With another year unfolding, the industry finds itself reassessing how creativity, technology, and culture intersect in meaningful ways.
As part of our annual Three Trends series, we asked industry leaders to share their key takeaways.
Next, we speak to Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and Co-Founder at TheSmallBigIdea.
Harikrishnan reflects on storytelling reclaiming its importance in an AI-saturated landscape, brand pages evolving into entertainment-driven ecosystems, and more.
Looking Ahead:
What are three trends to look for in the coming year?
1. Storytelling Reclaims the Throne in AI Content
The normalization of AI-generated content will accelerate, but with an important shift: storytelling will reclaim its central role. Brands will move past the novelty of AI creation and focus more on narrative depth and emotional resonance.
AI will increasingly be treated as a production enabler rather than a creative solution, with human storytelling sensibilities guiding every decision.
2. Brand Pages Transform into Entertainment Platforms
Social media brand pages will move beyond being corporate notice boards to become dynamic content engines. Brand IPs and characters will step into the spotlight, with storytelling driving engagement while products take a quieter, supporting role.
Professionals will approach platform strategy with data science rigor, treating content as a series of testable hypotheses.
Brands will operate like individual content creators, building universes, shaping narratives, and nurturing genuine communities.
3. Rise of the Social Media Content Programmer
The role of social media page managers will fundamentally shift into that of a content programmer. Professionals will approach platform strategy with data science rigor, treating content as a series of testable hypotheses.
Every post becomes an experiment: “If this is my input, what engagement outcome am I generating?” Based on performance data, teams will systematically scale successful formats and phase out underperforming ones.
Looking Back:
Favourite or least favorite trend of 2025:
The brainrot content, especially the 6-7 meme. For the benefit of humanity at large, it’s time they die a natural death.
If you could sum up 2025 in one emoji:
For all that’s happening in the world at large and advertising, this:
🤨
One of your favorite campaigns of 2025:
I really liked Destroy Valentine’s Day by Cadbury… Brand-led irreverent rebellion is fun, but when it has humour, it’s even better.
What was your 2025 New Year’s Resolution, and did you keep it?
My resolution was to reduce my screen time, and thanks to world cinema, I failed miserably.
