Unveiling the trends revolutionising advertising in 2024

The warm-up period is over and 2024 is in full swing, with the first wave of advertising and marketing investments set to hit in March timed with IPL.

This, once again, leads us to explore the future trends that will shape and influence the industry. A retrospective dive into 2023 shows us the insights and lessons learned can be categorised as either dynamic, which might downplay their significance, or VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), which may seem overly dramatic for my preference. 

The net take-out here is that allocating a hundred rupees annually for marketing, while pursuing further innovations and strategic moves, spreads the budget too thin—making it difficult to accurately measure the return on investment.

The good part about working as marketing consultants for our clients is that we get the opportunity to weigh in on the investment, which sets us apart from typical agency-client relationships. 

While I am wary of blindly subscribing to trends and buzzwords, here are some key outlooks that we are approaching the year with: 

Back to branding

It has been remarkable to observe how amidst the influx of innovations and technologies, brands have started opting for flash-in-the-pan antics over the foundational premise of: What do you stand for? I find it intriguing to explore how brands navigate the delicate balance between driving sales and fostering brand loyalty. This year, our primary focus lies in understanding and mastering this equilibrium. In fashion (the category we excel at), we have seen that desire extends far beyond mere commodities; it's deeply intertwined with the brand itself. For the consumer, the benefit they seek is not just from wearing a fashion item, but from the statement it makes about their identity when wearing the brand.

AI for efficiency

AI is the most misunderstood trend of the lot in my opinion. The use cases for performance AI and generative AI can be misunderstood. With performance AI, the idea of what it does is not new, but with its automotive and machine learning algorithms it does bring significant improvements in how we go about it. The use of these AI models will continue further as brands recalibrate to remain competitive. Coming to generative AI, I don’t believe there has ever been a debate that has energised the industry as much as this, and rightfully so. Apprehensions and reservations aside, Gen-AI will be utilised more as an efficiency tool. Investing time, money, and resources in these platforms will become unavoidable for agencies. How to use the output from a moral, ethical, and legal standpoint will become the focal point of conversations surrounding the technology. Personally, nothing has fueled my imagination and creativity like Gen-AI, since Pinterest and I am here for it.

Small is the new big

Brands like Zudio exemplify modern brand-building strategies, showcasing the effectiveness of a clear USP and the targeted reach of nano and micro-influencers. Categories like fashion and beauty thrive on impulse. These brands went around the traditional route of mass-media awareness campaigns and instead prioritised reach and relevance on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. They achieved this by leveraging a multitude of nano and micro-influencers who showcased, engaged with, and experienced their products firsthand. These strategies are not going unnoticed by the industry, and more could follow suit.

‘Reel’ in the video durations

Tell me, dear reader, hand on heart, how deep was the Reels' rabbit hole you found yourself in last night? Been there, and so have our consumers. With both Meta and Google pushing video formats as the honeytrap for a longer time spent on the platforms, brands have been wiser to shift focus from static to AV content. The challenge for creative minds now will be to break out of the shackles of 30-second narratives, which, given today's dwindling attention spans, might as well be considered long-form, and embrace the reality that seven seconds is all we have to captivate our audience. This ultimately means that we will shift from the ‘always on’ approach by pumping out volumes of static content and focusing more on sporadic but meaningful content. 

No such thing as a free platform

Recently I found myself musing on the fascinating dynamics of digital media, particularly the significant influence of the dominant players and their impact on data and pricing. With that said, I think brands will begin to understand that looking at social media as a free-of-cost, organic media touchpoint is a fallacy. As per statistics from both platforms, organic reach numbers of any brand indicate that 20% of a brand’s followers are likely to see a story, with an average organic engagement of 2-3%. This can be attributed to Meta's focus on monetising promotions.
 

The good thing is that these platforms allow us to conduct A/B testing and most clients are now seeing reason in this approach. There are multiple ways to slice and dice the advertising modalities on Meta platforms. Marketers will start embracing these platforms for what they are: Promotion-driven rather than organic-driven.

What it all comes down to is that it's time to get back to the brand basics to concoct an alchemy of authenticity. AI, nano influencers, practical innovation, and punchy video content are the conduits in the marketer’s toolkit to drive their goals for the upcoming year. 2024 should be a year about making innovation tangible and every second of engagement counts.

 Suchana Sarkar is the chief brand officer for Makani Creatives.