Holiday Thoughts: A Study of Contrasts

By Rachel Formaro and Jennifer Cronin

As we approach the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year, we’re thinking a lot about light. The flickering of a candle. The illuminated quilt of a city as seen from a plane. The bedazzled houses through a chilly winter mist. It brings a sense of comfort even though — perhaps because of—the juxtaposition against the deep velvet of darkness.

Our first holiday wish is for all of us to celebrate the promise of light that keeps us moving forward, even when things feel difficult.

Our second wish is to celebrate the darkness, where dreams and ideas are born.

Our third wish is to celebrate the many forms of connection we have to each other, where every interaction can be a spark of hope. 

We are living in a time of stark contrasts, and some moments can feel overwhelming or tough to navigate. But such times can also bring clarity, renewed purpose, and a sense of community that we might otherwise take for granted.

When it comes to the business landscape, we’ve noticed a few areas where significant change is occurring, and we have some thoughts we’d like to share as we look ahead to 2025.

With AI, there is an important tension between scale and authenticity.

Artificial intelligence was a top story in 2024, both good (making work easier, providing service on a larger scale) and bad (implicit bias, intellectual property theft, layoffs). What we’re hearing from our clients is a desire to use this technology to increase the focus on people via segmentation, meeting them where they are and speaking to them through a highly personal lens that would have required far more time and resources previously.

Disclosures such as statements on the use of AI may become increasingly important for transparency, especially in regulated industries.

We believe writers and other marketers who are concerned about losing their jobs are actually in an ideal position to be prompting and reviewing AI output, since they are uniquely suited to the task of structuring cogent ideas and shaping content.  

The more we hear about division, the more collaborative we become.

This past year, Collabry had an opportunity to engage in a collective project with another agency to serve a mutual client. The results to date have been creative and exciting, and it’s refreshing to think of being “in community with” instead of “in competition with.” Also, we have noticed more of our non-profit clients working with other similarly focused organizations in a coalition approach to pool resources and audience.

We believe the concepts of community, a working collective, coalition, and collaboration will become more and more prevalent.

Diversity is under attack—but here to stay.

While the first real corporate-approved DEI efforts were a key focus soon after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a number of large corporations started to back away from DEI initiatives in 2024. Fortunately, the benefits of DEI initiatives are proving to be a necessity and organizations are benefiting through higher levels of team performance and collaboration as well as lowered risk of attrition.

We continue to believe that we are better together, and being part of the solution means ensuring people from diverse backgrounds feel welcome, recognized, and appreciated.

A team has a common goal but not all goals have a common team.

We covered the many benefits of engaging consultants earlier this year, and we continue to see larger corporations and organizations work with their professional services suppliers to round out delivery on key projects. Such partnerships also provide opportunities for full-time employees to right-size their workloads or take on new, career-building initiatives.

We believe these changes can serve as a win-win-win for clients, employees, and consultants alike.

As we begin our next collective trip around the Sun, we hope that you find opportunity in the contrasts, a brighter light, and a deeper, more connected community emerging from the darkness of the season.

Happy Holidays from everyone at Collabry.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash.