Annual Marketing Predictions
At the end of every year, industries around the world make predictions about trends they will see in the new year. This anticipation is crucial to business as it allows companies to prepare for those educated guesses. If a significant number of people are shifting from gas-powered cars to electric, then car manufacturers need to decide if they should produce fewer vehicles that are run on gasoline. These predictions are also important when approaching different areas of your business, such as marketing. If the car manufacturer is wanting to sell their gas-powered vehicles in the electric world, their marketing efforts need to highlight why an eco-conscious consumer would want to buy their product. Each year brings new challenges to the marketing world, but we can tackle these hiccups head on by glancing forward.
Looking to the Experts
In a December 2023 article of Marketing Brew, Katie Hicks wrote the article ‘What 2024 has in store for influencer marketing, according to experts.’ After discussing what 2023 looked like for marketers worldwide, Hicks continued the conversation with a few experts to know which trends to anticipate. Hicks spoke with Rahul Titus, Global Head of Influence at Ogilvy; Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of Captiv8; and Julianne Fraser, founder of DIALOGUE New York. Collectively, here’s where they see influencer marketing heading in 2024:
AI takeover:
As AI becomes more sophisticated, it’s likely that marketers will try to use AI to their advantage (as we all should!). This may be far beyond our imagination, though. Technology is already allowing AI to create ads using the voice and image of an influencer – whose likeness has been contracted out – to mass-produce social media marketing for various products and services. This type of speedy and extensive production can be a game changer.
Getting offline:
Sometimes people need a break. The swarm of influencers throughout cyberspace can overwhelm a person, so it makes sense that marketing experts see a potential for influencers to head off screen. Fraser mentions that users are experiencing a type of “fatigue” due to digital influencer content. Because of this, we can expect more in-person events. Marketers know to meet the audience where they are. If the target audience is moving offline, influencers should make that move, too.
Influential employees:
Many companies worry about trust from the consumer. It’s important to buyers that they can trust and believe in a brand. Unfortunately, we all know that influencers are most often paid per click. Businesses may send products to be unboxed on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean the influencer actually cares about the product. Instead, 2024 will likely bring what Hicks calls “internal influence.” Who can a consumer trust more than someone who works for the company? Employees will probably get on camera more often to really show a side of a company that we may not have previously known.
The rise of UGC:
User-generated content (or UGC) is original, brand-specific, and created directly by a user and posted on social media. These pieces of content are not paid advertisements. They are simply a person giving their opinion on a product – simple as that. With social media users becoming annoyed by or uncertain because of paid influencers, marketers may start leveraging UGC in ways that benefit the brand, the influencer, and the consumer. (Learn more about UGC, what it is, and how to make it work for your company in this article from Buffer.)
TikTok at the Olympics:
2024 will be “the first year that we’re having an Olympics since TikTok has taken over the fabric of society,” says Titus. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will almost definitely be experienced in a way like no other Olympics before. Posts of all kinds will be bombarding social media, including from competitors. This could set up a new influencer sphere that focuses specifically on athletes.
