2025 Expert Outlook on Communications
REPORT
5 Sep 2024
2025 Expert Outlook on Communications

How will AI impact creativity in 2025? What challenges are shaping perceptions of reality, fiction, and branding? How should brands adapt to evolving privacy preferences and authenticity demands? Three industry leaders explore the key factors that will impact the communications industry next year.

Francesca Sobande

Dr. Francesca Sobande is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain, Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19, and Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture. She is a writer and reader in digital media studies, and her areas of expertise include popular and meme culture, Black media and visual culture, feminism and consumer culture, and brand responses to injustices and crises. Dr. Sobande’s research has been published in international journals, including Cultural Studies, Marketing Theory, Journal of Consumer Research, and European Journal of Marketing.

Matt Klein

Matt Klein is a cultural theorist, cyberpsychologist, and marketing strategist, analysing social shifts and the psychosocial implications of our technology. Working alongside brands, TV producers, non-profits, and government agencies, Klein is a trusted source in identifying cultural change and developing future-proofed business strategies. As an award-winning writer and frequent commenter, his observations have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Forbes, WARC, The Verge, CNBC, and Adweek.

Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel

Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel is a cultural theorist and strategist who specialises in inclusive marketing. Dr. Gabriel earned her PhD in cultural studies from Duke University, where she trained as a scholar of race, gender, culture, and representation. She has consulted for the world's top brands at agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, McCann, Kantar, and Dentsu Creative. A lifelong activist, she helps forward-thinking brands increase cultural fluency and leverage a socially conscious approach to cultural strategy. Her advocacy work has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and WSJ. Dr. Gabriel is also the author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy, published by Kogan Page.

India Doyle

India Doyle is the editorial director of Canvas8's Library. She oversees the editorial direction of research across content types to ensure Canvas8 members understand changes in consumer behaviour and culture and the opportunities around behavioural change. India has worked as a journalist for ten years, interviewing industry and cultural leaders including Christy Turlington, Olympic boxer Ramla Ali, and Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös. She has contributed to SHOWStudio, Dazed and Confused, ekathimerini, Wonderland, and Dapper Dan magazine.