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title: Your 2025 Marketing Wrapped
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This year's final edition of Brain Candy celebrates 2025's biggest moments and reveals what's coming in 2026. Plus, discover your Marketing Age.

| View in browser Subscribe \| More Insights Hi there,   Your 2025 RG Wrapped is here. Consider this your year-end marketing mixtape: the trends that dominated, the insights that hit different, and the work that actually moved the needle. Plus, a quiz to find out if you're marketing like it's 2025... or still living in 2005. As we close out another year, we want to say thank you for being part of our community. Here's to celebrating the wins, learning from the challenges, and gearing up for whatever 2026 throws our way. Wishing you and yours a joyful holiday season and a brilliant start to the new year.   -The RG Team Top Genre: AI-Driven Experiences Let's be real, AI didn't just change the game this year, it rewrote the entire rulebook. Generative AI and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) shifted B2B marketing from "rank higher" to "be the source AI trusts." We had to rethink everything: what it means to be visible, how to measure success, and what marketers actually do in a world where machines answer questions before humans even ask them. AEO & GEO: The goal isn't page one anymore—it's being the authoritative source cited in AI Overviews and conversational models. If ChatGPT doesn't know you, do you even exist? Zero-Click Strategy: Traffic is so 2023. We're prioritizing brand visibility and citation as the new metrics of success. Because in a world where AI serves up direct answers, being seen matters more than being clicked. The Marketer 2.0: AI handles the grunt work. Humans handle strategy, influence, and intuition. Translation? You're not being replaced—you're becoming the ultimate prompt engineer. Top 5 Tracks: The Insights on Repeat These five pieces generated the most engagement, longest read times, and highest downloads from the B2B community this year. Clearly, you have great taste. Let's Get Physical: What the Analog Revival Means for B2B Marketing Top Views SEO in the Age of AI: How AEO is Shaping the Future of Search Top Views How to Convince Your CFO That Brand Marketing Matters Top Social Engagement Why Your Apps All Look the Same (and Why it Matters) Top Read Time AI in Marketing: A Guide for B2B Marketers Top Downloads Top Events: The Live Shows This year, we took our expertise to some of the industry's biggest stages—and brought home the hardware to prove it.   📍 Top Event: Charting New Courses in Capital We hosted a salon bringing together marketing and business leaders from healthcare, philanthropy, executive search, and digital assets to explore how strategic reframing is redefining brand communication in evolving markets. Featuring Atiya Easterling (Chief of Staff, HealthEquity), Hannah Shaw Grove (CMO, Foundation Source), Katherine Pluck (Partner, Heidrick & Struggles), and Kathleen Chase (SVP, GM of Data, Talos), the conversation revealed how precision in messaging, not just innovation, is driving success across complex categories.   Watch the full conversation here.   🏆 RG Went Platinum We earned serious recognition for our work in some of the world's most complex verticals: 🥈ANA B2 2025: Silver in Small Agency of the Year 🥈FCS 2025: Silver in Annual Reports for “Alpine Investors’ Force for Good Annual Report 2024” 🥈FCS 2025: Silver in Sponsorship Marketing for “Blue Owl Soars at the Grand Slams” Featured Artists: 2025 Client Collaborations Markup AI: From Acrolinx to Industry Disruptor Congrats to Markup AI (formerly Acrolinx) on their bold brand evolution. With a new identity and the launch of their suite of industry-first Content Guardian Agents, they aren’t just keeping pace with the market—they’re defining its future. LPL Financial: Multi-Business Unit Partnership We’re thrilled to celebrate 18 months of strategic partnership with LPL Financial. Helping them scale to 23K advisors and $1.5T in assets has been a masterclass in brand evolution. It’s no longer "LPL, who knew?"—it’s "LPL, that’s who." McDermott Will & Schulte: Navigating Transformation Through Merger From launching the inaugural HealthEx conference to orchestrating the global brand media strategy for the McDermott Will & Emery and Schulte Roth & Zabel merger, it’s been a landmark year for them. We’re proud to help introduce this $3B "firm of the future" and its Always Better ethos. The defense rests. Blue Owl Capital: Redefining Alternatives Blue Owl is redefining alternatives. By fueling their Grand Slam sponsorship with a high-impact media strategy, we helped them net an Asset Manager of the Year finalist nod at the 2025 MMI x Barron’s Awards. Game, set, match. DOXA: Amplifying the Exceptional DOXA is fueling the exceptional in specialty insurance. We crafted their brand narrative and brought it to life to capture their unique approach: collective excellence that lifts everyone up. Because specialty insurance demands a specialty approach. Your Marketing Age: Find Out Where You Stand Are you a TikTok-native marketer or still crushing it with strategies from the Mad Men days?   Take this quick quiz to discover your true marketing age—no judgment, just vibes (and maybe a little reality check). Warning: Results may cause existential crisis or sudden urge to learn what a "Reel" is. Take the quiz Just For You: Discovery Playlist Based on the trends that dominated B2B marketing this year, here's what we recommend you check out to keep your momentum going into 2025.   🔮 Recommended Playlist: Predictions for 2026   We polled our entire team of experts, the ones living in the trenches of brand, digital, and GTM strategy, to develop their predictions for the year ahead. This exclusive article covers everything from AI governance and the cookie-less future to the shift from leads to buying groups.   Think of it as your cheat sheet for staying ahead of the curve. See the predictions That's a Wrap!   Thank you for being part of our community. Here's to another year of making complex marketing actually work. See you in 2026. 🎉 Let's chat Copyright © 2025 The Ricciardi Group, All rights reserved. You have joined this list as a valued member of our community. The Ricciardi Group, 200 Varick Street, New York, New York 10014, United States Manage preferences |
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