Zalando produces its advertising campaigns according to a hybrid model: high-cast films coexist with massive automated production aimed at its European markets. Understanding who appears in front of the camera in 2025 requires grasping this dual logic, where the choice of a famous face responds to a precise positioning strategy for each style segment.
AI Production and Human Casting: Zalando’s Advertising Model in 2025
According to a publication from September 26, 2026, 93% of Zalando’s on-site marketing campaigns are now produced with the help of artificial intelligence. The production time has decreased from six to eight weeks to about four days, with a stated goal of 24 hours.
This automation has allowed for the generation of approximately 6,500 marketing contents on the site in 2025, three times the previous volume. AI mainly intervenes to adapt visuals for the 29 European markets of the platform, adjusting content to local trends and events.
The use of celebrities thus covers only a fraction of the produced content. However, it is the most exposed, shaping the brand image. To learn more about the actors and actresses of Zalando’s ads, this coexistence between AI and headliners remains the most useful key to understanding.
Lily Collins and the Inner Voices Campaign
The Inner Voices campaign features Lily Collins in a spot dedicated to clothing choices.
Why the Comedy Format Works for Fashion Marketing
Choosing a light-hearted tone allows Zalando to stand out from the usual aspirational campaigns in the industry. The narrative device makes the question of outfit choice accessible and easily shareable on social media, amplifying the organic reach of the spot without additional media purchases.
Uma Thurman and PinkPantheress: The Fall-Winter 2025 Campaign
For the fall-winter 2025 season, Zalando brought together two profiles with opposite trajectories. Uma Thurman, an American actress and producer, strolls through the stalls of a market. PinkPantheress, a British singer with multiple platinum records, walks the streets of Berlin.
- The styling was entrusted to Pau Avia, who designed the outfits for both protagonists in everyday urban settings.
- Photographer Lukas Wassmann captured the visuals, favoring natural light to ground each scene in a concrete environment.
- The video direction was handled by the duo Badley & Pablo, whose work gives the film a smooth cinematic rhythm.
Pairing Uma Thurman (an icon of the 1990s-2000s) with PinkPantheress (a figure of Gen Z) reflects a strategy of double generational targeting. The goal: to address two audiences simultaneously without diluting the brand message.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Mahmood: The Previous Spring-Summer
Sarah Jessica Parker, inseparable from the character of Carrie Bradshaw and the New York fashion imagination, shared the spotlight with Mahmood, an Italian singer recognized on the European pop scene. This duo had inaugurated the principle of cross-casting as early as the spring-summer campaign.
The theme of Dolce Vita served as a common thread, linking fashion to a lifestyle rather than just a product catalog. The choice also reflected a desire to blend American culture with European identity, in line with Zalando’s pan-European positioning.
The Role of the Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam Agency
These high-cast campaigns are managed by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. The agency structures each spot as a standalone short film rather than as a collection showcase, providing narrative coherence to the various films produced for the platform.
Zalando’s Casting Strategy: Celebrities, Creatives, and Fashion Trends 2025
Each campaign features at least two personalities from different generations or disciplines (cinema and music, American fashion and European scene). Directors and photographers are chosen for their unique visual signature, giving each film a distinct identity under the Zalando umbrella.
The settings prioritize everyday locations (markets, streets, apartments) over studios. This choice reinforces the idea that fashion is part of real life rather than a disconnected universe.
Celebrities do not wear the brand: they embody a moment of clothing choice, shifting the perceived value of the product towards the experience. This positioning makes Zalando a producer of cultural content as much as a distributor.
Zalando’s advertising model in 2025 relies on this two-speed architecture. Campaigns featuring Lily Collins, Uma Thurman, PinkPantheress, or Sarah Jessica Parker capture media attention, while AI generates thousands of local variations. It is the interplay between these two levels of production that defines the platform’s marketing strategy, far beyond just the choice of a face.
