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Never before has the CMO position been more complexor more essential to driving business results. The mark of success for any chief marketing officer is their impact on the long-term trajectory of a beloved brand. So, what does that look like in a year as chaotic as 2025, where there’s been on-again, off-again tariffs, massive holding company mergers, and the continued rise of AI across the board? I reached out to CMOs from Hinge, McDonalds, Crayola, State Farm, and Kraft Heinz, five marketing leaders operating at the top of their game, navigating the chaos, and getting results. We talked about what lessons theyve learned from the past year, issues theyll be facing in the coming year, and what they expect to be the biggest shift marketers and brands can expect in 2026. Here’s what they had to say… What was your most important lesson or insight of 2025? Invest in listening and learning! Remarkable strategy and creative work are always grounded in true insight and original ideas. Hearing your core audience, and their needs, must be central to how you do the work. Knowing which audiences are the most important to center, and learn from, is also important. Having a diverse, empowered team is a short cut here, for sure. At Hinge, our employee base mimics our user base. That is a powerful advantage. Hinge CMO (now CEO) Jackie Jantos The pace of change is overwhelming for everyone (both our fans and our teams). Our most important job is to maintain human connections and be a place of joy for our fans.Morgan Flatley, McDonalds Global Chief Marketing Officer & Head of New Business Ventures The best brand moments can’t always be planned. They come from teams that stay agile, take smart swings and can move in real time. Our decision to release our Batman vs. Bateman spot in March was carefully considered. We couldve launched it anywhere, but the alignment with college basketballwhere our brand is strong and the audience overlap is realmade the story land bigger. We kept our Super Bowl-level tactics across the entire campaignincluding cross-channel build-up and sneak previews, fan giveaways, top-tier talent, and it became one of March Madness top-performing campaigns. It’s important to build the muscle to move with audiences, show up with authenticity and add value in real time. State Farm CMO Kristyn Cook 2025 has been a whirlwind. Consumers and companies across the world have seen a lot of challenges and uncertainty. In these moments, I have learned it is more important than ever to focus on what is within your control. Focusing on brand superiority, the role our brands need to play in their respective categories and the joy they bring to consumers. It is not the time to sit back; it is the time to focus, invest in brands, and execute flawlessly. Kraft Heinz chief growth officer Diana Frost “The most important lesson this year, again, is that brands cant just show up in culture, they need to create and contribute to it in ways that feel authentic and connect people. For Crayola, that meant adopting a more expansive brand narrative that reinforces our deep cultural roots and underscores our purpose: championing creativity as a lifelong skill. Its not only about products, experiences, and content that bring creativity to life, its about being recognized as an advocate for creativity as essential to growth and wellbeing.” Crayola CMO Victoria Lozano How did the role of marketing change the most in 2025? Marketers have a lot to contribute across the whole business. They should influence growth and business strategy, product development, and guide organizational culture. Hinges goal is to get daters off the app and into great dates. Delivering on this deeply human mission requires deep and nuanced understanding of core audiences and their relationship needsand a lot of imagination around which challenges we can take on, and how we can be in service of people. This is where marketings contribution can be profound. Hinge CMO (now CEO) Jackie Jantos Marketing is central to our business growth, and this year we made some big bets that paid off. Take a look at Minecraft, where we brought together two iconic worlds that invited fans of all ages to play, eat, and build together. We proved that when we combine genuine passion for an idea, the power of our brand voice, and a killer fan truth, we can do incredible things for the business. This partnership increased traffic to our restaurants, fan excitement across nearly 100 markets, and success for the movie at the box office, too. Weve also gotten much better as a system in sharing and scaling great ideas. Campaigns like The Grinch Meal and Menu Heist are examples of how fan-centered ideas can cross borders while adapting to local nuances and flavors. Often, the most powerful brand asset you have is your product. Morgan Flatley, McDonalds Global Chief Marketing Officer & Head of New Business Ventures Every company is exploring how AI can sharpen their marketing. While AI is boosting the scientific side of marketing, the true strength comes from balancing science with artinstinct, human connection, and, most importantly, creativity. Creativity remains the ultimate differentiator for brandsit’s the force multiplier that enables everything else. If your creativity doesnt grab attention or stop the scroll, none of it matters. State Farm CMO Kristyn Cook What will be the biggest difference between 2025 and 2026? Getting people off the app and into great dates remains core to everything we do at Hinge. When daters have better outcomes their trust in Hinge grows, as does our businessorganically. But many emerging tools and technologies arent built with long-term user outcomes in mind. In 2026, well see an even sharper divide between brands that use technology guided by a set of valuesthat put peoples needs and wellbeing firstand those that dont. And young people will notice and care. Purposeful technology will increasingly become a differentiator. Hinge CMO (now CEO) Jackie Jantos While the pace of change feels faster than ever, the fundamentals wont shift as much as we think they will. Technology and media are evolving, but the power of storytelling, killer creativity, and human connection remain constant. I read a striking thing at the start of this year: that TV is the most popular device for watching YouTube on, more than a cellphone or desktop. So, when people talk about the ‘death of TV,’ its not the death of watching things on a TV, in your living room, often with friends and family. Its just where that content came from and how it was served to you. Thats an important distinction. Our job is to navigate through the change, while not forgetting whats most important and meaningful to our brand and or fans.Morgan Flatley, McDonalds Global Chief Marketing Officer & Head of New Business Ventures It is my belief that 2026 will have a lot of continued themes from 2025. That said, the pace of AI-powered marketing will continue to accelerate. AI-powered marketing will allow marketers to have a faster path than ever before to insights and analytics, brand co-pilots, innovation, content and recipe formulation. That said, it will never replace human curiosity, connection, and brand authenticity. Marketers require the ability to balance AI scale with human credibility.Kraft Heinz chief growth officer Diana Frost What will be the most significant shift or issue for marketers in 2026? Were entering a moment where technology and AI can meaningfully add value, but can also convincingly mimic empathy and smooth the friction that actually helps us grow as humans. That creates a new responsibility and accountability for marketers. Human relationships are complex, imperfect, and deeply important, and the products and messages we introduce into the world shape how people connect. So the key question for marketers in 2026 will be: Who is our work truly serving? What are we contributing to culture and community? To stay relevant and build trust, brands will need to build with intention and continuously design for more positive human connection.Hinge CMO (now CEO) Jackie Jantos Building the foundation with Gen Alpha. The entire brand economy has been focused on Gen Z. Were looking at whats next; how we earn a place in the world of our future customers so when theyre ready, we already feel familiar and trusted. They aren’t ‘younger Gen Z.’ Gen Z grew up digital, and Gen Alpha is growing up algorithmic. They expect content to know them, adapt to them and evolve with them in real time. We are doing our homework nowstudying how they stream, the platforms they are native to and how they want to engage with brands. Platforms like Twitch and the streamers leading the conversation are shaping Gen Alphas taste. Community is very important niche fandoms, creator-led ecosystems, gaming environments will all matter more than broad channel reach. We need to build trust early on with moments and experiences they truly want, and create a world where content is hyper-personal, participatory, and always evolving. State Farm CMO Kristyn Cook “Marketing is evolving from omni-channel storytelling to connected ecosystems in an AI-mediated world. But in a world of big data and advanced language models, the most powerful insights still come from real, human experiences. What scales isnt the broadest messageits the most authentic one. Listening to customers matters more than ever; the role of influencer content to drive preference is growing. In a landscape chasing ‘perfect’ information, creativity, empathy, and humanity arent just nice-to-havestheyre what set brands apart. The future of marketing isnt about chasing every channel. Its about the small, personal observationsthe little details about how people actually live and behaveand creating connected experiences that feel seamless, even when the ecosystem isnt. Consumers expect brands to meet them in these micro-moments with relevance and purpose, not noise.”Crayola CMO Victoria Lozano Our role as marketers is to understand consumer behavior and use those insights to move people to engage with our brands. It is an art and science and there are key skills and capabilities required to do that now and in the future. As marketers, creativity and innovation are critical in this moment. AI supercharges conventional wisdom; creative problem solvers are the present and future of marketing. It has never been more important to be data proficient. We have more data than ever at our fingertips but using it to power insights and execution is key. How consumers discover, connect and transact with brands continues to evolve. Those who can best understand and breakthrough in the new consumer journey will win. Kraft Heinz chief growth officer Diana Frost
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E-Commerce
The tech industry has endured another turbulent year, buffeted by the continued rise of artificial intelligence and the economic threats posed by President Donald Trumps tariffs. Even the most prominent companies encountered challenges they never imagined theyd have to face. As 2025 comes to a close, here are Apple’s biggest wins and greatest failures of the year. Apples biggest wins of 2025 iPhone 17 series Without a doubt, Apples biggest win of 2025 is the iPhone 17 series, which includes the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Myriad reports suggest that iPhone 17 series sales have exceeded both Apples and investors expectations. Apple redesigned the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro this year, giving the former a much-improved display, a vastly better camera system, and longer battery life. The Pro versions got an all-new unibody design, the best cameras in an iPhone ever, and up to 39 hours of battery life. While these improvements are mainly iterative, they ticked the boxes that consumers care most about in their phones: camera and battery life. And those consumers have rewarded Apple for it. iPhone 17 sales have surged in the U.S. and, more importantly, in China, the worlds largest smartphone market after the USA. Apples iPhone sales were a key factor in the recovery of the company’s stock, after it got hammered earlier this year due to its possible exposure to Trumps tariffs. Liquid Glass After the iPhone, Apples next most important product is iOS, the operating system that powers its handsets. This year, Apple made the rare move of completely revamping the look of that operating system with the introduction of the Liquid Glass design language in iOS 26. It was the first time the company had radically changed iOS’s look since 2013. While iOS 26s Liquid Glass faced early criticism, as most visual overhauls do, Apple has continued to tweak the look and feel of the new design language. As a result, much of the online furor over the changes seems to have died down. More importantly, iOS 26’s new design gives Apples smartphone software a distinct look that immediately distinguishes it from Android. In the end, the softwares ability to mimic the way light bands and warps through glass has brought a level of fun and playfulness to Apples flagship product not seen since the days of Steve Jobs. Apples simplified branding The final big win for Apple in 2025 is not a product or feature, but a branding strategy. As Apples product lineup has grown in recent years, its product names have become confusing, particularly when it comes to software and services. But this year, Apple decided to simplify things. Previously, Apple’s operating systems were branded with different version numbers (iOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, etc). Now they’re named after the upcoming year: iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26. This streamlined naming structure makes it easy for users to determine whether their device is running the latest software. And Apple didnt stop there. The company also mercifully decided to drop the overused plus sign from its streaming services name, too. Apples greatest failures of 2025 iPhone Air While the iPhone 17 series may have been full of iterative updates this year (which consumers seem to have loved), Apple swung for the fences with another 2025 iPhone: the all-new iPhone Air. At just 5.6 millimeters, it is Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever. Yet multiple reports say that there has been hardly any demand for the companys newest smartphone. The main problems with the iPhone Air seem to be its subpar camera system and relatively short battery life. As the success of the iPhone 17 series teaches us, those are the two things customers care about most. Demand for the new device is so weak that Apple has reportedly cut production by more than 80%. Still, Apple may have already gotten what it really wanted: proof of concept that it could make an iPhone so thin that it could join two together to create the first dual-screen iPhone foldable. Apple Intelligence 2025 may have been a year of continued artificial intelligence progression across the tech industry, but Apples AI system, Apple Intelligence, hardly added any new AI featuresnot worthwhile ones, anyway. The company added some useful Live Translation features, but other than that, it mainly just enhanced Apple Intelligence with gimmicks that other AI systems have long been capable of, such as on-screen image recognition and new AI slop filters. Those hoping to see a revamped Siri that could compete with the likes of OpenAIs ChatGPT and Googles Gemini will have to wait until 2026or later. Yet I question how much consumers care about Apple lagging in the AI space, given that they can already run nearly any third-party AI app on their iPhone. Still, the lack of innovative AI advancements is a bad look for the company, which is otherwise the de facto innovation leader in the industry. Apple Vision Pro M5 One area in which Applehas undoubtedly innovated in recent years is augmented reality, thanks to its groundbreaking Apple Vision Pro headset. In 2025, Apple announced the successor to the original Vision Pro, updated with the M5 Apple Silicon chip, which enables higher resolution and other display enhancements. Yet Apple didnt address the myriad other issues with the technologically impressive device, notably its heavy weight and eye-watering $3,499 price point. Because of this, the headset remains a niche product that is unappealing or financially out of reach to the average user.
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E-Commerce
Have you ever tried quickly looking something up on Wikipediajust because youre curious or maybe for workonly to, a half an hour later, wonder why youre reading about the history of the European Space Agency? In my opinion, Wikipedia is one of the last good websites on the internet. Outside of the occasional fundraiser, there are no ads, no dark patterns, and no clickbaitits just information. Which leaves no doubt in my mind that falling into a Wikipedia rabbit hole is healthier than scrolling on social media. Even so, it can be addictive, and links are the reason why. Every Wikipedia article is jam packed with links to other Wikipedia articles, which is exactly why you end up down rabbit holes. Often, though, you dont understand how you wound up where you didso what if you could visualize exactly that? This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! Your new digital cork board To create a visualization of how you got from point A to point B on Wikipedia, head to Wikiboard. Wikiboard creates a mind mapwhich allows you to see how various concepts are connectedas you browse Wikipedia. You can start browsing immediately. To get started, open Wikiboard and enter your search termit will pull up the corresponding Wikipedia page. The first article you select opens in its own box on Wikiboard, and as you browse, the site creates new boxes for every link you click, drawing lines from one article to another as they open. Once your board is created, you can scroll and zoom as much as you like. You can also rearrange the boxes and add sticky notes, allowing you to organize and add a bit of context to everything as you browse. ~wikiboard.pngThis isn’t your father’s Wikipedia.~ One note: Wikiboard is currently only for larger screens, so you wont be able to use it on your phone. This could be a useful research tool, enabling you to see how concepts relate to each other as youre learning. You can even save separate boards in your browser so you to come back to them later. And while I could spin this as purely a research tool, its also just plain fun. Theres something amazing about visualizing your Wikipedia rabbit holes. Next time you feel like going on a deep dive, give Wikiboard a go. Going back and seeing the steps you took on your Wikipedia rabbit hole is endless entertaining, and can teach you a lot about your interests as well. You can open Wikiboard in your browser on any desktop-sized device. Wikiboard is free to use. You can opt to make a donation to support the developer if you like, but its not required. You dont need to create an account to use Wikiboard, and the site has no ads. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
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E-Commerce
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