Brands Use Romance Stories to Spark Emotional Loyalty.
Romance-Driven Campaigns Turn Escapism Into Connection, Deepening Brand-Consumer Bonds.
Escapism: Strategic Capital
Romance has become more than a cultural diversion, it is a strategic lever brands are deploying to stay relevant in 2025. Against a backdrop of political instability, economic strain, and consumer fatigue from relentless news cycles, escapism offers refuge. Research cited by industry executives shows romance as a cultural growth engine: in the US, print romance sales rose 24% year-over-year by June 2025.
This growth is mirrored across digital platforms, with BookTok communities elevating romance authors into mainstream figures and streaming shows such as The Summer I Turned Pretty becoming cultural juggernauts. Brands, recognizing the gravitational pull of these stories, are embedding themselves in this genre not as sponsors but as active participants.
The aim is clear: if consumers want joy, connection, and distraction, brands must supply them not just with products but with cultural experiences.
Romance: A Shortcut to Emotional Authenticity
Marketers consistently highlight that romance functions as an emotional “cheat code.” Nic Climer of Rapp describes the dynamic bluntly: “the world is on fire,” so consumers are gravitating to anything that feels authentic, tender, and real. In marketing terms, romance becomes shorthand for sincerity, bypassing the transactional coldness that often distances consumers from brands. Neha Minj of Neutrogena frames it as a response to cultural craving: romance represents escapism and joy, two states of mind that consumers now seek from brands as much as from entertainment.
Campaigns built around romance shift the relationship: the brand ceases to be a mere advertiser and instead becomes a facilitator of feelings. That reframing changes loyalty from a purchase-based contract into an emotional tether, the strongest form of brand equity.
Romance Across Sectors
Different sectors are translating the romance trend in distinctive ways. Audible has leaned into romance as both content and experience. Its data shows romance as the most consumed audiobook genre on the platform in 2025, outpacing mystery, fantasy, and non-fiction combined.
The company responded with experiential marketing: the “Romance Rowboat Experience” in Central Park staged audio storytelling with live actors, physically immersing consumers in the intimacy of narrative. For Neutrogena, romance is folded into skincare marketing. Partnering with influencer Serena Kerrigan, the brand commissioned Wattpad stories designed to appeal to BookTok’s millennial and Gen Z readers.
These narratives extended brand messaging into platforms where romance already thrives, reaching audiences in moments of entertainment rather than interruption. Doritos, by contrast, tested the risqué edge: a Walton Goggins campaign styled as a parody of late-night Skinemax films used the tagline “spicy but not too spicy”. The creative gambit was less about sincerity and more about attention, illustrating how romance can be reinterpreted as comedy, parody, or desire depending on category positioning.
Cultural Rehabilitation of Romance
The genre’s resurgence reflects not just marketing opportunism but a wider cultural rehabilitation. For decades, North American culture positioned romance as unserious, even disposable. Megha Parikh of VML notes that this stigma dominated the last 20 years of media, where romance was treated as lowbrow compared with prestige genres.
Yet TikTok, digital fandoms, and changing consumer attitudes have transformed the narrative. Romance is no longer guilty pleasure, it is unapologetic joy. James Finn of Audible confirms this shift, noting that romance is now the most engaged genre in audiobook consumption. This cultural rehabilitation gives brands cover to participate: associating with romance no longer carries reputational risk but instead signals alignment with cultural optimism.
For marketers, this legitimization expands the toolkit: romance is now a credible narrative mode for mainstream brand storytelling, not a niche indulgence.
Attention Economics and the Risk of Overreach
Romance also highlights the pressures of attention economics. With consumer attention fragmented across platforms, brands are willing to take risks they would not have considered a decade ago. Doritos’s campaign exemplifies this desperation: by parodying erotic tropes, the brand did not simply embrace romance but deliberately tested the boundaries of what brand storytelling can accommodate.
Parikh underscores that this is less about innovation than necessity, brands are compelled to stand out in a saturated landscape. The risk is twofold. First, overreach can erode credibility if campaigns drift into territory that feels misaligned with a brand’s equity. Second, saturation of romance tropes may dilute their impact, reducing the emotional power that made the genre attractive in the first place.
For executives, the task is calibration: romance must feel authentic, not opportunistic, and must strengthen, not distort, brand positioning.
Strategic Consequences: From Campaigns to Category
Romance’s mainstreaming into brand strategy signals a broader strategic consequence. Emotional storytelling is no longer optional; it is a competitive requirement. In categories where functional differentiation is thin, skincare, snacks, even consumer tech, romance allows brands to claim emotional differentiation. This does not replace product quality but amplifies it, creating an aura of intimacy around otherwise commoditized goods. However, not all brands can adopt romance equally.
Heritage and luxury players must carefully balance credibility with emotional playfulness, while mass-market brands can experiment more freely. The long-term outcome is segmentation: romance becomes a standard category strategy in mid-tier consumer brands, while in premium sectors, its deployment will remain selective and highly curated.
Recommendations
Deploy Romance As Cultural Capital. Treat romance not as a gimmick but as a cultural language that consumers have embraced. Invest in long-term brand association with the genre, not one-off campaigns.
Segment By Audience Maturity. Platforms like BookTok, Wattpad, and fandom-driven communities are primed for romance integration. Target them directly with authentic storytelling that feels native.
Use Risk As Calibrated Differentiation. Playful or risqué executions can work, but they must fit the brand’s equity. For Doritos, parody aligns with irreverence; for luxury, the same would undermine prestige.
Tie Romance To Broader Equity Goals. Recast cost efficiencies or engagement wins as reinvestment into consumer value, sustainability, or innovation pipelines to transform escapism into enterprise credibility.
Establish Emotional Storytelling. Build romance not as an isolated tactic but as part of a systemic approach to brand storytelling. This ensures the equity benefits endure beyond single campaigns.
Bottom Line: Romance is a Cultural Shortcut to Engagement
In 2025, romance has moved from guilty pleasure to mainstream genre, and brands are capitalizing on its emotional resonance. Done well, romance deepens consumer bonds and reframes marketing as participation in cultural joy. Done poorly, it risks trivialization or backlash.
The consequence is clear: romance is not just entertainment, it is now a contested terrain of brand differentiation, where emotional loyalty is won or lost.
