Table of Contents
In today’s digital world, where the average person spends more than 6-hours a day on the internet, distractions are everywhere. Whether it’s from social media, Slack, emails, or Whatsapp, capturing someone’s attention and holding it for longer than a few seconds has become a real challenge for marketers.
This is where short-form video marketing comes to play. Short-form videos that hold viewers’ attention for less than 60-seconds have become the most successful type of video and one of the top social media trends of 2025. Go over one minute and engagement drops sharply.
71% content marketing experts predict social media (short-form videos, static posts, etc.) to be their most successful content format in 2025.
— Content and Demand Gen Marketing Predictions 2025 Survey
Short-form video platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, give brands the potential to reach enormous audiences quickly. But standing out from the crowd is tough. Here’s a look at 5 short-form video marketing trends 2025 that you can jump on to create more engaging and shareable videos, faster.
Trend 1: User-Generated Videos (UGC)
Consumers are much more likely to trust their friends, family, and peers opinions, than brands.
Personal recommendations from friends and family are the most trusted advertising channel for nearly 90% of people.
For marketers, this means content created by your customers and followers is an invaluable resource to help grow trust and credibility much faster than a glossy advert.
B2B and B2C social media feeds alike are brimming with this video format. Think before and after clips, product reviews and demonstrations, products in real life, action videos, and how-to guides. They all share an honest appraisal of your brand as seen through the eyes of a (hopefully) happy customer.
🛍️ Related Reading: Why Customers Are Your Most Powerful Influencers
There are plenty of ways to encourage UGC videos, such as branded hashtags that urge viewers to share videos in return for a spot in the limelight (think Coca-Cola’s famous #shareacoke campaign); contests, giveaways, and challenges that incentivize audiences to submit videos in return for a prize or recognition, and partnerships with influencers. For example, you could share an exclusive product preview in return for a video reveal and review.
In addition to boosting credibility, UGC videos can generate valuable insights into customer sentiment, such as what customers really love about your brand and what could be improved. This data can be used by multiple teams within your organization, from marketing and sales to product development and customer service.
Best-In-Class Example: GoPro
GoPro’s TikTok page is awash with UGC clips of people doing crazy things with their action cameras. Whether it’s David Attenborough-worthy filming of bears chomping salmon on a remote shoreline, dolphins gliding beneath the surf, a birdseye view of kitesurfing, a juggling skier, or just a Dad capturing precious memories of surfing with his son, it’s impossible not to marvel and feel inspired at the incredible moments GoPro cameras can bring to life.
Why it Works
GoPro’s UGC videos are a treasure trove of inspiring and immersive content that effectively showcases how you can use their action camera. By giving customers a platform to share their GoPro moments, the brand has created a strong sense of community, with users inspiring each other to push the boundaries and explore what’s possible. The result is a loyal customer base who are also its best content creators and brand advocates.
Trend 2: Shoppable Short-Form Videos
Shoppable videos combine entertainment with a seamless shopping experience that makes it quick and easy for viewers to discover, browse, and buy your products. They often include interactive elements, such as clickable hotspots that reveal details about a product, buttons, pop-ups, and links that either click-through to product pages or add items directly to the cart.
For time-starved audiences, shoppable videos are a slick way to evaluate what you want and buy it then and there. They remove the barrier between people seeing a product and deciding to buy it, making the path to purchase much faster. After all, sometimes viewers might forget about the item, see other options, or do not want to search for it.
By inviting users to actively participate in the experience, shoppable videos can be a powerful sales tool.
As many as 87% of people have been persuaded to buy a product or service after watching a video and 81% have bought or downloaded an app after watching a video about it.
There are several different types of shoppable content video formats you can tap into:
-
Unboxing videos: These show customers or influencers revealing new products, with easy ways to buy them. They create a feeling of excitement as customers eagerly await the big reveal.
-
Live streams: These show real-time shopping experiences, often including exclusive deals and limited time offers for those watching.
-
Demonstration videos: Viewers can see how a product or service works, learn more, and then click to buy.
-
Comparison videos: These review the similarities and differences between products either from different companies or the same brand.
-
Reviews: Often created by influencers, these provide an objective assessment of your product in real life.
-
Tips and Tricks: These videos offer viewers suggestions and recommendations about a product, such as recipe videos from cooking brands or beauty tutorials from cosmetic companies.
Best-In-Class Example: IKEA
IKEA excels at creating engaging and immersive shoppable videos. From product guides to interactive videos that allow viewers to personalize their shopping experience, IKEA regularly shares short-form shoppable videos across its social media accounts, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, that make it easy for viewers to evaluate their products and quickly purchase them with no additional hassle.
Why it Works
IKEA took shoppable videos to a whole new level with the creation of its interactive shopping experiences that immerse users in funny and relatable experiences before enabling them to navigate through scenes to find a solution. Using clickable hotspots and enticing imagery of a cozy bedroom, the progress of the video is entirely in the hands of the viewer, who can click around the video to discover how to recreate the look.
What really stands out is the storytelling. By showing a common and relatable bedroom quandary – your partner pinching the duvet – IKEA reels viewers in with a smile and quickly takes them on a journey of discovery.
Trend 3: AI-Generated Content
From brainstorming and researching ideas to content creation, editing, data analysis, and reporting, making videos can be time-consuming and expensive.
29% of marketers expect their biggest challenge in 2025 to be competing priorities and limited bandwidth.
This is where AI comes in. This year, AI is set to play an increasingly pivotal role in the production of high-quality, on-brand content with minimal cost and effort. From automating and supporting tasks such as ideation and editing, through to generating voiceovers and animations, the role of AI in video creation is vast and varied.
Marketers can use AI in short-form video to:
-
Support ideation and script-writing – AI tools can generate ideas based on inputs such as text, images, keywords, and themes.
-
Automate video editing – AI can simplify the editing process by automatically editing footage based on pre-defined criteria, such as color, tone, and speed.
-
Optimize sound – AI sound optimization tools can reduce background noise, balance audio levels, match soundtracks to mood, and enhance voice clarity.
-
Personalize content – AI can analyze viewer preferences and automatically tailor videos to resonate, such as through tweaks to the narrative or music.
-
Create videos from text – Some AI platforms enable you to automatically produce videos from text-based prompts.
-
Add interactive elements – AI can add elements such as clickable buttons, product tags, and pop-ups into videos to enhance engagement.
When using AI, it’s crucial for marketers to recognize that AI-powered tools are only ever as effective as the human that’s using them. In short, what you feed into an AI model determines what you will get out. Poor content in often means poor content out. AI truly shines when used to automate manual processes and spark creativity so teams can focus on higher-value tasks such as strategy and innovation.
Best-In-Class Example: Coca-Cola
In a controversial move, Coca-Cola used AI to wholly create its iconic ‘Holidays Are Coming’ commercials for 2024. The brand created three heart-warming snowy scenes that were entirely produced using generative AI, eliminating the costs and time involved in filming on-location.
Why it Works
Coca-Cola made a bold move using AI to produce its iconic Christmas adverts in 2024. While the reaction to the adverts was mixed – with some slamming the brand for being impersonal while others praising its innovation – there’s no doubt the films received an enormous reach and positioned Coca-Cola as a pioneer and innovator.
What the adverts demonstrate is the potential of AI technology to support marketers in creating high-quality content at a fraction of the time and cost than has been possible before. The teams behind the adverts say that using AI meant the videos took two months to create versus the usual 12 months for a project of this scale.
Trend 4: Behind-the-Scenes Videos (BTS)
Whether it’s unseen footage of how products or services are created, snapshots of employees hard at work, an exclusive preview of new releases, or getting behind the curtain at events and venues, behind-the-scenes footage gives audiences unique insights into the raw, inner-workings of your brand and what it stands for.
BTS videos strip away the glossy veneer, enabling viewers to connect with your brand on a deeper, more emotional level. Seeing your challenges (and failures), inspiration and success makes audiences feel part of your story. Beyond humanizing your brand, this transparency and openness don’t just entertain, they educate and inspire.
87% of people prefer to watch videos online if it means more behind-the-scenes content.
BTS short-form videos work because they’re authentic. Their raw, unpolished charm satisfies our natural curiosity by providing an unfiltered view of a brand. Rather than promoting a product or service, BTS videos invite audiences into your world. They feel exclusive, offering an intimate experience that makes your brand more personable and relatable.
You only need to think of a movie trailer to understand why BTS videos can be so compelling. By offering a tantalizing peek inside your brand that sparks excitement and buzz, viewers are often left wanting more, without you giving too much away.
Pro Tip: BTS short-form videos can help you get more from your content. Their relaxed, unpolished vibe makes them perfect for repurposing existing footage. For example, you can take short snippets and standout moments from larger pieces of content and rework them into engaging short-form soundbites for social platforms such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.
♻️ Related Reading: How to Repurpose Content for Social, Email, Sales Outreach, and Beyond
Best-In-Class Example: HubSpot
HubSpot’s social channels are brimming with hilarious short-form BTS videos. These often feature employees at their desks, in meetings, or roaming the office, offering fun and relatable glimpses into their daily lives at work.
Why it Works
View this post on Instagram
HubSpot excels at using amusing anecdotes and catchy background beats to turn ordinary office moments into hilarious footage. By playfully poking fun at highly relatable workplace scenarios, they provide audiences with much-needed comic relief. These videos not only entertain but also humanize the brand, showcasing its employees’ personalities and creating a sense of authenticity and approachability. This blend of humor and relatability strengthens HubSpot’s connection with audiences, making the brand feel less corporate and more like a community of real, down-to-earth people.
Trend 5: ‘Weird’ Videos
The world has been turned upside down in recent years, with global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability, and economic volatility.
All of this turmoil is prompting content creators and brands to lather a dose of ‘weirdness’ into their short-form videos, giving audiences a much-needed escape from the dreary headlines. Rather than playing it safe, brands are pushing the boundaries by creating videos that pay tribute to the craziness of everyday life.
Weird content works because it’s unexpected. In a world where consumers are bombarded with brand adverts, anything that breaks the monotony is more likely to grab attention. And as consumers continue to spend more of their time online, standing out is becoming ever more important as over-exposure and ad saturation become a real threat, making some consumers apathetic and even disengaged.
Off-the-wall videos can take many forms. It could be a brand stepping entirely outside its usual identity, adopting an unexpected tone or aesthetic that leaves viewers curious or intrigued. Sometimes, it’s a simple or surreal stunt where audiences are left questioning whether it was genuine or not. Or it might be controversial or edgy content that drops jaws and sparks debate.
Absurd videos cut through the predictable, creating memorable — and very shareable — moments that stick. This unpredictability both entertains and builds emotional connections, as audiences become drawn to brands willing to take risks and embrace creativity.
Best-In-Class Example: Irn-Bru
From people dressed up as fizzy drink cans, to wearing pumpkins on their heads while slurping Irn-Bru, this beverage brand rocks weird content with its quirky and hilarious Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikToks.
Why it Works
Irn-Bru has mastered on-brand weird video content that can’t help but entice even the most apathetic of social media users to click for more. The brand masterfully creates bizarre short-form video clips that intrigue and puzzle audiences while also adding a large dose of humor.
Seize early opportunities. Ditch defunct approaches. Boldly go into 2025 with a content marketing strategy tuned to the latest expert-led forecasts at our on-demand webinar.