Christmas brought the joy. Now let’s see it through next year.

Joy is shared. So say Amazon. And Boots are telling us to give joy. It seems brands have hit on a theme this Christmas. As the wonderful Will Grundy points out, “If you look at the Christmas ads at the moment, most of the planners behind the campaigns probably told clients: ‘We need to offer a little bit of joy.’

And he’s not wrong.

But joy isn’t just for Christmas. It’s critical next year. Especially when it comes to social.

To borrow heavily from Moises Naim, we have been living in an age of populism, post truth and polarisation. And sadly, heading into 2024, it seems unlikely this is going to change.

From a political perspective, we’re going to see elections in the UK and the US. But did you know the Russian Presidential Election is on March 17th and European Parliament Elections are on July 6th? Big moves. Expect your feed to be swamped with discord.

We thought we’d seen the worst of it, but let’s be frank, 2024 is going to be as uncomfortable as the previous year. Fact checking and misinformation is going to run amok on social.

And let’s not get started on the cost of living crisis pulling through into another year. Bleak times.

But encouragingly there are green shoots from brands. At That Lot, in the last 3 months alone, we’ve received briefs from brands that put joy and humour at the heart of their social proposition. This can’t be a fluke. Brands have understood, more than ever, that to earn value on social, they need to contribute value. And that value means bringing joy, to a pretty joyless time.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that 50% of people are more likely to share a funny post; 90% of people are more likely to remember content that is funny; and 50% of Kantar Creative Effectiveness Award winners use humour. Hell, Cannes Lions are even dedicating a new category to it in 2024.

If we look at TikTok’s mission. They exist to ‘inspire creativity and bring joy’. Snapchat, another resurgent force, is a place where ‘people can express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.’

When you contrast this with Elon on X who states they want to ‘give everyone the power to create and share ideas and to express opinions and beliefs without barriers’, you can see which holds more appeal to brands.

Hence the entry of Threads was a no-brainer. A more playful playground for those who know, but now don’t feel the love for Twitter. As our brilliant Creative Director Simon Cooper puts it: “A place they can write a funny little opinion and build an audience without having to pay for verification and beg for validation. People know what they like. They like something that’s the same, but different. And that’s Threads. It’s the same, but different.”

Only time will tell whether it flies, but the platforms are playing to a trend. Joy. And in 2024 on social, this is a hunting ground for a brand to succeed.

Joy isn’t a new concept. There have been countless articles on this over the last few years. Paddy Gilmore has even built a consultancy out of humour. That Lot itself was founded by two comedians. And this desire for wit, humour and joyful abandon is still going strong.

Just look at the world’s wealthiest and most successful influencer – Mr Beast – his approach is to literally spread the joy. An uncynical and altruistic method that has earned him not only millions of dollars, but millions of fans.

So, what does 2024 on social look like? Hopefully joy is at the heart of it. But revisiting our old friend Will Grundy, there is a word of caution, “The difficulty is sometimes that means everyone ends up doing the same thing so you still need to genuinely cut through to be noticed”. And that’s where building a distinct tone of voice is priceless. Although if you want, I can give you a price.