At Bradley: The Brand Agency we’ve been running a Lunch&Learn, or a Chat&Chew if you will, each month and we thought it time to share it with you too. Our Bradley Brainfood sessions have been running for internal learning and sharing, but we think it’s too good not to share with you! This month our team has been absorbing everyone’s yearly predictions and trend reports, and thinking about what’s on the horizon for our clients, but also for us at Bradley: The Brand Agency.
So, what does 2025 hold, according to our big brains? We’ve got three big ones for you.

1. You know UGC – but expect to see a lot more EGC

User Generated Content (UGC) has been hot for a minute now, but we’re seeing an uptake in people taking it upon themselves to build a personal professional profile now and creating Employee Generated Content (EGC) – especially on Linkedin. We’re sure you’ve seen the kind of content where an employee shares their take on what’s happening within the industry, and their employer boosts it. Sometimes we see founder videos and content – behind the scenes, employee spotlights, or just some lighthearted office content for the corporates! 

So what does this mean?

EGC has all kinds of benefits for brands and businesses, and we think this list will only grow in 2025 as we witness more and more effects as a result:

• UGC and EGC are massively beneficial as social proof for the brand – the all too common psychological phenomenon of people validating their own actions by copying the behaviour of others. In the age of social media, this is rife! Why not have a hand in a positive influence?
• It builds significant trust amongst your audience as people see the people behind the brand and their ‘real’ and ‘honest’ insight. This content is of course not developed without brand guidance for consistency in tone, etc., but it gives the impression that this person and brand are very #relateable. In turn, you’re creating an emotional connection and lasting resonance with your audience. 
• What’s more, UGC style content has been seen to yield 10 times the amount of engagement as polished and sterile brand content often churned out by brands. In particular, this kind of content attracts younger talent. Gen Z wants to know what it’s really like to work somewhere before they apply. EGC could be a magnet for people who align with your brand and way of working.

So, maybe it’s time you start thinking about your content in terms of who or how it is produced, and what that can do for your brand and business – Customer Generated Content, Influencer Generated Content, Brand Generated Content, or Employee Generated Content – who knows what’s next!

2. Have you thought about how your team lives your brand?

A big focus for us at Bradley: The Brand Agency in 2025 is on Employer Branding. Is this new to us? No, however, we’re seeing more and more clients who are considering their internal frameworks more than ever before. We’ve been using our strategic skills and critical thinking to help our clients to induct their team into a new brand direction or vision, but the interest has picked up significantly. Business owners and HR managers are understanding more and more how Happy Team = Happy Customers at the end of the day, but also ensuring that their team aligns with brand values in a meaningful way internally too. 

Afterall, as Marty Neumeier helpfully noted:

“Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is”.

We get into more detail about how Employer Branding crops up in your organisation. Read more on what it is often mistaken for, and the importance of your employee value proposition. If you’d rather talk about it, we believe all great things start with a cuppa – get in touch and let’s talk. 

3. What’s catching attention in design? What will you see more in 2025?

We see trends come in and out in the design space, and we’re not sure how long they last – as is how trends tend to go. Some have their merit, and may stick around a bit longer than others. For now, we’re just looking at the ones we’ve noted to be outliers, ready for ramping up in 2025 – keep an eye out for some of these in the next 12 months:

AI-Powered Design 

No surprises with this one! It’s nothing new to see AI being used for design development in 2025. What is becoming increasingly impressive is the refinement of we are seeing. What was once a fun tool to play with has become a very real part of the process. The output of which is refined with real design skill to create something quite impactful.

Textured Grains 

Moving beyond what we know to be flat, more minimal styles, we’re seeing the addition of intentional grain. We’re likening it to film grain effect, making digital art feel more ‘real’ thanks to the addition of texture.

Minimalist Maximalism 

This combination of clean, minimalist styling with bold and very expressive elements is being taken up by retail brands in all sorts of sectors from toiletries and beauty to food and beverage. We’re seeing it come to life in vibrant colours and large, oversized typography.

Bold Minimalism 

This may be minimalism, but it’s by no means quiet. There’s nothing subdued about the bold and strong tone of voice that can be expressed by this design style. Think less polite, more powerful. 

Simplistic Scribbles and Etches in Packaging

We’re seeing a move toward a more casual or somewhat stripped back, work-in-progress kind of style in brand packaging. Some brands are embracing a more raw look with hand-drawn scribbles and linocut-style etches for a more authentic feel.

Twisted Sustainability

The Twisted Sustainability trend in 2025 is changing how we may recognise sustainable products into the future. Expect to see features of bold colours like neon pink and electric blue. Not just colour, but creative and new textures and shapes, more fun and stylish keep-worthy designs. Of course, eco-friendly materials too.

Art Deco Typography

This feels like a cyclical trend, but we’re seeing the resurgence of art deco typefaces. They blend a sense of timeless nostalgia with a modern and somewhat more elevated look. You can spot it with it’s elongated, elegant letters with a postmodern, hand-crafted edge.

Plenty to chew on, plenty to think about – what strikes you? Or, catches your attention? We’re looking forward to checking back on this in 12 months time to see how prevalent all of these predictions and trends really have been over the year. Do you have any predictions? Tell us – let’s chat on Linkedin or Instagram.