My 2024 Marketing Trends Predictions are Controversial but Accurate.
Jaskaran Singh
A Social Media Consultant, running The Social Juice Community + Newsletter | Part-time Influencer in Marketing education space.
30% of Marketing Industry on the verge of dying and there is no time for saving.
What’s so amazing about marketing is its existence in the world. Because it exists everywhere, it’s dying everywhere in every industry all at once. But how?
This Article is best to be consumed when you assume it’s a video essay, make sure to close your eyes and imagine. By the way, this isn’t a thought piece, Everything mentioned is based on research & Attention.
It’s not everything in marketing dying, I don’t want you to imagine this newsletter being a David Fincher movie. Actually I do, that’s why I wrote this sentence. Now, stop imagining if you can, or do you see the killer nearby?
1. The Death of Brand-Driven Purchase Decisions
I don’t know why a brand even feels comfortable with idea of ‘TikTok or Instagram' made me buy this’. That keeps you out of the loop, Same goes to news publishers, I get my news on TikTok. You are widening the gap between your brand and the customer.
An Individual marketer is increasing the work load without realising it. I know you don’t believe me because you are too happy with your social media growth.
But I want to you to look at the entertainment industry, how many people now don’t recall watching movies. Instead they recall watching Netflix. Same goes for Music Industry, with Spotify DJ AI, how many people recall the songs they listened. You can also include Roblox, how many kids recall visiting the Walmart land vs them just saying, I played Roblox.
If we knew on Google & Online Search, A Brand needs 11 Touch-points. The number of touch-points needed is increasing a lot on social, streaming and music. To put this in a more simple language, human-to-human marketing is becoming human-app-content pool-app-human marketing.
Brands need to go back or transform their strategies to make people buy their products for their identity and message. Because what’s happening is simply, inevitable. These Consumer loops are becoming more and more niched and small, leading to death of brands.
Is more content even a solution?
The consumer loops closing, everyone living in their own echo chamber. If your decision is to go all-in on Social, Music and Streaming Conten. I want you to listen and read these below;
What’s the Solution?
Try to get people off the social media apps, build your own loops. You can’t rely on social and you clearly shouldn’t burn out trying to win on social and streaming with Paid Ads or without them.
This matters a lot because data shares most of your customers buy from you once or twice a year. And then they interact with your content, how bad will you feel if the only thing they remember as your content is being on TikTok. Nothing about your brand.
In short, On Netflix, IG or TikTok people open the app without a sense. They have mixed feelings, it’s not like an Ad you see before a Movie or TV. Or on your way back to Home, in those moments, people are in a feeling & Mindset that benefits the marketer.
Are you even creating or observing that feeling to be remembered as a brand?
One of the biggest reason to get people off social to visit your brand is “care”. You care about their media consumption and mental health, they care about your message. Marketers aren’t evils feeding people into content, we give them joy & reason.
2. More Cartoons than Influencer-Brand Products.
All the Cartoon shows are seeing huge rise on IG and TikTok, Shaun the sheep is viral, Snoopy was big this year, Sesame Street’s TikTok is working. Aussie Show Bluey is making a huge spark in the US.
More Brand collaborations are on the road. Why? Cartoons have built a very consistent identity and they have social channels. I know many see Cartoons as Kids Content but on social, looking at TikTok Account of Sesame Street & Snoopy. I can share that people see their online existence as positive messengers.
Other than sharing success of Organic Social content, Snoopy’s Collaboration with AEO Jeans was a huge success and brand’s customers are requesting a relaunch of the snoopy collection. Same thing happened when Red Cross NY was giving free snoopy t-shirts, people ran to get their T-shirts. Showing Cartoon collaborations aren’t limited to kids.
Alternative Example; Use of AI to transform Old Cartoons.
3. Transformation of Reaction Creators
It’s hard to escape reaction creators on Internet, why? We all are storytellers and showing our individual POV is too important to us. Social Media Giants know this and this year, it became too easy to transform into a reaction creator.
Once you saw something relevant, people want your opinion on the next topic. This continues, until someone in the comments goes, I love your takes but this is ?? (Wrong). Until now, Brands had collaborations with reaction creators.
In 2024, More Brands will abandon reaction creators as everyone will be reacting to something. It’s for good as many creators can’t seem to win trust after the reaction video. An example was recently mentioned in Hbomber’s video sharing the downfall of A Creator after his reaction content timeline was over.
Everyone has a story to tell, but marketers benefit not only from the story itself but also from what unfolds after it is told. With Reaction creators, marketers only win from a creator’s relationships beyond the content.
4. More Brands will bring 90s & Early 2000s Nostalgia Products back.
Emmanuel in our discord community, made this observation of Gen-Z’s obsession with Early 2000s & 90s era. And this video from hank green using a slap bracelet gives me quite idea that these type of nostalgia recalling toys will be huge in 2024-26 this timeline.
Long-term brands can use their history to break into that nostalgia. I know Walmart used Mean Girls in their campaign & Mars is using their Iconic Ads again to save climate. This Trend of Brands using Nostalgia will only rise based on my research.
5. Use of AI to Trace Consumers in the wild
This year we saw a huge trend of people using Image/ face recognition tools to find or dig dirt about famous people. The biggest example was Dillion Dannis exposing Multiple images of Logan Paul’s girlfriend using AI tools. (Which was Obviously bad)
But next year, I believe with better rules, big brands like Adidas or Nike will be able to find worldwide micro-influencers & Online Consumers seen wearing adidas. And partnering with them on a large scale through automated outreach.
With Big Celebs & Creators, Brands have been doing this from years and also get sued. With Micro-Influencers and Consumers, Brands can give them another monetisation stream or value for their social media usage.
I am Indirectly saying, AI-powered Visual Search on Pinterest and Google will lead to brands finding existing content and using the best options to run Ads or Organic Media. IG & TikTok are also visual platforms but for now, Brands rely on third-party Image searching tools. Brands can go local and personal with this strategy.
5. Product Recommendations at Checkouts (AI-personalisation)
The research shows consumers want more relevant checkout recommendations when shopping online.
Amazon is succeeding with their Upsell recommendations using AI. Though I have some concerns about this trend because Embyro’s latest report shared that many people have started hating over-personalised Ads as those are quite creepy.
Do you feel judged or strange when Ads are too personalised? Is google hearing me? This is a mutual feeling when we are being critical, but it’s different during the checkout stage of buying.
We are less attentive toward why we are being served X item. Instead, we focus on the checkout flow & Reasonable offering at the end of the buying decisions. That’s why having Relevant checkout recommendations is another trend I trust to scale in 2024.
Mini-Trend; Don’t Overpersonalize Ads
This Study from the past proves that people prefer less personalisation to brand offerings, instead they like to be addressed in a group or general Identity.
6. Reposting Culture on TikTok Births Open-Messaging
Since the beginning, the weakest link for TikTok has been Direct Messaging on the app. It happens rarely, Both IG & Snap hold the most control over Gen-Z communication.
This might change with recent rise of TikTok Reposting Culture, Most Friends on the TikTok follow each other and Reposts are shown by the algorithm alongside the comments made by a friend. With a higher possibility of both sides see the content, this type of consumption creates an open messaging environment. Much of Social is Content and this means friends socialising over content.
Why this might work? Trust the words of Instagram CEO on 20VC podcast. It’s him revealing that users share more content with each other in DMs, compared to Link or Story Sharing.
Anyone doing this right now? An early example is RayBan, when the brand recently went viral due to an Influencer trend. They used reposting to engage with most influencers and participated in an open-conversation.
8. OOH is kind of making a comeback.
First, US OOH Ads Industry grew 1.1% in Q3 2023. Second, Outfront Media reported slight revenue increase in Q3 as Billboard Ad Revenue grew in Q3.
Many Brands in UK are also aligning more toward traditional media Channels. With Burger King in UK focusing on OOH this year and Fashion Brands like SSENSE launching Billboards as Branding Play.
Digital media & Advertising scaling so fast, also means that Traditional Media gets more interested & Mature viewership. Another reason is Online Ad Saturation on Websites and Social kills Brand Value and messaging of Creative Content. I love OOH Ads for the format and Brand Appeal, What’s your stance?
P.S. By OOH, I also mean DOOH and Brand Pop-ups winning the case in 2024.
9. Rise of Curation Continues
This Year, we witnessed success of Pinterest Shuffles App, Gen-Z loved it. Similar Success with formats like IG photo dump & TikTok ‘My Fav Finds’ Carousels being the center of Gen-Z Content. Just look at this recent trend and tell me Curation isn’t personal to Online Teens.
Spotify won with their idea of curating Songs with Astrology-type signs. The Fashion Products with Curated Emojis and Stickers on them, that scrappy curated approach is predicted to grow in 2024, data from Pinterest.
Brands should know the consumer ecosystem and engage with other brands. To make sure, they make curated lists of Gen-Zers on Holidays, Birthdays and Other Events. If Brands want to win a mention on curated list, They have to build their own list. The Only Steps is to put your ego aside and empower all brands, that’s what Gen-Z wants and likes.
10. Securing Digital Footprint becomes #1 Priority
For Chronically Online Users, Protecting their digital footprint will become one of the main things. We saw influencers getting cancelled over Old Content and Brands used Old Travis Kelce Tweets, we saw what could happen without digital footprint protection.
Online Engagement Precautions will be taken again with Twitter & IG showing your usernames above ‘Algorithm Suggested Content’. What you like is more visible to other people in UI Design of these apps, another reason behind why Digital Footprint preservation will matter a lot in 2024.
What this suggests for Brands; Less Likes and Followers as people view most of the content with more criticality and an idea of controlling the footprint.
11. The Internet Aesthetic will Die for Cafes & Restaurants
When I wrote my post about Instagram Marketing, I mentioned this issue of Every Account looking the same. In reality, It isn’t limited to IG Feeds, This Creator points out the same Problem, mentioning the aesthetic Standards from Internet are changing how new businesses approach their whole business.
More Content from Cafes & Restaurants need to be around their people and neighbourhood. When every place is posting aesthetic walls and culinary, People won’t build an urge to visit your place. That’s why Cafes & Restaurants will focus more on ‘Talkies Content’ instead of the aesthetic. It’s already taking shape with creators interviewing Restaurant owners more personally, example.
12. Classic Movies & Brands
The Reason behind Martin Scorsese becoming the Gen-Z’s favourite director is not his Viral TikTok Identity. Instead, It’s Gen-Z’s journey toward Media Literacy and Cinema Knowledge.
The Actor Strike and Downfall of Disney + Marvel Movies resulted in Gen-Z exploring better cinema. This Generation grew up with that Quality decline and lived two Writer’s strike (I know they were kids in 2007). All that led to them either seeking better movies or educating themselves about Cinema.
This Year, Brands jumped on Barbie & Oppenheimer trend. Keeping the movie topics aside, what made the trends standout was involvement of great directors. When you look at growth of ‘Classic Movies’ keyword on Glimpse Trends, You can tell how lack of quality entertainment is shifting the viewership to watch better movies. Another Example is Rise of Letterboxd, The Community has taken over the internet and it’s slowly becoming the replacement for ‘keyword + reddit’ due to its authentic culture.
All that leads me to tell you; Brands should use Classic Movies and New 2024 Releases with a focus on movies that represent your brand while building Gen-Z’s Cinematic Experience.
领英推荐
13. Bringing Humour back to Advertising
This Year, Social Teams from India to US were using humour & Political Satire to win new audiences. While Advertising Industry was stuck with emotional messaging again, nothing wrong with that.
Still Humour in Advertising needs a comeback for multiple reasons.
12. Slight Decline in Shiny AI & CGI Ads
Branded Content that made people go wow isn’t effective anymore. We can even see a slow decline in CGI Trends on Google & Youtube in all niches with 6% decline in Business related CGI searches.
Most of the AI-generated Futuristic Content Ideas will be limited only to Social. Even that would be rare because the visuals alone won’t do everything. Jacquemus, the brand leading CGI Content Wave is success as they are showing their dominance through those visuals in Fashion Towns of the worlds. When other brands do the same without a message, that shine doesn’t reflect back.
Only do CGI & AI Art with Messaging, Because the Shine is Dead.
13. More Social Media Budget allocations to Discord, Slack and Private Communities.
Gary Vee said that future of social is one day you get 100 views and next 100M views. I don’t agree with that, but it’s actually true. We are going far away from followers being important, it’s all eyeballs (views) being important.
That’s why CTAs to Community platforms without algorithm will be major part of social media strategy. I don’t believe email lists are a better solution either as newsletters are getting heavy hit with Gmail privacy updates.
14. IOH Displays for Late 2024-26
It’s an early prediction but very much predictable with all the Gen-Alpha using iPads & TV Consoles from an early age. It starts with this Idea, A Company giving away free 55 inch Smart TV with Permanent Ad-Previewing Section & Tracking. Seems extreme but many Gaming & Most Online Streaming Platforms already track your behaviour. This is only a step ahead.
It exists today, With Brands launching their own Roblox and Fortnite In-game collaborations. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced possibility of making Xbox Game Pass free or discounted like Netflix’s Ad-Tier. A similar announcement was made by Playstation last year, hinting at Ads within free games.
What’s next? I can see various brands giving free devices to future kids with their Brand Integrations Installed in Roblox and other games. With rise of mini-metaverse through Roblox Culture, free Streaming/mobile devices with Fixed Ad Slots & Integration is a marketing play waiting to takeover.
Another reasoning behind free devices will be the time spent on social media and Online Games. There are privacy concerns but good brands can do the household research before handing the device to Teens/Kids, then it’s a win-win.
15. TikTok wants Long Videos with Storytelling
As I was writing this report, TikTok also released their What’s Next 2024 Report. It focuses heavily on how the audiences on the app demand better storytelling and from the examples in the report, you can judge what TikTok wants.
Engaging Content over 1-Minute Mark to keep the audiences longer on the app. I highlighted in the first trend, every social media platform wants the same thing, more time spent.
TikTok shared that hooking your audience with new diverse voices, collaborative formats, and subject matters. Meaning you need more focus changing the formats of your short-form content to keep the audience entertained and increase their brand content recall. (Full Report)
16. Echo Chambers & Sonic Influence
All Podcasts are Echo Chambers because if people wanted a new perspective in form of value. We would have chosen debates, but we chose Podcasts to find new value while being in comfort. People are now looking for more value in comfort than ever, Podcasts will continue to rise.
Same goes with rise of Audiobooks and Reading Culture, BookTok has changed the whole structure of consuming Books. Creators are now also saying Book World is turning into Fast Fashion due to TikTok.
Even though the arguments against Podcasts and TikTok Opinionative creators are coming up. In 2024, Audio Content will influence more and more people until it hits a wall. Ogilvy also shared the same insight with only one difference, The Rise of Video Podcasts, which is happening but listeners only transition to video, Once a relationship has been built through audio podcasts.
Latest; Instagram launched a Podcast with Doja Cat & Ice Spice.
17. Clever AI Integration to Better Customer Journeys in B2B & B2C
Marketing Agencies can provide clever solutions to B2B Companies, and help them overcome the tag of Boring Ads only. How?
Ogilvy India created an AI Ad Campaign for Cadbury, allowing SMBs to have the Bollywood Actor endorse them. They used the AI voice generation allowing businesses to alter the voice and have Shah Rukh Khan endorse their shop.
A similar approach was taken by IPG India, An AI Ad with Shah Rukh Khan allowing everyone to add their face in the Branded Content.
These two AI Integrations allowing fans to add their faces and business to use Shah Rukh Khan as Brand Ambassador are just two examples. In 2024, I expect more brands to be clever with their use of AI and bridge the gap between audience and brands.
18. Luxury Brands will Continue to Struggle
Major Brands like Burberry and Louis Vuitton are suffering for two main reasons, Loss of Brand Control and Creative Leadership changes. Brands like Balenciaga fascinated by growth of Fast Fashion, shifted from Fashion Models to A or B-Class Celebrities representing the brand on runaways.
First, Exposure Marketing approach of Brands is hurting their Luxury Appeal. Plus, Fashion Models are exposing low pay rates. Most Brands will try to get back their control over the audience.
Second, Change in Luxury Social Content. The Content from Loro Piana on Reels and TikTok is Aesthetic & ASMR Style, Same with Burberry and other Fashion Houses like Gucci and Versace are reliant on Celeb Content to scale their presence. You can even find the comments saying, only here for Bad Bunny.
There will be one or two Luxury Brands next year other than jacquemus reforming their social media strategies to grow without relying on Borrowed Trust.
You can read more about state of fashion in McKinsey’s Report mentioning other challenges Luxury Brands might face in 2024.
19. Thrifting Trends Continue to Grow
Both Instagram and Pinterest have shared the same trend but with a slight change. Thrifting Culture will expand to Gen-X and Boomers this year, the Gen-Z influence is moving forward.
I personally thrifted over 50% of my fashion items in 2023. And I also plan to expand my thrifting habits to all the other products.
Read here, both Pinterest and Instagram Trends 2024 Report.
20. Use of Shop the Look While Streaming Netflix or Amazon Prime.
This year’s one of the most successful TV series, The Bear caused Men to go mad for the T-Shirt worn by Jeremy Allen White in the show.
Showing us how TV Shows influence or encourage us to dress in a particular way. It’s nothing new, TV Shows like Friends & Gossip Girl influenced all demographics when they came out. But now, Streamings Services such as Roku & Amazon enable consumers to shop the look while watching the TV Shows.
Many Brands will jump on these opportunities in upcoming months.
21. Online Fans Empowered Through AI
Recently Nicki Minaj Fans criticised her for Bad Album Rollout, with promotions being too basic. So, the fans took the task and used AI to create the “GAG City” trend, generating AI Images and Ideas for a city ruled by Nicki Minaj Fans.
Another recent trend uses Dall-E to imagine how different brands and products will look like when the imagination is extended to extreme levels.
Brands that build communities with trust will benefit a lot from this AI empowerment of online users. If they guide their audience well enough in 2024.
22. Brands in Comments & Memes are the new norm
By Summer 2024, Most Online Users & Creators will no longer feel too excited or answered when they see your brand in the comments. Why? It’s becoming too common for Brands to show in comments under viral content about them. Or Brands being funny with Internet Culture Trends is known to most users.
The Saturation of Every Brand being funny and being present leads to increased competition of levitating the content quality. The NY Times mentioned the same issue with every brand being funny, and they are right if one thing becomes too common, people will start focusing on other important subjects.
BBH Labs wrote a useful guide on cracking the code for useful Social Media Brand Tone.
23. Marketers decrease focus on Traffic & Views
With AI recommendations taking over, The Structure of content distributing on social media is changing, the same goes for SEO. Conversational AIs are changing how web traffic is distributed to publishers.
An Increased focus on managing the conversion rate and landing page relevancy will be the main focus. Both Meta & Google also shared their insights on making landing pages more relevant leads to increase conversions.
For Social Media Marketers, Your Profile Visit to Follower conversion matters the most as we are getting more eyeballs with more content. But what matters is honestly the conversion. That’s what we control through our content and representation
Further Confirmation; Gartner’s new trends report confirms decline in Traffic by 2026.
24. Rating 2024 Trends Reports from IG, Hootsuite, Dentsu & More.
My Case; Why I said 30% of Marketing Industry is Dying?
I have nothing against Streaming and Rise of Social, I get paid to consult people on these topics. Clearly I don’t want to end my business, but I know that these Ad Channels increase the workload on a marketer creating a lot of new obstacles in reaching the ideal customer.
Secondly, the way marketers deal with AD & Content Saturation is exhausting as we can’t keep up with the changes. Even when we try or tried in 2023, the brand-audience relationship was still under attack.
We can say blunders like Budlight TikTok Ads are fault of marketers, but we can’t escape how much control a brand loses through content formats and content distribution changes on Digital Platforms.
In Fashion, You can find how new brands are suffering from dupe culture. Because they can’t secure their own social media presence, A Fashion Teen will likely destroy that Brand’s new product through a tweet or TikTok.
Third, This year we had important discussions around Brand vs Performance marketing but the truth is the survival exists when we combine both and try to preserve the brand identity. Same goes for Traditional Media, A Great Brand will include the complete mix of Digital + Traditional Media. Because overall marketing preserves 100% of marketing Industry.
It’s an ecosystem, we can’t give up one element of marketing to win short, we need to win long.
My End Message
If I sounded like an Old head in this report or I missed on some elements like Programmatic Advertising and PPC. I will try to include better analysis and new content about future trends in upcoming newsletter editions.
I wish you and your team the best for marketing in 2024. If you liked this report, I would encourage you to share it with other marketing friends or Teams.
Digital Marketer ? Social Media Manager ? Creative Strategist | I travel to research the int’l marketplace ?? (14 countries down)
10 个月I just read your piece and subscribed! Well done!