Pause and rewind: Wrapped for 2025

Everyone’s wrapping this month. It’s the lingo launched by the tech platforms with Spotify Wrapped defining your listening moments of the year then Deezer, Amazon and Youtube following suit. You might even be running your team Wrap Up Week. However you package it, there’s much to be said about pausing and rewinding across the last twelve months before cantering into 2026. I found out today that I have spent 343 days of the year on LinkedIn which is a testament to the power of the network but also challenges me to perhaps disconnect more often. 

At White Camino we’re all about navigating through the noise, past the shiny distractions and choosing the most effective and efficient paths to grow brands for good. We’re about elevating the underdogs and giving voice to the small yet mighties. While we’re focussed on delivering excellent work, we’re also dead passionate about learning new ways of doing things. It keeps things interesting.  

This is White Camino Wrapped for 2025

Meeting the people

We are proudly geeky about attending conferences and meetups alongside cultural moments at museums, galleries and concert venues. This continuous learning feeds our curiosity and we pass on some of these pearls with our clients. At Web Summit; the rousing talks from Hootsuite championing social media for B2B - 77% of buyers are more likely to purchase from a company whose leadership team is active on social, and futurist Gregory Brooks who pointed out the ability to force action and convince is gone.

What counts is guiding your customers on their journey through life, being real and truthful no matter the costs. People will buy based on what feels aligned with who they are becoming.

Seeing Sir Tim Berners Lee was a great rockstar moment and we are curious to see how his call for digital sovereignty will play out. And our own grass roots contribution is hosting People, Planet, Pint in Valencia. The most relaxed of meetups to chew over how we can all get educated, drive awareness and take action to help reverse the damage to the planet. No doomsday clock here. 

Top innovations 

Notpla and seaweed are wondrous things. We caught a panel discussion at Social Nest’s ‘The Gap in between’ where Carolina Pacecho, Notpla’s research designer, talked passionately about the disappearing packaging innovations. Notably the Energy Gel Pods; edible energy for the conscious athlete which is currently in development and the award-winning Kelpy Bone, the first seaweed made dog toy. 

We work with Bluestone National Park Resort who were the first business in the world to lay paths and drives made with fibres from recycled nappies. 4500 sq metres of paths and drives to the platinum lodges have been laid so far, about the size of a football pitch; made with recycled cellulose fibre from about 60,000 nappies which were originally disposed of at Bluestone.  

Ty Syml is doing impressive things with mycelium, Wildfarmed is the poster baked goods brand for regenerative farming (try their excellent crumpets) and Naked Paper win the prize for their tagline: it's brown because it's greener.

Sustainable storytelling with integrity 

Nike, Superdry and Lacoste faced UK ad bans this month over ‘misleading’ green claims. The ASA pointed out that all three firms misled shoppers by using the term ‘sustainable’ in paid-for Google adverts. Whoops. At the risk of stating the obvious, we know that walking the talk is essential for your brand reputation and revenue. 

As Patagonia proclaimed in their now iconic annual report;

“Nothing we do is sustainable...we recognize the damage we cause, and we do what we can to reduce and repair that damage. We also aim to be transparent about our progress and what we’re still figuring out.” 

They know the vital role storytelling plays to drive this change. Our clients at Bluestone have entrusted us to tell their story, being open about their operational blueprint for regenerative tourism, inspiring other businesses to adopt new ways to prioritise the planet. They know much more needs to be done on the circular economy road. They have been rewarded with loyal guests, and genuine wonderment from families who have learnt more about how to protect biodiversity, why clean air matters and how we can all be part of the solution. 

Real and human

We’re trying hard not to be the laggards and the refusniks of AI. We’re picking and choosing carefully how we train the tech and figure out the jobs it’s good at. We aim to be the conductors of the most powerful and ethical tech.

We’re with Roslía, in her new album Lux (meaning light in Latin) the instrumental and vocals are live, no loops so it feels instinctively human. 

Our clients at ABBAS Media Law are all about enabling creators to create and work with the UK’s leading broadcasters, streamers, independent production companies and content producers. Protecting intellectual property in this age of AI is paramount. Check out their latest piece in zoom-in magazine which explores AI content licensing and reasserting the value of those IP rights, all here. 

Busy busy busy 

If we have a bank of 1000 minutes each day, spend them wisely. Time blocking works for us and it's such a simple and effective way to ensure you are building in the play alongside the work. The weekly ceramics/yoga/dog training class is immovable. We have a reminder to “move your body” ideally away from your desk every two hours. It should probably be more frequent. Why not start a meeting 5 minutes after the hour or end it 5 mins early to build in time to move? Break down less brain heavy tasks into actions that can be done in 10 minutes blocks rather than dedicating the full hour so get that boring list done. 

Look before you leap 

We tend to place a lot of value on getting things done, executing a strategic plan rather than stepping back to evaluate whether it’s the most impactful of plans.

We are ace at working out the thousand small steps required to advance a project, but rubbish at giving ourselves the time and headspace to figure out whether this was the right project at the right time.

We see this a LOT with startups and scaleups who are building that plane mid flight. Rushed, instinctive thinking sometimes results in doing things twice. Branding can be produced by AI but is it distinctive and unique enough to drive attribution? Is it trade markable? Will you end up reiterating and reiterating?

Time and place

Everyone who solves a problem is creative and yet to dream up new solutions a weekly routine with the same inputs (colleagues, office space and language) can put a hard stop on dreaming up your next brilliant idea. The best sort of thinking emerges when we have no set agenda, in the baggy parts of the day, when we are wandering around the park or on the train, taking a shower or staring out of the window. We’re a collective, we know that working from different locations with different workmates, languages and routes to that desk keeps us fresh and tops up the ideas bank. 

Define your workstyle

According to Workstyle Revolution's The Autonomy Opportunity report, 83% of workers prioritise work-life balance above all else– surpassing the importance of pay (82%) for the first time.

“The autonomy opportunity is clear. Those who embrace it will have a happier, more fulfilled workforce and the potential to outperform their competition.”

And we’ve seen that since White Camino began. The more autonomous the consultant, or compadres as we like to call them, the better the work. We still hire workspaces and attend client meetings in real life but bums on office seats is not what we value. 

With that in mind, we’re signing off for 2025 for some well earned rest and recuperation, ideally up mountain. Merry Christmas!