How TikTok, Canva, & Other Top Marketing Teams Outperform the Rest [New Data]

Imagine trying to describe a giraffe to someone whose never seen one.

Imagine trying to describe a giraffe to someone whose never seen one.

Maybe I’d say something like this: “Well, it has brown patches that look a little like puzzle pieces; a long, 6-foot-tall neck, and skinny legs.”

This description is close enough, sure, but it doesn’t quite capture the sensation of seeing one in real life.

Which is how I feel about high-performing marketing teams: Hard to describe, but easy to spot.

The best way to improve, in any sport or category, is by learning from the best. So I‘ve uncovered the seven surprising ways top-performing marketing teams are winning in 2025, based on HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing report — and why others are missing the mark.

Plus, keep reading to hear from marketers at TikTok and Canva at how they incorporate these lessons into their own workflow.

1. High-performing teams will focus on value-aligned brand content.

In 2024, roughly 40% of marketers focused on their customer’s experience with their brand.

This year, they’re doubling down on these efforts, with almost one-fourth of marketers investing in content that reflects their brand values.

Why? Because we’ve seen younger audiences in particular prefer value-driven marketing — and many marketers are more interested than ever in reaching Gen Z and Millennial consumers.

Consider Patagonia’s “Unfashionable” ad, which launched in April 2024. The video goes against typical marketing best practices by actively asking consumers to stop buying so much clothing. The video doesn‘t promote a new product. Instead, it promotes Patagonia’s values.

I watched the video and found myself more drawn to Patagonia‘s products than before – because, in buying their clothing, I feel like I’ll be investing in something meaningful.

That’s the power of value-driven content.

2. The best marketers are leaning into visual.

TikTok. IG. Facebook Live. Webinars.

Short-form video, images, and live-streaming videos were among the most commonly used formats in 2024.

This shows no signs of slowing in 2025.

Ahem, some quick stats: Almost 30% of marketers say short-form video is their most popular content format; and, when asked which format delivers the highest ROI, 21% said short-form video.

Additionally, I was shocked to see that images outpaced interviews, blog posts, and live streaming videos for the most-popular formats marketers are using.

(I mean, really. More than blog posts? I’m biased, though. I know.)

But this makes sense. The majority of consumers spend a good portion of their time on social media – and social is, by and large, visual.

I spoke with Nick O’Connor, Monetization Product Partnerships at TikTok. As he puts it, “In 2025, brands that embrace visual-first storytelling will win consumer attention and engagement. Short-form video, interactive formats, and dynamic creative optimization are essential.”

O’Connor adds: “At TikTok, we see brands driving impact by leaning into native storytelling, tapping into trends, and creating content that feels organic rather than overly polished. The key is to prioritize authenticity and creativity while leveraging AI-powered tools to scale production without sacrificing quality.”

So good marketers will continue to lean into visual content in 2025. But they’ll also invest in owned platforms (like a newsletter) to ensure they’re facilitating a space where they can continue to foster stronger relationships with prospects and leads.

3. The highest-performing marketers will use AI.

This one is surprising to absolutely no one, I presume.

But it‘s still worth calling out: The highest-performing teams won’t just occasionally dabble with conversational GPTs; they’ll fully integrate AI into their existing strategies, content, and processes.

“One thing that’s clear in this rapidly evolving AI-augmented era is that marketing teams that fully embrace AI—the ones that think of AI not just as a tool but as an essential collaborator—will outperform the teams that don’t,” Indy Sen, an Ecosystem Marketer at Canva, told me.

He adds, “AI, when implemented right, has the power to speed up workflows, shaving hours off your team’s workload while keeping the talented humans you hired squarely in the loop.”

AI should be overhauling how you create content, how you report on campaign performance, and even how you send emails. It should change your to-do lists, your career chats with your manager, and your company-wide presentations.

In 2025, marketers plan to:

• Use AI for multi-modal campaigns (20%)
• Leverage AI agents to automate marketing (20%)
• Create content using AI — including copy, images, and ideas (43%)
• Brainstorm with AI (26%)
• Leverage AI for data analysis and reporting (35%)

Almost 50% of marketers say they have a clear understanding of how they’ll use AI in their marketing strategies in 2025.

What does this mean? It‘s time to play ball. If you’ve been hesitant to test AI in unique ways, this is your year to dive in.

4. Top marketing teams will invest in micro-influencers.

45% of marketers told us they’d found the most success in 2024 with micro-influencers, compared to 25% with macro-influencers (100k-999k followers) and just 6% with mega-influencers (1M+ followers).

Top-performing marketers are recognizing the power of micro-influencers — those with smaller but highly engaged audiences (typically between 10k-50k followers).

This comes down to authenticity and trust. Micro-influencers tend to have deeper connections with their followers, resulting in higher engagement rates and more genuine endorsements. Plus, they’re more affordable than mega-influencers, allowing brands to diversify their influencer portfolios.

Take Glossier: Rather than chasing A-list celebs, they’ve built their empire largely through partnerships with beauty micro-influencers who create authentic content that resonates with specific audiences.

The strategy? Quality over quantity. One passionate micro-influencer with 15k dedicated followers can drive more conversions than a celebrity with millions of passive followers.

5. The best marketers will repurpose their content.

If you‘re creating content from scratch for every platform, you’re working too hard. That’s the mantra of high-performing marketing teams in 2025.

Think about it: That webinar you hosted could become a blog post, which could then be chunked into LinkedIn carousel posts, which could then be transformed into TikTok clips, which could then… you get the gist.

This approach isn‘t just about efficiency (although that’s a major benefit). It’s about meeting your audience where they are with consistent messaging.

This is how smart teams are scaling their content efforts in 2025.

6. Marketing leaders will hire social media specialists.

Remember when “social media manager” meant the intern who knew how to use Facebook? Those days are long gone.

The top three roles marketing leaders plan to recruit for in 2025 are:

• Content creator (14%)
• Social media coordinator (13%)
• Social media strategist (13%)

In 2025, high-performing marketing teams are treating social media as a specialized discipline requiring dedicated expertise.

We’re seeing roles like “TikTok Content Strategist” and “LinkedIn Audience Development Manager” emerge as companies recognize that each platform requires its own strategy, content approach, and performance metrics.

The general social media manager role is evolving into a more strategic position that oversees these specialists and ensures brand consistency across platforms while allowing for platform-specific optimization.

With algorithm changes happening almost weekly and new features constantly rolling out, having someone who lives and breathes a specific platform has become a competitive advantage that separates top marketing teams.

7. Data-driven marketing will be a necessity, not a luxury, for high-performing teams.

In our State of Marketing report, nearly one-third of respondents (29%) identified the growing significance of data-driven marketing strategies as the most important industry change, while another quarter (25%) highlighted the increasing importance of data to prove ROI and business value.

The most successful marketing teams in 2025 are leveraging data at every step of their process – from initial audience research to campaign optimization to ROI analysis.

But here‘s the catch: It’s not just about collecting more data. It’s about collecting the right data and turning it into action. Top teams are focusing on metrics that directly tie to business outcomes rather than vanity metrics.

They’re also democratizing data access across their teams. Gone are the days when only analysts could access performance data. In high-performing organizations, marketers at all levels have dashboards and tools to make data-informed decisions daily.

The gap between data-driven teams and those still operating on assumptions is widening rapidly. In 2025, this capability isn‘t just nice to have: It’s table stakes for marketing success.

So there you have it – seven surprising ways top marketing teams are winning in 2025. Which of these strategies is your team already implementing, and which might require a shift in approach? The beauty is that you don’t need to tackle all seven at once – even small steps toward these practices can yield significant results over time.