The results? Locked In has become a massive hit and has significantly boosted Footasylums' brand visibility and sales. The fourth season alone garnered an impressive 37 million views and generated over two billion impressions across platforms.

What does this mean for your marketing strategy? 

Prioritize authenticity by leveraging UGC and EGC. These formats build trust and showcase real-world uses of your products in an organic, relatable way. Move beyond traditional influencers by experimenting with creative formats, such as collaborations with micro-influencers or reality-style content that emphasizes entertainment and storytelling.

4. Reinvented loyalty programs

In a cost-conscious climate, customers are shifting their loyalty expectations. Traditional points-based systems focused on spending are insufficient. Consumers now prefer loyalty programs that align with their values, foster emotional connections, and reward engagement and community participation.

Kiki World is revolutionizing loyalty with its blockchain-based rewards system, setting itself apart from traditional, transaction-focused programs. Instead of earning points solely through purchases, Kiki World rewards customers for diverse activities like posting on social media, sharing feedback, and engaging in brand-hosted events, both online and in-person.

Source

Gamification

Gamification is becoming a powerful tool for this reinvention. By applying game-like mechanics such as challenges, achievements, and leaderboards, brands can make loyalty programs more interactive and enjoyable. Gamification taps into the psychology of accomplishment and competition, encouraging sustained participation. It transforms earning rewards into an engaging experience rather than a transactional process.

The North Face's XPLR Pass Loyalty Program takes engagement to the next level by rewarding customers not just for purchases but for embracing outdoor adventures. Members earn points for activities like checking in at national parks or monuments, blending loyalty with the brand’s adventurous ethos. This gamified approach transforms the program into an interactive experience, deepening customer connections and turning exploration into a rewarding journey.

What does this mean for your marketing strategy? 

A 5% increase in customer loyalty can boost profits by 25% to 95%. By offering non-monetary rewards that align with customer values—like convenience, exclusivity, and community connection—brands can foster emotional loyalty and customer satisfaction and attract high-quality customers. 

Brevo’s Loyalty Platform simplifies the creation and management of loyalty programs. It enables easy setup of earning rules, rewards, tiers, and automated segmentation, with real-time tracking and reporting to drive customer engagement and retention.

Further reading:

5. Hyper-localized marketing 

In 2024 alone, we’ve seen brands excel by tapping into cultural moments like “Brat Summer” or the total fanfare surrounding the new Wicked movie. Jumping onto trends requires agility and a hyper-localized approach—one that tailors your strategy not just to location but to the cultural and social moments your customers are immersed in. By combining real-time trend-jacking and location-based targeting, you can create personalized and contextually relevant campaigns both online and in physical stores.

Trend-jacking

You don’t have to jump on every viral moment that floods social media—but picking the right ones can significantly boost your brand's visibility, reach, and relatability. For example, Spotify Wrapped send users personalized listening summaries every year, and these are widely shared on social media and dominate our feed.

Even brands unrelated to music are tapping into this trend. Who Gives A Crap, a toilet paper company, put a humorous spin on the Wrapped format. It’s not about copying every viral moment but thoughtfully aligning your brand with the right trends to maximize impact.

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A post shared by Who Gives A Crap (@whogivesacraptp)

Geofencing

Geofencing technology enables businesses to target consumers based on their exact location. For example, retailers can send push notifications offering discounts as customers approach their stores. Brevo’s Mobile Wallet has geo-fencing capabilities that hold enormous potential for brands that need to get a (customer’s) foot in the door.

Sephora uses geofencing to send tailored offers and reminders to app users when they’re near a store. This drives foot traffic and ensures a seamless omnichannel experience, connecting the digital and physical shopping journey.

Captain Wallet by Brevo Client 

What does this mean for your marketing strategy? 

A robust omnichannel marketing strategy is essential to keep up with the fluidity of trends and customer preferences. This approach ensures your brand is present across all touchpoints—email, SMS, push notifications, and mobile wallet—allowing for consistent messaging and seamless customer experiences.

Further reading: Mobile Marketing: A Catalyst for Growth

6. Technology-driven retail shift

Advancements in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are changing how consumers shop, offering more interactive and immersive experiences that bridge the gap between online and in-store interactions. While these technologies might not yet be feasible for all businesses due to cost or complexity, they highlight a broader trend: technology is reshaping the retail landscape.

AR and VR demonstrate how innovative technologies can solve traditional retail challenges:

Source

What does this mean for your marketing strategy? 

Brands don’t necessarily need to implement AR or VR directly to harness the benefits of tech-driven trends. The real opportunity lies in leveraging emerging technologies to deliver personalized and efficient marketing strategies that meet customers where they are—online, in-store, or both.

While Brevo doesn’t offer AR or VR, it empowers brands to optimize their marketing through advanced AI-driven tools that enhance personalization, timing, and targeting:

7. Sensory Marketing 

Our senses play a decisive role in purchase decisions. For brick-and-mortar retailers, this is easier to leverage, as customers can touch, smell, and interact with products in-store. This is harder to tap into for online stores and digital marketing campaigns. A growing trend is sensory marketing, engaging consumers’ senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell—to create emotionally charged and memorable experiences.

Rhode Skin, a beauty and skincare brand, has creatively leveraged food imagery to evoke sensory connections in digital campaigns, linking products to familiar tastes and aromas that trigger emotional responses. This approach connects skincare to feelings of nourishment and self-care while creating visually stunning and shareable content. The food imagery makes the products feel tangible and emotionally appealing, even in a digital setting. 

While the brand’s success is often attributed to the strong fandom of its founder, Hailey Bieber, rhode's sensory content has undeniably played a key role, capturing attention and hearts online and generating significant virality across social media platforms. 

What does this mean for your marketing strategy? 

Brands looking to integrate sensory marketing into their campaigns can amplify its impact by pairing it with omnichannel marketing strategies. If you want to engage the senses online, ensure this kind of content is reachable on the right channel for your customer. 

8. Storytelling and serialized marketing 

Modern marketing increasingly taps into the psychology behind gaming: the allure of immediate gratification and the immersive appeal of world-building. Just as gamers are drawn into the narratives and evolving landscapes of their favorite games, consumers respond to brands that offer them something similar—a dynamic, engaging "brand world" they can explore and participate in.

Serialized marketing sits at the intersection of these ideas. Brands can tap into modern audiences' fast-paced, ever-changing content expectations by creating small, episodic content that teases a larger story. This bite-sized approach keeps attention spans engaged and builds anticipation, inviting customers to return for the next "episode." The satisfaction of following a storyline and becoming part of a brand’s evolving world fosters loyalty and deeper connections.

Small World’s social campaign for Rescue Remedy is a great example. The series is called “Rescuerema,” it consists of episodic videos that take on everyday dramas with the help of Rescue Remedy drops to ease anxiety. This series mimics reality-style TV with a humorous, relatable storyline. Rescue Remedy as a brand is nearly a century old. Yet, this campaign garners significant word-of-mouth (their videos generate millions of views on TikTok), strengthened brand recall, and a new connection with younger audiences. 

@rescue_remedy Welcome to the Rescuerama world 🤩 Overthinking again? We got you! Reach for Rescue® Night Spray. New drama every Wednesday! #Rescuerama #EverydayDrama #RescueRemedy #Sleep ♬ original sound - Rescue Remedy®

What does this mean for your marketing strategy?

  1. Embrace episodic content: Break down campaigns into bite-sized, engaging episodes that leave audiences eager for the next installment.
  2. Focus on platforms that favor storytelling: Leverage TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, which thrive on serialized, consistent content.
  3. Maintain continuity: Build a cohesive narrative with consistent tone, style, and recurring themes while allowing for creative surprises.

As attention spans shrink and content consumption grows more fragmented, serialized storytelling gives consumers a reason to keep engaging. When done right, it transforms your brand into an experience that customers actively seek out and invest in.

Conclusion

As we step into 2025, the retail marketing landscape demands a careful balance between innovation and authenticity. Consumers are no longer passive participants; they are active, engaged, and expect brands to reflect their values while delivering tailored, meaningful experiences.

From hyper-personalization to gamified loyalty programs and sensory-rich digital marketing, the retail sector trends highlight a single truth: connection is key. Retailers must adapt to evolving consumer behaviors, embracing new technologies, storytelling formats, and strategies that prioritize emotional resonance and relevance.

While no single trend guarantees success, leveraging these insights collectively offers a roadmap to remain competitive and shape the future of retail. The most successful marketers of 2025 will be those who understand consumer preferences and anticipate their needs, creating experiences that go beyond transactions to foster loyalty and community.

About the author
Cassie Bythell
Cassie Bythell
Content Writer at Brevo
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