Creativity lives inside everyone, but it’s pranksterish and slippery; every time you grab its tail, it darts off to thrive elsewhere.

Little Black Book reports that the word influencer is losing relevance. Today’s top creators don’t just shoot content; they co-own the brief, decode algorithms and shape brand strategy from day one. Agencies that seat these talents at the planning table gain real-time cultural insight, community language and stronger ROI, while legacy compensation models scramble to keep up. The takeaway: bring creators in at the insight stage—not for a last-minute post—and you build relevance that survives the scroll.

A recent Fast Company analysis shows that mentions of “design thinking” dropped by as much as 57% across design job listings in 2025. Yet its cornerstones—deep empathy, rapid prototyping and a radical user focus—are very much alive, now folded into broader terms like “product strategy” and “systems thinking.” At Tátil, these principles remain at the heart of our process: they turn human insights into relevant solutions, even after the buzzword fades.

This year’s Creative Boom recap highlights five shifts: conversation around AI matured—focus on ethical application, not panic; creators stepped off the feed and into the briefing room, while pay-gap data forced a fairness debate; owned audiences became the new gold standard—one email list outweighs algorithm roulette; the rise of the “creator-CEO”, leaders who put their own face (and flaws) on the brand; and indie agencies gained ground, with submissions jumping 18% year on year. Across all trends, the signal is clear: tech amplifies, but true differentiation remains human.

Creative Boom unpacks a new buzzword: GEO—Generative Engine Optimisation. Instead of battling for Google rankings, you craft content that large-language models quote as an authority. The goal: become the brand these AI assistants surface when users ask for advice. In short, top-of-mind now equals top-of-model—if the model isn’t trained on your expertise, it won’t recommend you.

The Branding Journal argues that logos and jingles no longer carry a brand on their own; in a hyper-connected marketplace, value, purpose and real-time interaction define relevance. Digital-first brands move fast (agility), speak human (authenticity) and design every touchpoint around the user (customer-centricity). Consistency shifts from fixed templates to modular systems that scale across screens, while “engagement over exposure” turns communities and user-generated stories into the new media buy.