For marketers, success often hinges on the ability to engage consumers and to understand how and where to reach them. Many of the best marketers, therefore, have developed a knack for interpreting trends. But the hype around emerging technologies is dominating headlines and distracting from other core elements of branding and marketing.
This year, the hyped technology is generative AI, which has been a major theme at many marketing conferences around the world. But is GenAI really the most exciting trend in the industry? As we cross the halfway point of the year, five experts discuss the trends that are capturing their imagination and shaping the way they work.
We talk a lot about the ‘memification of marketing’, which refers to the ability to communicate something in just one image. When you consider the amount of content out there, the amount of stuff you’re bombarded with, you realise people don’t have the time to really engage with everything they see. The average person also doesn’t really care about brands or marketing, unfortunately.
But what they might remember and care about is probably best communicated in a single image that can be passed around and shared in the same way as a meme, which I think is interesting. This makes the memification trend very important and it will continue to be really important for the rest of the year and beyond.
I’m really intrigued by the creator economy, particularly on platforms such as TikTok. It represents an interesting challenge for marketers: you have to balance brand consistency with creating content that fits the platform. But the algorithm on platforms such as these also prioritises being innovative and capitalising on existing trends.
It also opens up your content to a whole array of creative people, who aren’t from the advertising industry, but who still find great ways to reimagine your brand. You can work with them and they can create on your behalf. It represents a real opportunity for the creative industry and allows you to be right on trend, even if it might not be immediately clear how your brand has a role to play in that trend.
In a world where the basics can now be supported and automated by technology, humour and creativity can take centre stage again. I can feel the focus shift back to capturing the imagination and emotionally connecting with your consumers. There are a lot of brands really putting their purpose and their value first, rather than just making a clever campaign.
Asics’ recent campaign is a good example. As a brand, it wants to be associated with health and wellbeing, so it created a campaign that showed people being active in its footwear. The focus was on moving your body and improving mental wellbeing, rather than fads aimed at making you slim. It hijacked SEO terms around “15-minute weight loss” videos and replaced the top search results with links to its own campaign. Asics is using modern methods to send a clear message about what it stands for and using technology to get that message across in a really clever way that puts something meaningful in front of consumers.
There is a lot of discussion around AI, the disruption its causing and the challenge it represents to creativity. The focus so far has been on negative implications of AI. But generative AI and new technology can also unlock more high-value work and really inspire a new world of creativity.
I’m excited to see how the hype that has surrounded AI gets transformed into application. I’m looking forward to seeing how it can really transform creativity in a positive way.
I’ve been inspired by how open people have been at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. People really embraced a culture of sharing. The more people share ideas, the more others become open to sharing as well.
We hosted a few lunches at the festival with competitor brands and agencies. Whatever their differences or similarities, they were able to engage in constructive conversations and share ideas. There’s enough space for everyone, as long as you’ve got the right mindset. It’s fantastic to compare experiences and learn from each other.
