I don’t tend to measure years by how busy they were. I measure them by what changed. How my thinking evolved. Where my energy shifted. What I stopped tolerating. What became clearer than ever.

2025 sharpened my point of view.

It reinforced what I believe about storytelling, leadership, and growth. It pushed me into bigger rooms and deeper responsibility. It made one thing unmistakably clear. Trust is not a soft concept in marketing. It is the strategy.

From Momentum to Meaning

The year began with familiar momentum through speaking engagements, advisory conversations, and ongoing work with brands navigating complexity and change. As the months unfolded, a clear pattern emerged.

Across industries, geographies, and leadership teams, the same questions kept surfacing:

• How do we show up credibly when one mistake can go viral in minutes?
• How do we stay relevant without chasing every trend?
• How do we communicate clearly when trust is under pressure?

That through-line became especially clear in February, when I travelled to Riga to speak at TechChill on storytelling in a crisis. The room was filled with startup founders and company leaders dealing with uncertainty in real time. The core takeaway was simple but critical. In moments of crisis, silence and spin rarely protect brands. What holds is preparation, clarity, honesty, and the ability to act in line with your values when it matters most. Check out my talk below!

Storytelling in the Age of Participation

In March, I spoke at Threepipe Reply on the art of storytelling on TikTok, as part of a wider conversation on the intersection of creativity and commerce.

The session was not about trends or tactics. It was about behavior. TikTok has fundamentally changed how stories work. The most effective brands are no longer broadcasting polished narratives. They are participating in culture and creating space rather than trying to control the message.

That shift matters commercially. Social commerce is accelerating fast, with TikTok users significantly more likely to make impulse purchases and creator-led content consistently outperforming brand-produced assets. The implication is clear. Authenticity, not polish, is what drives relevance and conversion.

Modern storytelling is not about perfection. It is about presence. Brands that understand that distinction are the ones earning attention and trust.

Trust as a Growth Strategy

That same theme carried through the rest of the year.

I attended a workshop with Bozoma Saint John that expanded how I think about conviction and leadership. The message was simple. Stop shrinking. Trust your intuition. Say it out loud. Choose a wider life on purpose, not by accident. Read my insights from the workshop here.

Later in the year, those ideas translated into a clear business argument when I opened Advocacy Live at Mention Me with a keynote on why trust and authenticity have become the true currencies of growth. In an era of infobesity and AI-generated content, attention is cheap and credibility is not. Trust now sits alongside price and quality as a purchase consideration, and authenticity is the substance that protects it. Brands win when they walk the talk consistently, using real human voices to earn belief and drive advocacy.

A Leadership Shift

September marked a significant moment in my career as I stepped into the role of Vice President of Integrated Marketing at SharkNinja for Northern Europe.

This was not a departure from my previous work. It was a continuation at scale. Integrated leadership means brand, performance, storytelling, culture, and commercial impact are no longer separate conversations. They must move together.

Leadership in 2025 was not about visibility. It was about responsibility. Responsibility to teams. Responsibility to customers. Responsibility for the stories we put into the world.

Learning, Creating & Building in Public

This year was not only about stages and boardrooms. It was also about craft.

I attended TubeFest in Birmingham to spend time immersed in the creator economy and learn directly from people building meaningful audiences on YouTube. That experience mattered personally because 2025 also marked a milestone for me. My travel and lifestyle YouTube channel joined the partner program and became monetized!

The accomplishment was especially meaningful to me because it’s a reminder that consistency, patience, and storytelling compound over time.

Culture, Technology & the Future of Storytelling

The year also created space to step back and look at the bigger landscape shaping marketing.

At SXSW London, the strongest throughline was not a single trend. It was a requirement. Companies that blend cultural intelligence with creative bravery and operational sharpness will win. Conversations ranged from AI-powered creativity to the future of brand reinvention, but the takeaway was consistent. Scale is accelerating, expectations are rising, and relevance still requires human judgement. Read my top takeaways here.

In July, I joined Meta’s first London AI Summit. The message was practical. AI is changing the speed and volume of creative, which means teams need new operating rhythms. Faster testing cycles. Clear standards. A willingness to iterate quickly. The most effective work will still feel human, especially in a world where synthetic content is everywhere.

Later in the year, work took me to Stockholm for the Stockholm International Film Festival, where SharkNinja was sponsoring. Walking the red carpet was surreal. What mattered more was the reminder that brand storytelling can earn its place in culture when the experience is thoughtful and the connection feels genuine.

Building a Consistent Voice

One of the most rewarding developments of 2025 was the growth of my weekly newsletter, The Marketer’s Storybook.

What began as a passion project became a trusted resource for senior marketers looking for smart, culturally relevant, strategic insight. Watching the readership grow reinforced something I strongly believe. There is a real appetite for thoughtful, opinionated marketing perspectives that respect the reader’s intelligence.

If you are not subscribed yet, you can join here or subscribe to get my blog posts via email as I also share my newsletter on this lovely site!

What 2025 Reinforced

Looking back, a few truths became impossible to ignore:

• Trust compounds over time.
• Visibility without substance does not scale.
• Great storytelling is operational, not ornamental.
• Modern leaders must be fluent in culture, technology, and emotion.

2025 was not about chasing louder moments. It was about sharpening perspective and deepening impact.

Writing, Reflecting & Looking Ahead

Throughout the year, I also spent time writing about the shifts I was seeing across marketing, storytelling, and leadership. My ten most read blog posts of 2025 included:

• How Lean Cuisine’s #WeighThis is Measuring What Really Matters
• 15 Awesome April Fool’s Day Pranks From Brands
• Reviewing Billboard Ads on The London Underground
• 7 Awesome Halloween Brand Storytelling Campaigns of 2024
• How Top Companies Launched On Threads – And What You Can Learn From Them
• 5 Brands Who Rocked the Social Media Red Carpet During the Oscars
• 7 Amazing April Fools’ Day Pranks From Companies
• How Brands Won Big on Taylor Swift’s Engagement Day
• Brewing Success: Dunkin’ Donuts’ Social Media Magic Unveiled – LeWeb Paris Keynote
• How Converse Uses Creativity and Self-Expression To Build Its Community

Looking Ahead

As I move into 2026, I do so with clarity and intention.

The focus is on work that sits at the intersection of brand, growth, and culture. On helping organizations tell stories that move people, not just metrics. On continuing to challenge the idea that storytelling is optional rather than foundational.

Some years change your job title.
Others change how you lead.

2025 did both.

Jessica Gioglio is the co-author of The Laws of Brand Storytelling and The Power of Visual Storytelling. Professionally, Jessica has led innovative marketing and public relations programs for Dunkin’, TripAdvisor, Sprinklr, and more. Today, Jessica is a keynote speaker (book her here) and founder of With Savvy Media & Marketing, a strategic branding, storytelling, and content strategy consultancy.