A brand new iStock 2025 Advertising and marketing Developments report finds declining client belief in social media and influencers, emphasizing the significance of relatability over perfection for entrepreneurs and companies.
Belief For Advertising and marketing Success
The iStock report finds that 81% of customers don’t belief content material on social media. However they nonetheless belief visible platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels for discovery and inspiration. When it comes to affect, 64% of customers belief companies over celebrities and influencers, notably manufacturers that align with their values (58%).
Authenticity And Actual-Consumer Content material (RUC)
iStock’s information exhibits that client notion of influencer “realness” has declined, with 67% of individuals trusting conventional promoting over sponsored influencer posts. iStock is recommending what it calls Actual-Consumer Content material (RUC), photos and movies that undertaking realness. Video content material was highlighted by iStock as a robust development that customers ought to take into account as extra customers flip to video content material for studying and inspiration.
iStock recommends that entrepreneurs deal with being “actual, truthful, and unique” as the important thing to constructing belief. Whereas authenticity is essential, iStock is emphasizing providing actual tales and being relatable versus content material that displays nearly unattainable perfection.
They write:
“This modification is affecting how individuals work together with visible content material, particularly on social media. Regardless of individuals’s lack of belief, they nonetheless discover these platforms priceless, 82% of customers nonetheless go to locations like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts for video content material to be taught one thing new or get inspiration. In different phrases, individuals need the advantages of social media, with out the destructive results. This shift has additionally made video-driven social search extra standard, the place platforms targeted on video are not only for scrolling —they’ve grow to be locations to look and uncover. In 2025, to succeed, it’s good to communicate on to your viewers, this strategy will at all times be simpler than a flood of generic posts.”
The report recommends radical honesty by displaying the corporate in ways in which embody imperfect moments. iStock’s 2025 Advertising and marketing Developments report exhibits an strategy to connecting with customers in a approach that displays qualities of realness that individuals are in search of within the content material they eat.
Learn iStock’s report:
Crack the Code on Belief: 2025 Advertising and marketing Insights for Small Companies
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/HAKINMHAN
