the technology they already have. To succeed, they need to adopt more deliberate efforts that require dedicated staffing, attention and resources to manage the growing stack of technologies they rely on.
A clear framework for auditing and managing their tools includes:
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Cataloging tools: First, know how many tools you actually have. Then, track department ownership, usage frequency and compliance standards.
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Gathering qualitative feedback from teams: This helps to understand which tools make people more efficient and improve workflows.
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Ranking each tool based on value: Considering factors such as security and business impact will help brands make informed decisions about which systems to keep, consolidate or retire.
Don’t just evaluate the ecosystem once. Commit to regular checks, with a cross-functional committee of champions convening every six months to review, adjust and update your tools.
A proactive maintenance approach will maximize the value brands get from their tools while preventing underutilization.
Related Article: Mastering the Digital Experience Tech Stack for 2025
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Migration as a Digital Transformation Opportunity
When leaders adopt a new CMS or customer engagement platform, they’re not just updating systems. They’re also setting the foundation for future customer interactions.
Leaders aren’t just focused on the time, change management or budget it takes to migrate. They’re also focused on the broader, underlying transformation, which includes re-architecting the digital experience, redesigning workflows and redistributing teams for better support.
Migrations often highlight gaps in how customer experience and tech teams collaborate. It's not solely up to IT to drive change. Customer experience and marketing leaders must be closely involved to support seamless customer interactions across the entire digital experience.
Ultimately, migration offers an opportunity to modernize, start fresh and rethink the best ways to interact with consumers. When starting a migration, get everyone on the same page about why the move is needed in the first place. Showcase the opportunity to reimagine how technology and teams can better serve customers.
As brands navigate the complexities of content and digital experiences, these insights from brand leaders are invaluable. The digital customer experience trends we’ve explored underscore the fundamental truth that successful brands will be the ones that embrace innovation and adapt to consumer expectations in 2025.
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