Ride the Wave of Trends: The Art of Staying Relevant
In a world where insights thrive and data gleams, brands have become truth-seekers, trend-spotters, and consumer sleuths in attempt to uncover the hidden agendas of the market. This quest is not as simple as it seems. The constant struggle to stay on top of the most recent emerging trends all while being ahead of one’s audience in the current quick-paced world of marketing and business has proven to be a quagmire for those who cannot keep up.
Content marketing, strategic branding and advertising are still the dynamic trio to a brand’s success, but to remain relevant in the 4IR, it is important to stay up to date with Trends.
The two most frequent trend-based problems facing brands today are
[1] how to produce relevant and high-quality content at a scale that appeals to different target audiences, and [2] how to boost organic traffic while riding the trend wave.
In this final instalment of our “Gen AI’s Creative Crossroads” series, we look into the phenomena of trends and how they affect the world of marketing.
The History Of Trends
Looking back at the history of the phenomena, there have been trend after trend and some of them have been worth getting involved with, whilst others we sat back and watched. There is no doubt that marketing has a huge amount of power and it’s only when trends “blow up” that we truly realize the extent of the influencer of the big brands.
So, what have been the most recent unexpected trends?
2023 trendsetters worth remembering…
How Barbie Painted the World Pink!
The “Barbiecore” take over. The earlier part of 2023 had Barbie plastered all over our timelines for MONTHS! This trend was one for the books as it took nostalgia with a modern twist to a whole new level.
In the build-up to the release of the film, Mattel invested millions into marketing the new film including Barbie AI-Filters, a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse, and using recognizable branding.
This strategy prompted other organizations like Burger King, Aldo and so many other brands to follow the leader.
AI took over industries
Many people feared the rise in Artificial Intelligence and in the year 2023 it boomed more than ever. After the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, many huge software companies invested in their own AI tools this year, including Google, releasing Bard and TensorFlow. This shift has caused a fundamental change across all industries.
UGC took a different approach
Forget influencer marketing, the new kid on the block is “influenced customer marketing”.
With so many changes in the marketing industry, brands have tried to leverage every opportunity available to connect with customers in the year 2023.
You might recognize the new multi-coloured tumblers brand – Stanley. Recently, Stanley went viral after responding to a customer’s video showing her car which had caught fire with her Stanley Cup ending relatively unscathed. We give this a YES! But the Stanley Cup mass hysteria that followed was a BIG NO!!!
What trends lie ahead of us in 2024?
Even the most accurate market forecasts can never be 100% correct, but being able to consider them can provide important insights into future trends. Here are three potential trends for 2024:
1.The use of Generative AI
Generative AI will boom even more in 2024. 78% of organizations using AI marketing have seen customer satisfaction scores increase by at least 10% so make sure you check out AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper AI and Bard to see how they can further improve your marketing efforts.
2. A boom in hyper-personalization
Personalization has always been one of those marketing mantras, but in 2024 it will be vital for your brand. Hyper-personalization leverages real-time customer data to recognize audiences as individuals. A great example is Spotify Wrapped! Consider how your brand can use real-time data to increase customer engagement by producing more relevant content to cut through the noise.
3. A shift in influencer marketing
The rise and much-anticipated fall of influencer marketing has finally arrived. With an over-saturation and dependence on the go-to and relatable strategy, the year 2023 was dubbed the year of the de-influencing trend and, although this was a trend (ironically), it indicated how the influencer industry is changing.
Trends have always been characterized by one consistent factor, change. The dynamic nature of these general emergencies entices most of us into believing that we have complete understanding until something unexpected always seems to happen. With the growing hype of AI, 2024 is set to be another big trend year for brands. Let’s wait and see…