Published On: January 2, 2025
2025 Key Campaign Benchmarks and Trends
Campaigns this holiday season are getting more focused, with fewer influential sources driving stronger results. We’ve tracked global spending trends and benchmarks to help you assess if your holiday campaigns meet, exceed, or fall short of industry standards.
The fragrance industry has seen strong growth, with TikTok’s reach up 230% and a 70% increase in beauty trend searches. However, audience engagement hasn’t kept pace, creators are experiencing a 54% decline in average engagement per piece of content. While the beauty sector thrives and fragrance brands are seeing strong returns on TikTok, this highlights the importance of partnering with influential sources who can create stand-out content to build authentic connections with audiences.
“While viral moments are key to growing brand relevance, they are not enough, today campaigns need to to successfully grow brand resonance and drive positive associations.”
Dupes have surged in popularity over the past 18 months, with beauty driving 40% of the conversation. Gen Z embraces affordable beauty alternatives, contributing to $568M in EMV, prompting beauty brands to capitalise on this trend to engage the Gen Z market. The rivalry between Milk Hydro Grip and e.l.f. Power Grip primers highlights this shift. Milk Makeup’s inclusive branding and ethical commitment fueled its rebound, generating $307M EMV and 1B engagements. Meanwhile, e.l.f.’s viral momentum stumbled after a skin breakout debacle, shaking trust despite its strong social presence and lower price point. While viral moments are key to growing brand relevance, they are not enough, today campaigns need to to successfully grow brand resonance and drive positive associations.
Join us in January as we delve into the must-know trends of 2025 to keep your strategies sharp and your brand ahead of the curve.
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Cannes Lions has always been where the industry takes stock, not just of the work, but of where the money is going and why. This year, creator marketing will be front and centre. Not because it’s new, but because the ground underneath it is shifting in ways that are forcing brands to fundamentally rethink how they plan, measure and value creator partnerships.Â
Here are the three topics we expect to define the week.
The top 100 media and entertainment brands across video streaming, audio streaming, and content creation generated $63.4B in total Earned Media Value in 2025, up +7.0% YoY. Growth is uneven across sub-sectors, video streaming surged while audio streaming declined sharply, platform dynamics are shifting fast, and a handful of breakout brands are rewriting what influence looks like in entertainment.
TikTok grew +70.2% YoY and is rapidly closing the gap on YouTube as the dominant entertainment influence platform. YouTube remains #1 at $32.6B but declined -11.3%, while Instagram grew +4.4% to $13.3B. Facebook nearly doubled to $7.3B (+98.9%), making media and entertainment one of the few categories where four platforms are genuinely competing for share.
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State of Influence Index 2026 now LIVE - Explore the creators, trends and platforms driving conversations
