The very last mince pie has been eaten. The Christmas decorations are now hidden away, back into the dark recesses of the loft. And so, we now turn our re-charged attention and insight onto the year ahead. Considering what it may hold for the world of creative marketing professionals...
There are so many themes we could talk about, but for this article we have chosen to focus on these 5 key themes:
01. Rapid progression of AI
02. Importance of turning visual impact to 11
03. Maxing out on video
04. The challenge of getting ‘real’ leads 05. Getting company values up front and centre
01: Rapid progression of AI
Yes you’ve guessed it! Everyone is talking about the acceleration of AI in 2024. But before you skim past this bit with a massive sigh of depression, deja vu and simmering anger - it's worth noting a couple of things.
First of all, it’s inevitable that the use of AI in content creation and marketing strategy will increase this year like never before. And occasionally, something pretty novel like Nutella's 7 million unique packaging designs pops out. Which couldn’t have been possible without the assistance of AI. It won't replace their packaging designer's jobs but, for this campaign, it does give 7 million consumers their own personalised jar of tasty chocolate spread! 😋
Highly popular Apps like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and AI integrations into the Adobe Suite, Capcut and Canva will continue to improve and an increasing number of people will be harnessing these tools. But even with another year ahead, it’s pretty apparent we’re still only in the early stages of AI generated content for marketing and for many applications it's really not that practical.
As a friend recently put it "AI generated imagery is just another form of stock imagery. And it's not that great" . Used appropriately, software like Adobe Firefly is awesome. When used in the wrong context... well this is what you get... 👇🏻
There is a very long way to go before AI can replace the specificity and control of real, characterful, human-created content. And in terms of capturing authentic moments in real locations, with real people. That is something AI will never be able to do.
In contrast, with AI dominating a lot of the design and marketing conversations I think that in 2024 there will be a growing desire for more obviously human-created, hand crafted content. A counteracting style that is either a form of protest (AI FREE ZONE declarations!) or just a refreshing change from the overly synthetic style.
I think this more 'hands-on' approach will be even more appreciated in terms of valuing its authenticity, the truth of personal storytelling but also due to the reliability of the information!
I asked Chat GPT to write an initial version of this 2024 trends article to see what it might come up with, and amongst other things it told me NFTs were going to be the next big thing (most are now worth next to nothing!) and VR was going to have a resurgence, despite sales dropping 40% last year and Meta recently laying off over 10,000 of its staff… We’ll see who’s right and who’s wrong at the end of 2024 Chat GPT! 😂... I wait with great expectation to see 'Ready Player One' become reality...
02. Importance of turning visual impact to 11
We love intense visual stimuli more than ever! Better smartphone screens, more saturated and higher resolution content on all our screen sizes. Social media video content is now cut so fast and has so much going on in super short time frames to activate our increasing demand for that diminishing dopamine release.
And so, following this trend it seems fair to suggest that other more static design forms will increase in using any tools they can to achieve this same attention. Composition heavy designs and super vibrant colours will become more commonplace in 2024.
And where white space and clean backgrounds were in, allowing designs to breath, now we’ll see more textured and active clean space…
We’ll also see static imagery not be so static anymore. With Ai tools like https://www.leiapix.com turning once static imagery into slick moving gifs in seconds. Everyone loves an animated gif don't they?
We’ll also see the same from typography. Where it was once a more static element on screen, designers will be playing with the idea of text becoming more active and visually arresting.
03. Maxing out on video
As video content continues to be one of the most powerful tools in any marketeers toolbox we’ll see a continual shift into more super short form content.
As well as the obviously popular TikTok and Insta Reels, YouTube shorts monthly active users increased by 500 million last year – from 1.5 to 2 billion. As we always say to our clients, in addition to your longer form content that might cover more in depth information - there should always be a tighter version of that edit to lure you customers in. There’s not many people that would choose a 6 minute video over a condensed 90 second version…
So in 2024 think about:
Micro-storytelling: Condense your marketing message into engaging, impactful, bite-sized narratives. Think catchy hooks, lightning-fast edits, and visuals that really pop on a small screen
Authenticity takes center stage:
In addition to your more highly produced content (which is where we come in!) embrace more raw, relatable content and wherever possible have a consistent flow of user-generated video.
In all your video and animation content showcase real people (staff and customers) using and interacting with your brand. Wherever it makes sense for your brand, use real people and real stories over a corporate, 'sanitised' script. Interactive engagement:
Also consider interactive video engagement in 2024. This format seems to be a slow burner over the years but perhaps 2024 could see a resurgence. Explore interactive video platforms like Stornaway, Vimeo Interactive, and Bright Cove to go beyond passive viewing.
By using interactive elements like Polls, quizzes, and even AR filters you can turn viewers into active participants, fostering a deeper connection with your brand.
04. The challenge of getting ‘real’ leads
2024 will see an exponential increase in poor quality AI content filling the digital space. So it’s going to become more challenging to get real leads, to stand apart from the vast amount of marketing content being pumped into our social feeds and web browsers.
We’re going to be drowning in a sea of mediocre content like never before!
Seeing this coming down the track in 2023, Google released its new EEAT search quality evaluator guidelines. Adding in an “E” for experience — which means that ensuring your content is written by an author with credible, first-hand experience on the topic is crucial for increasing your website's value.
AI will continually transform how people consume content in 2024. Now, people don't have to Google “How can I go viral on TikTok?” — then can ask an AI chatbot or (my favourite) Google Bard. Which means many marketers likely saw major decreases in traffic on some of their more generalised blog topics in 2023.
So in 2024, generating new leads from your marketing content all comes back to authentic, personal and expert opinions to connect with real people and real stories - combined with the right prompts and incentives. Create engaging content with real character and personality, as that's something AI doesn’t have… yet!
05. Company Values Upfront and centre
In 2024 the customer’s choice is going to be fed by more than just financial criteria and whether or not you can do a great job. The sense of aligned values continues to be even more important and that will be reflected in design and creative campaigns even more this year.
Value for money is clearly super critical but so is the value of the experience, value of your ethics and whether you hold compatible standards and of course, what value you put on the environment. Creative campaigns that communicate a brand's commitment to social and environmental causes obviously resonate on a deeper level, increasing brand loyalty and positive associations.
Even your attitude to AI and how you handle the employment ethics around this will be part of the customer’s decision process. What kind of a company are you culturally and what does this look like in your marketing? Would you still use AI when you have capacity to use an experienced professional instead?
And all of this will obviously then feedback into how things actually look, the design choices you make and the kind of messaging you are sending out to reflect your values.
Conclusion
There is so much more we could say around exciting marketing and design trends that will be emerging in 2024, especially around video and animated content. Hopefully these 5 key themes have provided you with some useful food for thought as you consider your creative marketing content in the year ahead.
If you want to chat about any upcoming marketing campaigns we can help you with, please feel free to drop us a message at hello@tubinecreative.co.uk or visit our contact us page here.