AI hype and wish for real people at OMR 2025

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds of "Deadpool" fame and basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki caused quite a stir outside and inside the halls. US futurologist Amy Webb, bestselling author, Sebastian Fitzek, and no less than  800 keynote speakers took to five huge stages. Around 1,000 exhibitors, 270 masterclasses, 200 guided tours, food trucks, stand parties, massage chairs and after-shows created that special, unrivaled OMR vibe. And the sun shone. The titles of the workshops and presentations revealed what is driving the digital world at the moment.

Some really-interested debated launched amid all this enthusiasm. Everything centred on AI in SMEs and in practice. On the one hand, there are new AI tools, but on the other, there's also frustration with AI. Yet, the question of attracting, potential top-tier consumers remains. Philipp Westermeyer, CEO, pointed to the simple, but obvious solution.

"Real people hold the answer," Westermeyer pointed out, who presented this year's highs and lows with digital journalist Roland Eisenbrand. Real events such as marathons feature real people in real life. Running clubs, for example, are gaining popularity and are even replacing dating apps like Tinder. The same applies to other sports. "People are cutting the internet out of their lives and getting together in real clubs. They make things by hand, like crocheting and pottery. They pay for someone to take their mobile phone away from them for two hours. We should all just pull the plug." Then by coincidence or not, all the lights went out in the entire hall. Obviously live events are a great way of getting people to notice advertising messages in keeping with the latest trend called community piggybacking.

Product staging is also trending and is sometimes exaggerated to the point of fetishizing a product, similar to a manufacturer who displays its cars on a catwalk in a fashion show, keynoters said. Take the British company Jellycat, for instance. They company's fluffy, cuddly strawberry pancakes are now a cult brand. Read more in our interview with Westermeyer.

The winners include the digital currency "stablecoins", ad sellers, grandfluencers ("Fitness influencer Pamela Reif is now targeting over 70-year-olds") and new food brands, according to OMR experts. Food in general "is where the hype is," said Westermeyer. And the losers? Celebrity influencers are not as successful and are difficult to understand in the festival context. When it comes to alcohol,"young people are drinking far less," Westermeyer pointed out. 

OMR will be staying in Hamburg for at least ten years, according to an agreement with Messe Hamburg. OMR began as a student event with 150 participants, and has gone from strength to strength every year and is now aiming to become more international. At the moment, around 18 per cent of the delegates come from other countries. However, given the nearly 70,000 annual delegates, the event is already at full capacity. English remains the lingua franca in most sessions and keynotes given the many international speakers and global corporations like Google, Airbus, Meta, Pinterest and Vodafone at OMR. This year, Startup City Hamburg presented seven French tech startups at the joint Hamburg Invest booth, which was visited by Peter Tschentscher, Mayor of Hamburg. Tickets for the next OMR on May 5- 6, 2026 are now on sale.

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