Communication and marketing trends in 2024

In 2024, the digital marketing landscape continues to undergo a major transformation, redefining the interactions between brands and their audiences. Discover the marketing trends for this year 2024 according to Agency Director, Amancio Luis Cougil.

More sustainable influencer marketing

As influencer marketing evolves beyond a mere fad to become a strategic pillar, a striking trend is emerging in 2024. Brands are placing particular emphasis on long-term relationships with influencers, with a particular focus on nano- and micro-influencers.

The latter are perceived as catalysts for localized engagement and authenticity, thus distinguishing themselves from macro-influencers who generally have lower engagement rates and a geographically disparate audience. In this dynamic, UGC (User Generated Content) is a practice to be adopted more widely, enabling us to gain credibility and offer a humanizing approach.

15s videos in vogue

Video content has gone from being an eye-catcher to a strategic tool. Short formats and dynamic livestreams strengthen the links between brands and consumers. In view of recent trends, the more a brand can humanize its products and services, the more likely it is that consumers will identify with it.

The 15-second format is becoming a priority. The trend is towards entertaining and creative content, promoting maximum engagement. Educational and informative formats of 60 to 90 seconds retain their importance, offering viewers a more in-depth experience.

AI and CRM, the winning combo

An intelligent CRM, interconnecting all points of contact between brand and consumer, offers a global view of the customer. This level of precision enables companies to implement efficient marketing actions. AI also offers the advantage of a better customer retention rate. It identifies the warning signs of customer departure, helping brands to act upstream to strengthen customer loyalty.

Positioning itself as an essential foundation for development, the combination of CRM and AI offers the opportunity to metamorphose customer relations across three crucial stages: purchase, retention and loyalty.

Coupled with a direct connection to web behemoths Meta, LinkedIn, Google, X, Bing and others, this relationship enables efficient marketing automation, retargeting or sales tunnel strategies. By consolidating information from various channels, companies gain a holistic view of consumer behavior, enabling real-time strategic adjustments.

This targeted approach maximizes the effectiveness of advertising investments by identifying the best-performing channels and tailoring campaigns for greater relevance.

With this in mind, the era of first-party data is well and truly upon us, given the emergence of cookieless. See our article on the subject here.

Finally, the last important aspect lies in the data-driven analysis of marketing campaigns and the centralization of multi-channel and multi-platform data to optimize marketing budgets.

An omnichannel customer experience

Omnichannel means offering a customer experience at all points where customers may come into contact with a brand. As a result, the consumer is at the center of this strategy and, wherever possible, channels are linked.

From the physical store to the website, the aim is to strengthen customer loyalty by offering them a consistent shopping experience tailored to their needs, whatever the means by which they interact with the brand.

In other words, omnichannelity aims to make the consumer's offline and online experience fluid and personalized. It should also be noted that the development of digital technology has introduced new communication channels, requiring marketing professionals to juggle different media.

What about the future of the website? Social media are increasingly a vector of information and new functionalities, allowing us to stay on the platforms without having to consult or buy on the brand's website: social shopping.

To optimize the effectiveness of these channels, the concept of POEM (Paid, Owned, Earned Media) emerged some years ago. POEM encompasses the various exposures a brand can use to communicate with its consumers. Although these three forms of communication are distinct, they must complement each other to offer companies optimal communication.

Optimizing SEO for voice search

Voice search will be increasingly important in 2024. Content optimization must now respond to voice queries, with the strategic integration of long-tail keywords and FAQs. Indeed, this is becoming essential for a more effective and modern SEO strategy.

Google Maps, one-way with voice assistant, is also a growth driver, especially for physical businesses. As search is geolocalized, this implies local SEO optimization for businesses, particularly those with a street presence. It's important to note that local SEO is a different approach to a more traditional organic SEO strategy.

The boom in conversational marketing

Chatbots and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing content marketing by creating more natural, personalized interactions.

The proliferation of AI-based searches is also in vogue, offering the possibility of more comprehensive results. Although ChatGPT no longer holds the monopoly, Bard, HeyGen and YouChat, though less popular than ChatGPT, remain alternative solutions. Watch out for the very recent arrival of Google Gemini (December 2023, c.f. official communication here), a multimodal LLM that is supposed to compete with GPT-4.

Interest in Metavers and VR

Metavers and virtual reality (VR) open up new perspectives in digital marketing, offering immersive experiences. Interactive campaigns in virtual worlds and the rise of micro-influencers in the metaverse underline the growing interest in these new marketing trends. A Swiss example, Swiss Life has created its own metaverse, a gamified experience, with an HR area available in this universe to reinforce its employer brand(Metavers by Swiss Life available here).

In conclusion

In 2024, innovation continues to dictate the rules of the game in communications and marketing. Brands that demonstrate adaptability will stand out. Those that push the boundaries and move towards a dynamic content strategy with creations such as motion design, 3D graphics, animations, immersive videos, etc. will be favored by algorithms and consumers alike.

At the same time, the fundamental 80/20 rule takes precedence, advocating only 20% commercial content, while favoring an approach based on personification, segmentation, and above all, information and education. The primary objective remains the creation of stronger, longer-lasting links with audiences, while maintaining a coherent content strategy.

In 2024, content is still king! Authenticity vs. AI?

For the time being, AI-generated images continue to amaze or tense the market, generating fears and emotions. It's a highly controversial subject, provoking lively debate. From now on, authenticity is likely to come back in force, with an increasingly strong legal framework around the obligation to mention the source. Of course, more or less reliable tools already exist, and they are multiplying, like Maybe's AI Art Detector(link here).

The recent adoption of the AI Act, a European Union initiative, marks a significant milestone in the regulation of artificial intelligence. This text could well become a global benchmark, sparking other similar initiatives.

Are you ready to adapt your communications to these new trends?

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