Why sensitivity is a marketing superpower: building brand loyalty in 2025

Marketing and advertising is a deeply human and imaginative industry where creativity, ideation, storytelling and connection-building are our currency and the practice of studying culture, trends and human behavior is our oxygen. When marketing and advertising lead to unforgettable customer experiences, you can bet they were architected using sensitivity as a superpower. The imperative for brands today is to thread immersive brand experiences through every possible connection and create a magnetism that brings people together at a time when the tendency is for the space between us all to widen.

The Atlantic’s February 2025 issue featured an article by Derek Thompson titled “The Anti-Social Century.” In it, Thompson describes the technologies that have contributed to Americans’ move toward self-imposed solitude. In the second half of the 20th century, cars and television interrupted societal norms and patterns of behaviors that led us to gather—in churches, community centers, volunteer groups and associations. In the 21st century, the smartphone “fueled and indeed accelerated our national anti-social streak.”

Our anti-social behaviors are leading to loneliness, and this is where we—as marketers using sensitivity as our superpower—can step in. By understanding what makes people crave belonging and turning that into real, shared experiences, we help brands create lasting connections.

Take for example Bandit Running, a brand born out of the pandemic in 2020 and built squarely around community building, event marketing and storytelling. Bandit Running’s founders tapped into their passion for brands built from subculture communities to create one of their own—a running community for people with strong ambition. From their original Greenpoint, Brooklyn, run club sprang and community-based brand that brings people together through lifestyle, wellness, ambition, shared experiences and values. Oh, and apparel, too. Its ripple effect is vast, as evidenced by the benefits of membership. Its magic exists in giving its customers something to belong to: community and connection.

How can you as a marketer uniquely combine the power of marketing, community building and immersive customer experiences to build brand resonance that a group can collectively feel all at once and all together? Study great brands doing this all the time and those that keep getting better at it.

Have you ever joined a local Habitat for Humanity community build? You feel what I mean.

Or experienced the hospitality of a Salamander Resort? How about the bedtime butterscotch scone bite? Hospitality is customer experience. Community is customer experience. Brands are customer experiences.

At a recent comedy show at Madison Square Garden, every attendee had to put their phone in a case that could not be unlocked until the show was over and they exited the arena. The producers architected a digital detox while also protecting the comedians’ intellectual property. They also controlled content capture and, ultimately, distribution of that content across the digital ecosystem. The audience obliged (we had to in order to enter), gathered, laughed and experienced the show—together.

According to Gartner’s 2025 Trends Report, by 2028, mass digital detox will force CMOs to spend 70% of their total marketing budgets on offline channels to better engage consumers.

As marketers, we’re going to see shifts in the efforts we make to connect through shared experiences, in real time and in physical spaces. Technology will support and enhance these experiences, and it’s up to us to make them seamless and meaningful. We’re experimenting with ways AI and other creative technology can amplify our creativity as we imagine how brands can fuel connection and elevate moments in our lives. In a world that often feels divided, what will happen as brands like Bandit Running continue to motivate people to come together, run together and build community together?

These are the brands that will stand out among the rest. They know what it means to tap into the feels—to understand what people are going through and what they’re missing in life—and create a way for them to connect because of it.

Marketers like me use sensitivity to design immersive experiences—both digital and real- world—that prove the power of human connection.

It’s a good life, and great brands know how to bring us together so we can share it.