Spotify has its “Wrapped.” We have ours.
Creative Strategy Wrapped 2025 is our look back at the marketing insights, audience behaviors, and campaign trends that shaped this year across our client portfolio. It reflects what worked, what changed, and what will define success in 2026.
These insights come from RBOA’s in-house Creative Strategy Tracking process, a system our team developed to analyze campaign performance across every platform, audience segment, and creative format. We built this process to go beyond surface metrics like clicks or impressions. It evaluates the full creative journey, from the first touchpoint through conversion, to understand what genuinely drives engagement, trust, and ROI.
Our team reviews creative performance monthly across all client accounts, logging detailed observations about ad types, visual formats, messaging tone, and audience behavior. These notes are compiled into a centralized internal dashboard that helps us identify patterns and test new creative hypotheses in real time. The result is a marketing intelligence loop that keeps every campaign data-informed, adaptive, and strategically ahead of trend shifts.
This is not a highlight reel. It is a clear-eyed analysis of how audiences engaged with creative, where brands gained traction, and what the data reveals about the direction of digital marketing.
Insight #1. Video Became the Universal Language of Marketing
Video was the single strongest format in 2025. Across industries, video consistently outperformed static creative. Average click-through rates (CTR) ranged from 3.5 to 5.5% compared to 1.0 to 1.8% for static ads. Cost per click (CPC) also dropped, in some cases to as low as $0.06.
Video worked because it connected emotionally. Real people, unscripted moments, and concise storytelling drove higher engagement than polished visuals. One client’s “Insider Talks” series became a reliable driver of engagement and a recognizable brand property, showing that authenticity and consistency can outperform heavy production.
How this informs 2026:
RBOA will push video beyond traditional paid ads and treat it as a storytelling ecosystem. Live video, conversational interviews, and authentic day-in-the-life reels will become core content strategies. Instead of leaning solely on AI-generated visuals, we plan to expand live, human-led content that captures emotion, spontaneity, and trust — the very qualities that audiences rewarded this year. AI will support these efforts by analyzing viewer engagement patterns and optimizing publishing cadence, but people will remain at the center of the creative process.
Insight #2. Meme Culture Moved from Trend to Strategy
Meme campaigns delivered some of the year’s most effective engagement metrics. They are not just humorous posts. They serve as cultural entry points, creating instant relatability and awareness.
One membership campaign using humor and situational memes achieved a 5.3% CTR, outperforming traditional creative by more than 40%. The key was not randomness. The humor reflected real, shared experiences that made audiences feel understood.
How this informs 2026:
RBOA will systematize the use of cultural content within paid funnels. Instead of treating memes as one-off moments, we will design repeatable meme frameworks that tie directly to awareness, retargeting, and conversion campaigns. These will evolve into “cultural listening loops,” where our team uses real-time audience sentiment tracking to develop humor and commentary that align with brand values. The goal is to blend relevance with purpose — humor that opens the door, followed by storytelling that deepens brand loyalty.
Insight #3. Authenticity Outperformed Production
Authenticity was not a trend in 2025. It was a performance advantage.
Campaigns that featured real people and unscripted perspectives generated higher engagement and stronger conversion behavior. One healthcare client’s user-generated video testimonials achieved CTRs above 3% and CPCs below $0.50, outperforming highly produced content.
Audiences increasingly favor brands that feel genuine. They want to see people who look and sound like them.
How this informs 2026:
Authenticity will remain our foundation, but RBOA will evolve it through structured creative systems. Rather than overproducing, we will co-create with clients and communities — helping them tell their own stories in formats optimized for attention and emotion. The result will be higher retention, stronger trust, and content that feels lived-in, not manufactured.
Insight #4. Local Relevance Outperformed Broad Messaging
Local storytelling was one of the most reliable engagement drivers in 2025. Ads that referenced specific cities or communities consistently outperformed general messaging by two to four percentage points.
For Artezia Water, creative focused on regional relevance, such as “Hydrate Through Hurricane Season” and “Delivered to Your Door in Tallahassee,” produced both higher CTRs and increased call volume. When audiences saw themselves represented, engagement rates improved.
How this informs 2026:
Our creative strategies next year will continue to prioritize connection at the community level. Localized campaigns are not just about geography; they are about empathy, understanding how people live, work, and connect in their own environments. RBOA will keep developing campaigns that meet audiences where they are and reflect the local contexts that matter to them most.
Insight #5. Women-Led Storytelling Delivered the Highest Engagement
Campaigns led by women or centered on women’s voices produced the strongest engagement metrics of the year. Across all industries, female-centered creatives achieved CTR lifts between 20 and 40%.
The Florida Dental Association’s “Women in Dentistry” ad set is a standout example. It delivered higher engagement than any other ad set within its campaign and strengthened brand sentiment.
Representation drives performance. Storylines that reflect real experiences and inclusive perspectives create trust and connection.
How this informs 2026:
RBOA will continue amplifying diverse voices in the stories we tell. Campaigns that spotlight leadership, mentorship, and shared experience consistently create stronger emotional connections. In 2026, we will keep building content strategies that celebrate inclusion and community, because representation is not only the right thing to do, it’s a proven driver of engagement and brand strength.
Insight #6. Creative Fatigue Became a Measurable Pattern
The strongest campaigns eventually plateaued. Data showed that creative fatigue typically appeared between six and eight weeks after launch. CTRs declined not because audiences lost interest in the message but because they had seen it too often in the same format.
When refreshed with a new thumbnail, caption, or hook, similar campaigns rebounded by 20 to 30%. The story remained relevant. The presentation simply needed variation.
How this informs 2026:
RBOA will take a more intentional approach to content variety and timing. Rather than repeating what worked, we will continue to evolve creative concepts to stay fresh and relevant. Our teams are planning structured refresh cycles to ensure that high-performing campaigns continue to feel new without losing their core message. The goal is sustained engagement, not fleeting impact.
Insight #7. Quality of Engagement Outperformed Quantity
2025 proved that cost efficiency does not always equal impact.
Across both Meta and LinkedIn, ads with higher CPCs often generated stronger audience intent. Viewers spent more time on landing pages and were more likely to convert. LinkedIn video campaigns, though costlier per click, attracted higher-quality leads who engaged longer and completed forms at higher rates.
Measuring success by impressions or clicks alone no longer reflects real performance.
How this informs 2026:
RBOA will continue to measure success by the depth of connection, not the volume of clicks. We believe attention is earned, not bought, and the next stage of growth will come from creating content that audiences want to spend time with. Our focus will remain on meaningful engagement — stories and campaigns that inspire action because they truly resonate.
What 2026 Has in Store
The patterns of 2025 point clearly toward the future.
- Short-form storytelling will drive the next phase of performance marketing. Brief, authentic videos will continue to dominate social feeds and engagement metrics.
- Human and AI collaboration will become an essential balance. Automation will not replace creativity but will enhance the speed and precision of testing and optimization.
- Community-led content will replace top-down marketing. Brands that empower audiences to share their voices will outperform those that simply broadcast messages.
- Purpose-driven marketing will continue to outperform promotional content. Audiences are more responsive to brands that demonstrate values, purpose, and credibility.
Data as a Storytelling Instrument
Every click, call, and comment tells a story about how people connect and decide. RBOA’s approach to creative strategy is grounded in understanding that story and using data to make it stronger.
Creative Strategy Wrapped is not a retrospective for us. It is a guide for how we help clients grow, adapt, and lead. Data tells us what worked. Insight tells us why. Together, they define how we build smarter, more human digital marketing strategies in the year ahead.
Marketing that moves people will always outperform marketing that simply reaches them.
RBOA is a digital marketing agency with a 40-year legacy of creativity, smart strategy, and fresh thinking that delivers award-winning communications and successful results. We provide clients with a unique, omnichannel blend of advertising, social media, digital marketing, and web design services.
If you are interested in learning more about digital marketing for your organization, we hope you will reach out to RBOA to schedule an exploratory call.