Earlier this year at POSSIBLE 2025, some of the brightest minds in marketing, media, and technology came together to chart the industry’s next frontier. Among them was CRAFTSMAN+ Founder and CEO Alex Merutka, who sat down for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of advertising with Bria Bryant, CMO at Assembly, from the evolution of creative formats to the rise of AI agents.

As always, the big question wasn’t just what’s changing, but what to do about it. Below, we’ve pulled three top takeaways from Alex’s session, each pointing to a marketing trend that’s reshaping 2025.

1. Gamifying Ads Isn’t a Gimmick, It’s a Growth Strategy

“If you could demo an app before you download it… that was kind of the initial premise of the company.” — Alex Merutka, POSSIBLE 2024

(Video Placeholder: Alex Merutka on Interactive Experiences)

CRAFTSMAN+ was built on a simple but powerful idea: what if ads felt more like experiences than interruptions? That insight became the foundation of our approach to creative.

At a time when attention spans are shrinking and digital fatigue is rising, interactive ads aren’t just a nice-to-have, they’re table stakes—especially if your audience includes the largest, most lucrative, and most expensive generation to capture: Gen Z.

Interactive formats like mini-games, quizzes, and playable previews transform passive consumption into active engagement. Studies show interactive ads drive 47% more time spent than traditional formats and boast a 91% video completion rate. They also offer invaluable first-party data via embedded features like polls or sliders.

TL;DR: Interactive ads deliver results, and gamification is the hook. This insight still drives everything we do.

2. Let Ads Shape Your Product, Not Just Sell It

“Advertisers are using interactive ads to test what works before they build the product.” — Alex Merutka, POSSIBLE 2024

(Video Placeholder: Alex Merutka on Pre-Validation)

Increasingly, smart brands are flipping the funnel: instead of launching a product and then advertising it, they’re using ad creatives as test beds for product development. By experimenting with different visuals, messages, and user interactions, marketers gain immediate insight into what resonates before a full launch.

Testing interactive ads early minimizes risk and maximizes ROI by ensuring the product lands with its intended audience. This approach enables brands to spend budgets more wisely and scale with confidence.

TL;DR: With creative testing, ads don’t just promote your product, they help define it.

3. The Future Buyer Might Not Be Human

“In three to five years, it’s going to be marketing toward bots.” — Alex Merutka, POSSIBLE 2024

(Video Placeholder: Alex Merutka on B2A Marketing)

We’re entering the age of B2A: Business to Agent. As AI agents become embedded in daily life—shopping on our behalf, planning trips, and filtering content—the next buyer a brand encounters might be an AI assistant. These agents will parse product specs, compare price-to-value ratios, and assess trust signals rather than responding to clever taglines.

Marketers will need to rethink everything:

• Making messaging algorithmically clear.

• Building for machine-to-machine communication.

• Prioritizing transparency, trust, and logic over emotional impulse.

TL;DR: In tomorrow’s world, you won’t just pitch to people; you’ll pitch to their AI. Get ready to market to the decision-maker behind the decision-maker.

Final Takeaway

From gamified ad formats to data-powered product validation to AI-mediated purchase journeys, the future of advertising is interactive, intelligent, and agent-driven.

👉 Ready to future-proof your brand? Work with CRAFTSMAN+ to tap into the creative strategies that drive growth in 2025 and beyond.

🎥 Watch the complete interview with Alex Merutka and Bria Bryant here.

Contact us to learn more