What’s in store for the creative industries in 2025? by Pierre-François Le Louët

For NellyRodi, 2025 is not just another new year, since the agency is celebrating its 40^th birthday. President Pierre-François Le Louët reviews the past year and reveals what 2025 will bring.

It’s clear, 2024 was a year of exhaustive reassessment for the creative industries, since most of the segments were affected by crises. There was the economic crisis as well as an existential one. According to an Altagamma report, 50 million consumers lost interest in luxury products while the ultra-fast fashion players and their associates in home decor sent an unrelenting and increasing number of poor quality products to the markets. The result was a weakening of the creative industries and, more extensively, their ecosystem. Both brands and their subcontractors suffered, and the consequences touched the manufacturing side as well as the services that boost brand influence (advertising and public relation agencies, special events planners and trade shows). It involved a previously unseen concentration of professionals, and suppliers joined forces to avoid disappearing. The dematerialization of consumption and the growing importance of experiences and services, however, opened up new fields for the creative industries to explore, where they could find fresh ways to grow and express themselves.

But more fundamentally, 2024 was an indicator of a change in the world order that had a major cultural and economic impact on our industries. The democratic ideal of a free and open world is no longer widespread. And yet that context that encouraged cultural and commercial dialogues had been a strong motivator for creativity and business. Donald Trump’s clear win in the USA signals the end of global commerce and the renaissance of a voluntary American nationalism. The war waged by Russia in Ukraine and the Chinese real estate and financial crises haven’t weakened those authoritarian political regimes, also openly nationalist. This makes Europe the last zone where the democratic ideal of an open, free world still exists, even if we can see that there’s strong opposition from other forms of authoritarian or anarchist ideologies. Around or within these three blocks, satellite groups or pockets of resistance function with their own rules, accentuating the complexity in understanding a world currently being restructured.

This new world order changes everything. In 2024, brands considered avant-garde and which had previously benefited from strong growth were the most undermined, while brands on the conservative side or dubbed “quiet” grew stronger.

For 2025, I have the impression that the polarizations will continue to intensify, and that the avant-garde brands will be seen either as resilient and independent like the last defenses for creative freedom or, alternatively, as brands to take down. So the war of the creative industries has begun, and the first quarter will be bloody. Donald Trump taking up office in the US and government instability in France will bring us some surprises. And since we, like every faction, are looking everywhere for themes to rally around, the heritage dimension of products will be promoted as will the expression of savoir-faire and the development of experiences – all in an ultimate affirmation of brands’ total investment our life styles. The arrival of new creative directors in the biggest fashion houses will either stabilize the situation in the second quarter or energize it with the new creative propositions that are very much needed by our industries. Quiet luxury almost overdosed in 2024, but I bet that 2025 will bring us a little more excitement.

At NellyRodi, both everything and nothing change. The secret of our longevity is still the same: our ability to sense, slightly before the others, changes in the world and their impact on the creative industries and to invent products or services that match those nascent needs. NellyRodi has always had two foundations: creativity and an understanding of the world from a sociological and cultural perspective. We’ve always maintained the same trajectory, an upmarket shift, and the same ambition, to expand our creative territory to match the growing one of the creative industries. Beyond our established domains – fashion, the home and beauty – today we work for professionals in the entertainment, hospitality, food and gaming industries as well as with the world’s premier museums.

And the priorities have changed for all of these players. It’s now more important for them to perfectly understand their consumers instead of creating new products. 40 years ago, NellyRodi only conducted research on the upcoming trends concerning the forms, colors, materials and finishings for products. Today our clients always ask us for more studies on their targets and communities, on how the world is evolving and its impact on their strategy and on their purpose, positioning and offer. 40 years ago, we provided inexpensive services to a few thousand businesses, often mid-range or entry-level brands, in around 20 countries. Today we have purposefully reduced our number of clients and are fortunate to work with the world’s finest brands, primarily in France, the USA, North Asia and the Middle East.

In 2024, NellyRodi was granted B Corp certification, marking a new chapter in our company’s history and confirming our commitment to imagine and build the creative industries’ future in a more virtuous and responsible way. So our 40th year will have a responsible creativity theme, and we’ll have lots of news to share! We’ll kick off the celebrations with the reinvention of our star publication, the Color Intelligence trendbook, which has been completely redesigned to be more in sync with our clients’ color strategies. But above all, the publication (also available in a digital format) is now entirely recyclable, and the cotton we now use is organic. Some of the businesses which participated in producing the trendbook are certified “Entreprise Patrimoine Vivant” (Living Heritage Company). And this is just the beginning! There will be numerous events at our Parisian offices and in the museums we partner with. The program will provide ample occasions to come together and consider the future of our industries. We’ll have non-stop surprises for you in March, June, September and December as well as opportunities to blow out the candles together. Happy birthday, NellyRodi!