Big Ads vs Smart Content: Video Marketing Trends That Need to Die

Not every “trend” in marketing is worth following. Some of them actually drag brands backwards. I’ve worked in filmmaking, acting, and content marketing long enough to spot the patterns: the strategies that look good on paper but flop in practice. And right now, there are three big offenders.

In the clambering for a ‘sure thing’, marketing departments the world over occupy themselves feverishly hunting for repeatable patterns and formulas that will offer them some guarantee of success. 

But that’s not how online marketing works!

I’m not just saying that as someone with a vested interest in you using our services. I’m saying it as someone who, for over 15 years, has been working in multiple capacities (as an actor, producer and content marketer) in advertising. 

In my time I’ve seen various trends come and go. The real winners have always been the trend setters. 

This, I believe, is because they didn’t try to play it safe. They instead put their energies into thinking about what would best communicate their brand values. 

It always comes back to authenticity. Trying to pass off someone else’s homework as your own wreaks of inauthenticity, and audiences can smell it on you. If they think you’re just lazily trying to get your hand in their wallet, they’ll scroll past faster than you can say “pitch deck”. 

So let’s explore three online marketing trends that I’ve identified across multiple sectors, that deliver nothing but ubiquity and need to die. I’ll also offer some tips on how you can better interrogate your own marketing strategies, to find what will work for you. 

These are the online marketing trends I think need to die — and what to do instead if you want your brand to stay relevant in 2025.

Trend 1: Misaligned Production Values — The Online Marketing Trend That Wastes Budget

You see this at all levels of the production scale. Brands that think they need to be jumping into a space just because that’s what (it appears) the analytics say. 

• Brand X just blew up on TikTok with a viral collaboration with influencer "155678a"? Well you’d best find yourself an influencer deal stat…for your block paving company. 

• Brand X just piled £150k into a slick, cinematic masterpiece worthy of Cannes? Well best you hire Denis Villeneuve and a small army of crew to make you a feature-length magnum opus…about your payment processing software. 

I’ve worked on huge ads for huge brands in my time (Microsoft, VW, Toolstation, Asda, THREE and more). These guys had serious budgets and they used them, but bear in mind that these are B2C, household names. You expect to see them in big, glossy TV ads. 

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In contrast, go and look at some of these guys’ social media accounts. They don’t get anywhere near the engagement you’d think would be commensurate with their brand awareness. 

Why?

Because we don’t expect VW to be “stooping” to the level of influencer marketing. It seems at odds with their general perception. Not that this stops them from doing it. Lots of legacy brands try to jump on this trend, by paying influencers to market their products, presumably under the assumption that it will court younger consumers. 

Conversely, your B2B SAS accounting app analytics company would look very odd with a prime time Super Bowl ad, featuring Beyonce and an exploding Ferrari. 

Do you get my point? I hope so. 

Trend 2: AI Generated “Spam” Content

Oh you knew we were going here, didn't you? Yep! If, like lots of Marketers and Business Owners, you are adopting as hands-off an approach to your content marketing as is humanly possible: you’re taking a huge risk. 

Artificial intelligence may be getting smarter at an alarming rate, but the telltale signs are still all over it. Even written content. 

The message you send when you let AI do all the work is: “I don’t give a shit about my brand.” Truly! And worse still, you’re telling your audience that you think they’re too dumb to spot the fact that you had nothing to do with the creation of your public messaging. 

If you don’t care, then why should they?

I know it’s so tempting to cut out all of the cost and time, and “work smarter” but the long term damage that you potentially do to your reputation is not worth it. 

This is not to paint myself as some kind of luddite. I’m not suggesting for a moment that you remove AI from the process altogether. We use it at Copper Sprocket for strategising, transcribing, pitch deck designs, data management and so on. What we won’t do is let it make creative choices on our behalf. 

We edit our own video (yes, even the cut-downs) write our own blogs, captions and email sequences. Because we believe wholeheartedly that in all media, the key to engagement is an authentic, human connection. 

Trend 3: Posting Without Strategy

I can’t tell you how many clients we’ve worked with who come to us, believing that content marketing doesn’t work because, as they claim, they’ve tried it and didn’t make any sales. 

Of course, dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that what they actually did was spend the least amount possible, hand off responsibility to their VA and not put any kind of strategy in place whatsoever. 

Now ok, again; I get it. 

Paying for keyword research, content calendars, SEO strategists…it can get expensive fast. While I would certainly advocate for those things from a budgetary point of view (it saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent on trial & error) you can still dedicate some time/sweat equity to educating yourself and/or your team on such things. 

Even with a rudimentary understanding of the basics of content strategy, you’ll set yourself up for far greater success. Heck, use Chat GPT! 

And think about it: wouldn’t you rather have a clear strategy that everyone is focussed on and working to, so that you can properly track progress and double down on what works the most?

If you want some help with strategising you video content production, even if you’re just using an iPhone, please go ahead and sign up for our free 30-Day Video Content Plan. It will give you the basics in easy, short, weekly workbooks and video guides. 

So What Will be The Marketing Trends of the Future?

It’s all well and good calling out online marketing trends that need to die, but how about we get constructive for a minute and look to the future?

AI is, obviously, going to play a huge role. It is already dominating the space and will (whether we like it or not) continue to have greater and greater uptake. 

What this means for marketers and content creators though, is that they will need to find new ways to elevate themselves above the noise. As I said before: I believe that (and have seen evidence for) audiences will quickly tire of AI generated content, especially video. They will see its use as evidence of untrustworthiness, and they will instead search for authentic, human content. 

Video will continue to be the best way to connect with audiences and, depending on your sector and company, fast-to-market and authentic will beat overly polished. 

That’s not to say that production values won’t be important. I’m a firm believer that you should have a narrative structure to your video, and the best way to do that is to use cinematic language. But save that for your flagship content. 

Social media accounts should largely be devoted to cultivating authentic, personal connections with your audience (again: where appropriate to your brand).

Conclusion

So we’ve covered the three online marketing trends that, I think, need to die:

• Over-produced content (or misaligned production values)
• AI automation without soul
• Random, unstructured posting

The real winners in the future of video marketing, and content marketing more broadly, will be the ones that embrace it as a means to communicate the story of their brand to and with a growing audience. Those that invite their audience to be a part of that story, cultivating a community that can provide feedback and inspiration, will always be top of mind over the competition. 

If you’d like help planning and creating your video content, please sign up for our free 30-day video content plan by clicking here. It’s designed to fit in with your week, utilise equipment that you likely already have and provide you with the tools you need to start a cohesive video content strategy for your business. 

If you’ve got a launch or announcement coming up and you’re stuck as to how to market it effectively; we are also offering our 7-day video content boost at a fixed price (£1,250) currently for the remainder of the month. 

Please send me an email for the details: duncan@coppersprocketcontent.com