YMS: Five things you need to know

Last week’s Youth Marketing Strategy Festival was a masterclass in audience engagement. From breakout brands to cultural heavyweights, one theme rang loud and clear: the next generation expects more. More meaning. More realness. More emotional depth. Here are our key takeaways from YMS 2025:

1. Not all trends are created equal

“If you just respond to what’s happening without understanding the why, you’re always playing catch up with what the consumer is already doing” - Thomas Earl, Marketing & Consumer Insights Lead, Adidas

Every time you refresh your feed, a new trend appears. But the most innovative brands aren’t just chasing what’s hot right now: they’re asking why it matters. It’s all about responding rather than reacting, and questioning whether it makes sense for your brand and what your audience cares about, because we know Gen Z audiences are not afraid to call out the brands that don’t get it right.

Here are a few things to think about when differentiating between a trend and a fleeting fad:

• Is it credible? Is it showing up across platforms?

• Will it influence someone at the point of purchase?

• Does it have scale? Will it attract new audiences?

• What’s the deeper societal, technological or emotional force behind it? What’s the feeling that the trend is tapping into?

2. The power of partnerships

“Partnerships can help say quite a lot about your brand in a way that your normal brand comms might not. They can speak to consumers on a deeper level” - Alex Douglas, UK Marketing Director, Edgewell

Partnerships reflect unspoken brand values and personalities that don’t always come across in marketing. They allow brands to be playful, often unexpected, and tap into new audiences. 

Done well, partnerships are strategic tools for emotional connection and cultural resonance. They give brands the opportunity to participate more fully in a consumer's world, creating experiences that money can’t buy.

Whether it’s Bulldog aligning with Ironman to represent real men in real routines, Intuition embracing the straight-forwardness, strength and community of Women’s Rugby, or Hawaiian Tropic tapping into music and nostalgia with Perrie Edwards: these partnerships blend consumer insight with the true essence of a brand to reach audiences in fresh and exciting ways.

Successful partnerships are built on:

• Authenticity (fit between audience, brand, and moment)

• Integration (across retail, digital, and ATL)

• Data-backed relevance (audience behaviour, retail value, cultural timing)

• Shared values and emotional alignment

3. anchor in emotion

“Emotion in advertising used to mean ‘happy’ or ‘sad.’ Now for Gen Z, it’s everything. It’s layered. It's nuanced. And it thrives in the unexpected” - Madeline Riley, Senior Marketing Manager, Tinder

According to recent research by Pion, over half of Gen Z (55%) said they would spend on a product if they felt an emotional connection to the brand. In an increasingly distracted digital world, emotion is king: trust is built with feeling first and facts later (Word on the Curb). 

For Tinder, a brand that’s all about possibility and the thrill of meeting someone new, embracing the ‘unexpected’ has been the north star guiding their marketing efforts. 

Coupling this with a trend in Gen Z’s seeking out third spaces, the brand has been sponsoring run clubs, hosting a DJ set in an iconic bagel shop on Brick Lane, and throwing a Saltburn-style party for students in Nottingham.

These experiences are about letting the brand be felt rather than forced. They’re about showing up authentically and creating cultural moments that tap into human emotion—in Tinder’s case, creating real and unexpected opportunities for connection.

4. ALL ABOUT IRL

“Spend your money on real-life events, really engage with the community and give back to the community - and the social content will follow” - Lee Molyneaux, Director of Technical Performance Europe, Skechers

One thing that we kept on hearing at YMS? The importance of real-life experiences.

Gone are the days of influencer-only events. It’s about investing in genuine in-person experiences for your community and embracing them as co-creators. Brands that are thriving with young audiences create cultural moments that feel exciting and exclusive, without being elitist. 

Beauty brand Refy’s community trip to Mallorca last year is a perfect example of how to build an authentic connection. They seeded teasers in a group chat, invited a select group to join the founder on a one-of-a-kind trip, creating an experience money can’t buy. It’s a shift from performance to participation, polish to personality.

5. The human alGorithm

"People forget what you say or sell, but not how you make them feel." – George Sullivan, Founder & CEO, The Sole Supplier (repurposed from the great Maya Angelou!)

There’s no shortage of AI tools promising to revolutionise your marketing. But brands that rely purely on data or generative content are missing the point. AI is only as powerful as the people using it.

Success comes from the right blend of instinct and insight. Your team’s cultural fluency, lived experience and passion are what make sense of the numbers and separate signals from noise. Anyone can generate a list of trends using AI. But only a team immersed in the culture can tell you which ones are worth betting on, and how to show up in a way that feels real.

Sullivan’s biggest takeaway? Know your audience ruthlessly, and show up for them again and again. Performance marketing alone doesn’t build trust — presence does.

In a world where Gen Z and Alpha are increasingly sceptical of brands, the brands that win are those who:

• Lead with value, not just product

• Show up in unexpected but authentic ways

• Make use of community feedback to shape content

• Repurpose ideas across formats and platforms

• Build offline connections to earn online trust

It’s not about going viral once — it’s about saying the same message 20 different ways with consistency, clarity, and cultural understanding. Gen Zalpha won’t settle for surface-level: but when brands get it right, the consumer loyalty and cultural impact can be game-changing.