Brands

2024
on ESG
Marketing
A generations point of view

Trends
meltwater.com
1 Marketing Trends 2024
 Introduction
What are the major trends driving marketing in 2024? With the
introduction of AI, growing use of visual search, shifting nature
of influencer marketing, and many more changes and challenges
facing marketers right now, the motto for this coming year is
“think creatively”.

We’ve studied algorithm updates, technological advances, and

different social network’s feature releases to determine the
marketing trends you need to be paying attention to for the
coming year.

As you read through, we hope you’ll be inspired to experiment,

learn, adapt, and create new and interesting content that
resonates with your audience, leads to higher conversion rates,
and propels your marketing strategy forward.

With that in mind, let’s dive into the trends to explore how you
can practically incorporate some of these big ideas into your
strategy for next year.

2 Marketing Trends 2024

 Table
of contents
04 Value-Based Marketing 22 AI in Marketing

07 Customer Service on Social 25 Social Platform Subscriptions

09 Internal Communications 27 Creator Economy

11 Social Commerce 29 Visual Search

14 Branded Podcasts 31 Customer First

16 Influencer Marketing 33 AI’s Evolution

19 Brand Communities 35 AI Governance

21 Microblogging

3 Marketing Trends 2024

 1 Value-Based
Marketing
We’re in a very interesting time right now when it comes to
so-called “value-based” marketing. That is marketing that caters
to or is inspired by prominent societal values among consumers.
The use of value-based marketing is a natural response
to consumer trends, on the part of brands. Statistics have
consistently shown that consumers, particularly Gen Z and
Millennials, are increasingly drawn to brands that not only offer
quality products but also embody values such as sustainability,
social responsibility, and inclusivity. Consumers are seeking
meaningful connections with the brands they support, valuing
ethical practices and a sense of purpose over mere transactions.
4 Marketing Trends 2024
Brands today are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their
commitment to these causes, beyond the lip service that might
be a rainbow-themed logo during Pride Month, or a “Happy Earth
Day” social media post, which puts businesses at risk of being met
with accusations of “rainbow-washing” or “greenwashing”. That is,
showing support of a cause or without taking any meaningful action.
Now we’re seeing a new kind of consumer response being thrown into
the mix, spurred largely by the wave of “anti-woke” political rhetoric
that has seen an uptick around the world, and is particularly acute in
the US. Consumers are voicing their displeasure when well-meaning
brands participate in the aforementioned awareness campaigns —
and brands are seeing significant dips in profit because of it.
This of course presents an even stickier and more complex dilemma
when it comes to planning marketing campaigns and initiatives that
appeal to the spending power of Gen Z and Millennials.
Three striking examples from the past year showcase just how crucial
it is for brands to do their due diligence; not only for reputational
reasons, but for the very real financial implications.
 Value-Based Marketing

When Bud Light gifted popular social media personality and
trans activist, Dylan Mulvaney, with a personalized set of cans
honoring her milestone of living authentically as a woman for a
full year, nobody couldn’t have predicted the swift and heavy
backlash the company received from its core consumer base.
This display of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community sparked
outrage among conservative groups, leading to a boycott. In
response, Target deprioritized the merchandise and removed some
displays entirely, but the damage was done. The boycott ultimately
cost Target a 5% drop in sales.

Mulvaney posted a sponsored promotion for Bud Light, But they also faced a PR
announcing a contest and cash prize in celebration of March
crisis from a brand reputation
Madness. Both Mulvaney and Bud Light received tremendous
standpoint. As they attempted
backlash in the ensuing days and weeks.
to appease the boycotting
consumers, members of the
Mulvaney faced death threats and disparaging comments. Bud
Light was publicly ridiculed and boycotted by certain consumers, LGBTQ+ community were swift
who accused the beer company of “not knowing their audience” in their condemnation that
and “pandering to the left”. Target wasn’t taking a stand.
A classic “rainbow washing”
Bud Light reported that the boycott resulted in a $395 million accusation.
revenue loss, a 10.5% dip compared to the previous year.

Another example occurred during Pride month, when Target

promoted a line of rainbow-themed attire, which they showcased
prominently around their stores nationwide.

5 Marketing Trends 2024


Value-Based Marketing
Entertainment powerhouse Disney is no stranger to backlash
from their consumer base — much of it complaining that the
company doesn’t listen, care, or understand what kind of
programming their audience actually wants.
Similarly to the previous two examples, Disney took a stand
against legislation in Florida, introduced by Governor Ron
Desantis, that eliminated certain discussions of sexual identity
and other LGBTQ+ matters in public schools.
Shortly after a law was passed that threatened Disney’s tax-
exempt status in the state, which was followed by lawsuits and
threats to Disney’s bottom line. Far-right protesters have been
seen demonstrating outside the Disney park, deterring tourists
and local visitors.
6 Marketing Trends 2024
What does this mean for brands?
Brands are now fighting the culture war on two fronts, each with
enormous implications. Activists and consumers who want to see
more allyship from the companies they support express anger and
frustration when brands respond to displeasure from the other side.
And vocal opponents of so-called “woke” culture have demonstrated
their power to cause financial harm by boycotting those businesses.
In each scenario, significant reputational damage also factors in.
Organizations need to be discussing these topics at the C-level.
Integrating values, such as inclusivity, into your corporate values and
mission statement will make responding to laws or policies that are in
opposition to corporate values much easier.
Especially with an election year on the horizon, organizations would
do well to keep their core tenets in mind and make sure their crisis
response plan is updated to reflect the current climate.
2 Customer Service
on Social
Social media customer service is here to stay, but in 2024 more
organizations will have to diversify the channels they offer it on.
X, formerly Twitter, has long been the go-to platform for customer
support on social, but some large companies are changing their
approaches to it. Over the past two years, PlayStation, Netflix,
Apple, and Air France have ended customer support on X.
As of November 2023, PlayStation still uses X to highlight
support resources on their website. Apple does the same while
also directing X users to the company’s official support page.
And Air France tweeted a warning to its customers to not trust
impersonator accounts on X and instead communicate with its
7 Marketing Trends 2024
customer support team on other channels. The companies didn’t give
reasons for why they divested from X as a customer support channel,
but part of the moves may stem from concerns about trust and safety,
especially as it pertains to identity verification and privacy.
More brands may follow their lead and shift focus to connecting with
customers on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media apps.
1
As they do, they’ll have to solidify their social customer support
processes and streamline communications between social, customer
support, product, and service/fulfillment teams.
Diversifying social support channels will also call for new capabilities,
like fielding and triaging customer DMs and other 1:1 messages
at scale. These changes will ripple into other areas, such as crisis
management and cybersecurity. For example, does your organization
have a plan for social customer service influxes during PR crises?
Does it have policies and procedures in place for protecting private
customer information received through social communications? If
not, this new chapter in customer service on social media is a prime
opportunity to re-evaluate and adjust your practices.
 Customer Service on Social

Platforms with open direct messaging are ideal for social
customer service, and some are focused on improving the
experience further. Meta has a guide dedicated to showing
businesses how to make the most of Instagram’s in-app
messenger Instagram Direct. Newer features like automated
responses to frequently asked questions and saved replies have
made it easier for business and creator accounts to keep up
with DMs.
Knowing where to start with social customer service can begin with a
social media audit that benchmarks your engagement and share of
voice against those of your competitors and peers. Additionally, real-
time and historical social data can help you understand where and
how your audiences are communicating online. With that information
(and the help of time-saving social media management platforms)
you’ll be better equipped to connect with customers at scale, no
matter how big or small your team is.

Still, don’t count video-forward channels out completely. Short

If 2024 is anything like 2023, it will be full of even more social media
videos, like Reels, can be useful for responding to more general
customer questions or concerns that aren’t acutely time-sensitive. evolutions and disruptions. Marketers who are already diversifying
Similarly, comment sections are valuable places to interact their social customer service channels will be able to ride them out
with customers while building transparency and trust. Even live with ease.
streams offer chances for brands to hear directly from their
audiences while building their identities.

To come out strong on the other side of a social customer service

shakeup, lead with consumer intelligence. No matter how many
channels you cover, your efforts will be wasted if you can’t locate
your audiences and understand their biggest needs
and concerns.

8 Marketing Trends 2024

3 Internal
Communications
Organizations around the world are still settling into their post-
COVID workplaces. Some have embraced remote work, others
are back in the office, and many more are striking a balance
somewhere in between. With these new workplace standards,
internal communications have become especially important.
From webinars and newsletters to town halls and surveys, internal
comms have huge impacts on organizational alignment.
First, they can improve how employees relate to each other.
Getting everyone on the same page makes it easier for
employees to collaborate, as well as focus on their individual
projects and initiatives. Secondly, internal comms improve how
employees relate to the company. Steady flows of information
help equip them to manage crises, adapt to changes, and stay
engaged with leadership and the overall company mission.
9 Marketing Trends 2024
These improvements pay off down the line in achieving objectives
and discovering new opportunities, but only if the internal
communications programs are executed well! That’s why we
revamped our Newsletters solution to streamline the building and
distribution processes with features like mobile-friendly editor tools
and pre-designed layouts.
Efficient workflows, tailored content, and quantitative engagement
data are all critical elements of effective internal comms programs.
With them, companies are better able to get intelligence and
insights to the people who can actually put them to work. For
example, Daimler Commercial Vehicles MENA uses our Newsletters
feature to keep its dealers in-the-know of the latest developments in
the electric vehicle sector. That way, when new EV product launches
and campaigns roll around, everyone in their dealership network is
armed with crucial information.
With internal comms moving even further into the spotlight in 2024,
expect more questions to pop up about how, or if, to involve AI. The
demand for more content tailored to different audiences will push
many comms departments to explore how to do more with less.
 Keep your
organization
informed!
A digital newsletter or newsfeed allows you to send out
information to employees, customers, investors or other
relevant community members and helps you keep key
stakeholders up to date.

Automate the process or leverage our analyst to curate

newsletters featuring the most relevant content from
media monitoring results.

Learn More

10 Marketing Trends 2024

4 Social However, the true transformation began with the rise of mobile
technology and the dominance of social media giants like Facebook,

Commerce Instagram, and Pinterest.

These platforms not only provided a space for users to connect and
share but also seamlessly integrated shopping features, allowing
businesses to showcase products directly to their target audience.
The marriage of social interaction and shopping convenience laid the
foundation for social commerce to flourish.
In the world of e-commerce, the integration of social media and
online shopping, known as “social commerce”, blurs the lines Which it has…in Asian markets.
between social interaction and commercial transactions. And it
has perhaps been one of the most perplexing marketing trends to As of 2022, 84% of consumers in China have shopped and purchased
watch evolve. on social media. Compare that to 36% of social users in the United
States.
While social commerce represents a significant shift in the way
consumers discover, engage with, and purchase products, its
low adoption in Western markets has led to a rather stop-start
momentum when it comes to introducing new ways that brands
can take advantage. 84% vs
36%
The genesis of social commerce can be traced back to the early Chinese consumers have bought Consumers in the United States who
days of online shopping when businesses first recognized the merchandise on social media have made a purchase on social
potential of leveraging social media platforms to drive sales.

11 Marketing Trends 2024

 Social Commerce
The data shows that Western audiences aren’t adverse to mobile
spending for e-commerce activity, however, social purchases
occupy only 12% of online purchase drivers.
Despite the low adoption, 2023 has seen an uptick in new social
commerce features on social platforms.
And global social commerce sales are predicted to increase to
2.9 billion by the year 2026. Add that to the fact that 25.9% of
12 Marketing Trends 2024
social media users ages 16-64 say they use social media to “find
something to purchase”, and it seems that platforms are once again
poised and ready to see social commerce grow in popularity in the
coming year.
How are social media platforms investing in social commerce?
Over the past year, the top players in social media have added
key features that brands can take advantage of when it comes to
implementing and elevating a social commerce strategy.
 Social Commerce which they introduced ahead of the holidays in 2022. Meanwhile,
Snapchat, which has been a frontrunner in the virtual storefront
TikTok is arguably the biggest player here, making such landscape, launched an augmented reality professional services
significant updates as adding a “Shop” tab to their home screen and education program (ARES) designed to help enterprise
top navigation and expanding its Shopify integration that gives businesses tap into AR for selling their products.
marketers more insights into buyer activity. Earlier in 2023, TikTok
also offered shipping subsidies to select retailers along with the
capability to add clickable links to in-app storefronts, videos, and
live streams.

Despite Instagram removing its “Shop” tab from the home screen
to give the Reels tab a more prominent position, social commerce
is still on parent company Meta’s radar. Meta added AR features
to Reels and Stories ads in advance of the holiday shopping
season in 2023, as a way of enticing marketers and users alike.

Pinterest has always been a uniquely more established
frontrunner in the social commerce space. Shoppable Pins have
been a standard since 2019, and the platform has continued to
innovate and experiment with a wide range of shopping features.
These include more inclusive search filter functionality, an
Amazon partnership, and interactive shopping “Showcases,”
Despite lower adoption rates in Western markets, a treasure trove
of new features is available for marketing teams to experiment with.
The potential for growth and transformation remains significant
and major social media platforms are continuing to invest, however
cautiously.

13 Marketing Trends 2024

5 Branded
Podcasts
Listen up, marketers. Branded podcasts are taking over your
feeds in 2024, so it’s time to get the audio side of your brand
identity in order. According to the Digital 2023: October Global
Statshot Report, 20% of internet users spend time listening to
podcasts each week with an average listening time of 51 minutes
per day. All of that time is ample opportunity for consumers to
discover your brand as they commute, work out, do chores, or
whatever else.
Brands are already getting in on the podcast gold with both host-
read and programmatic ads. Podcast ad spending is on the rise
globally, and especially in the U.S., as listenership grows. And
like influencer marketing, podcast ads have the benefit of high
resonance with engaged audiences.
14 Marketing Trends 2024
This year, even more brands will get in on podcast advertising as
new creator and advertiser tools emerge — like those introduced on
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Acast — making it easier to understand
podcast audiences and subscription/advertising ROIs.
However, many organizations are attracting listeners, and new
customers, directly by investing in their own branded podcasts. With
them, organizations turn entire programs into extensions of their
brand experiences.
Skeptical? You may already be a loyal listener to one or more
branded podcasts, which prioritize high-quality content over more
obvious sales pitches. Some organizations — like Sephora and
Gatorade — have partnered with established production studios to
create limited series that listeners can keep discovering and coming
back to.
Meanwhile, others, seeing the value of continuous series and longer-
term projects, have brought their productions in-house. For example,
Morgan Stanley has Morgan Stanley Podcasts, which produces
multiple finance-focused programs.
 Branded Podcasts

Duolingo has four different podcast series for its language-learning Set clear expectations and target KPIs for your branded audio
customers. And Headspace offers customers a mix of mindfulness and program; make sure you have the tools, capacity, and know-
wellness shows via Headspace Studios. how to create content with substance; and use consumer
intelligence insights to guide your content creation process.
All of that high-quality content goes far in establishing businesses as With those elements in place, any brand can find its groove in
industry thought leaders, especially when they receive critical acclaim. the audio world and reap the benefits.
AARP’s podcast about scams, Headspace’s podcast about mental
health, and Pfizer’s podcast about vaccines all earned recognition in
the 2023 Webby Awards. Each one reinforces each organization’s brand
identity by informing listeners in an entertaining way. Their and other
branded podcast successes are showing organizations in a range of
industries how to make the audio format their own.

Many brands and marketers are still slow to invest in podcast ads,
partly because of the creativity, attention, and time the format
requires. At the same time, this maturation stage presents an untapped
opportunity for brands with strong identities and deep understandings
of their customers.

In 2024, more marketers are stepping into the podcasting world. If

you’re one of them, make sure to do so with intention and a clear
Branded company podcasts. Sephora’s #Lipstories, Shopify’s Masters,
roadmap of how audio content supports your business goals. Headspace’s Radio Headspace, and Duolingo’s French for English Speaker’s.

15 Marketing Trends 2024

6 Influencer
Marketing
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, perhaps no trend
has been so fascinating to watch as the practice of using
social media influencers to grow an audience, encourage sales,
announce new products, and more.
Influencer marketing has evolved into a sophisticated industry
and a potent force that extends far beyond its humble roots.
Though influencer posting may have started in the realms of
fashion, lifestyle, and beauty, today influencers occupy a robust
and expansive ecosystem, as powerful agents of change and
influence across a multitude of industries.
Over the past few years, spending on influencer marketing has
surpassed spending on traditional advertising. This indicates that
more and more businesses are taking it seriously, and
16 Marketing Trends 2024
looking for ways to incorporate it into their marketing mix in big ways.
25% of companies plan to increase their influencer marketing
budget in 2024.
As we alluded to, the scope of what marketers are tapping
into influencer marketing for today has widened significantly.
Traditionally “boring” sectors, such as insurance and finance or home
maintenance, are now leveraging influencers to imbue creativity,
levity, and relatability into their marketing and customer acquisition
strategies. By partnering with influencers who resonate with their
target audience, these businesses are thinking creatively and
attracting new business from consumers who may have otherwise
overlooked them.
In 2024, marketers will need to ensure they find the perfect influencer
partnership: a social personality that fits both your brand values
and appeals to your target audience. Solutions like our influencer
marketing platform, Klear, can help you quickly and easily filter for
influencers by a variety of parameters.
Let’s take a look at some of the unconventional organizations tapping
into the power of influencers on social media.
 Influencer Marketing
The White House: Influencers have begun to play a major role in
politics, with the Biden White House working with influencers for an
awareness campaign to bring politics more mainstream (away from
fringe media) and get young people more involved. Its influencer
program also contributed to a vaccination campaign, encouraging
people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Household appliances: Vacuum cleaners and hair dryers might not
be the sexiest products, but that hasn’t stopped upscale appliances
brand, Dyson, from tapping into a network of influencers to help
promote their products. These influencer partnerships help Dyson
curate its image which
combines sleek, luxurious,
higher-end visuals with
impressive technology.
17 Marketing Trends 2024
And on the platform side?
It’s not just brands that are taking notice of influencers. Social media
platforms are also stepping up to give influencers more ways to build
their audience and monetize their content.
TikTok introduced an “eligible for commission” tag for creators to use
when promoting their products, as a new way of
demonstrating influence.
On Instagram, creators can now create Broadcast Channels, which
are similar to WhatsApp groups, allowing influencers to share specific
messages with their followers in a group DM.
And Snapchat introduced a few key Creatvor Collab updates to help
facilitate influencer partnerships.
For businesses in all industries, 2024 is the year to think well outside
the box when it comes to influencer marketing. This will not only make
you stand out, it will ensure you don’t fall behind in a diverse online
marketing landscape that has fully embraced influencers as a viable
and effective strategy.
 Discover
influencers
with actual
influence.
Access 30+ million influencers across top social networks
to find your best matches.

With real-time analytics, you can confidently vet

influencers across leading social networks based on the
metrics that matter to you.

Learn More

18 Marketing Trends 2024

 7 Brand
Communities
Social media offers a powerful way for brands to directly reach
audiences without having to rely on expensive traditional media.
But what happens when social media channels no longer provide
the consistency and stability that businesses depend upon?
In recent years, we’ve seen what happens when social media
companies fall afoul of national governments or get acquired
by new owners with big ideas, and suddenly, the platform isn’t
a good match for your brand anymore. Years of work spent
building a community evaporates overnight.
This is an inherent problem with relying on third-party platforms.
Sure, the Metas and YouTubes of this world seem dependable, but
ultimately, entrusting the longevity of your brand community
19 Marketing Trends 2024
to another company will always carry some risk. It also means that
your brand is subject to the vagaries of each platform’s content
moderation policies, which you have little control over.
With this issue being thrust into the spotlight in 2023, it seems likely
that many marketers will be considering the alternative approach:
building a community around content and resources on your own
website. This doesn’t preclude the use of third-party social channels,
but it does provide a focal point for your community where your
brand is firmly in control.
An owned community gives you a direct line of communication
to your audience, which does not depend on either independent
media or social platforms, so you’re free from the limitations of those
channels. It’s also a great way to collect customer feedback and
data, because the platform is entirely yours you can gather that
intelligence however you want.
 Brand Communities

As a tool for speaking and listening to your fans and customers,

an owned community is hard to beat. But what’s in it for
customers? Why would they spend time on your community
platform rather than the social media channels they already
inhabit?

That’s the tricky part of the problem, and it very much hinges
on brands putting a lot of effort into giving them a reason to
participate in those communities. That means offering high value
content and benefits they can’t get anywhere else. It can be an
uphill battle to begin with, but over time it gets easier because
the more active a community becomes, the more attractive it is to
new members.
As social media boomed in popularity over the last 20 years, brands
have learned the power of online communities. Broadcasting content
at your audience is only of limited value, but by building a dialogue
with your audience, and facilitating relationships among them, you
can create something that people want to be a part of.

Examples of brand communities include Asana, Lego Ideas, Nike

With some high-profile instability developing in parts of social media
Run Club, SAP Community, Airbnb Host Community, and, of
during the past twelve months, it wouldn’t be surprising if 2024 is the
course, our own mCommunity.
year that many brands decide that building their own community hub
is the way forward.

20 Marketing Trends 2024

 8
Twitter has always been a great place to discover and discuss
whatever was happening in the world right now, whether sharing real-

Microblogging time updates on current events, live-tweeting big cultural moments, or

simply jumping on the latest memes. So far, none of the alternatives
have managed to do that quite as well, and it’s not clear whether
they even want to.

Nevertheless, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon are all being actively

developed, with new features added regularly, so it’s difficult to
At the end of October 2022, Elon Musk completed his acquisition predict how they might grow and evolve over the coming year. More
of Twitter. Since then, there have been a lot of changes (not recently Threads has begun experimenting with its own take on
least a rebranding to X) and several new entrants into the hashtags, which could be the first step towards some kind of trending
microblogging space that Twitter dominated for so long. Meta topics functionality.
launched Threads, Jack Dorsey soft-launched Bluesky (a Twitter
spin-off project), Substack launched Notes, Pebble (another
For marketers, this is a conundrum. With such radical changes
Twitter spin-off) launched and died, and Mastodon quietly
happening at X, how does it now fit into our social strategies?
reminded everybody that it’s been around since 2016 actually.
Which of the emerging microblogging platforms are worth focusing
resources on? Much like the early days of social, we have to go back
Musk’s stated plans for X are to turn it into an “everything app”
to a process of cautious experimentation, as we try to figure out how
that offers voice and video messaging, banking-like services,
and more, similar in scope to China’s WeChat. Whatever the best to use each of these platforms for marketing, if at all.
future holds for the platform, it seems clear that the niche it once
occupied in the social media space for the past 18 years is up for
grabs, with numerous potential replacements.

21 Marketing Trends 2024

 9
AI in Marketing
AI isn’t going to revolutionize marketing sometime in the future.
It’s doing that right now! Look around, and you’ll find more
marketers leveraging AI tools daily in ways that were rare or
non-existent just a few years ago.
Some of those main ways, according to Salesforce research,
are to create basic content, write copy, get inspiration, analyze
market data, and generate images. With time saved on those
tasks, marketers are shifting their focus to more strategic
functions, like segmenting campaign audiences and mapping
effective customer journeys. Talk about having a
competitive edge.
22 Marketing Trends 2024
AI’s integration into everyday marketing has created a growing need
for employee upskilling, according to a 2023 World Federation of
Advertisers survey. More than 70% of respondents were planning to
train their staff on effectively and responsibly using AI for marketing.
However, organizations are still finding their footing when it comes to
what upskilling, or reskilling, actually looks like, especially in relation
to shifts in overall marketing strategies.
Any marketing department upskilling for AI this year can benefit
from taking a “skills audit” to identify which core competencies
are currently needed on their teams. From there, leaders can more
skillfully navigate the programs and tools that can help employees
grow from AI novices to experts.
As more marketers become adept at leveraging AI, they’ll discover new
ways to push the technology forward. By extension, those who upskill
now gain an innovative edge over later adopters, of which there will
be many.
A CNBC/SurveyMonkey survey found that 45% of advertising and
marketing professionals are scared that AI technology will
replace them.
 AI in Marketing
At the same time, 73% of them anticipate that AI will significantly
change their jobs in the coming years. And, we believe they’re right.
At Meltwater, we’ve let AI’s ability to slash the time between insights and
action guide how we’ve integrated it into our suite. On the analysis side,
we’ve introduced solutions like content cluster summarizations to make
it easier to unlock the meaning within the data.
AI also powers our platforms’ video analysis and visual search solutions.
With the help of computer vision, marketers can now monitor and
analyze their brands in non-textual content. This enables a more
thorough level of consumer intelligence at scale by incorporating
the visual language that dominates how people communicate on the
internet today. Plus, visual search within our influencer marketing
platform uses AI to find content creators that can enhance the visual
identity of your campaign or brand.
23 Marketing Trends 2024
On the production side, our generative AI solutions streamline putting
strategy into action. Meltwater’s PR writing assistant and social
writing assistant (which includes an image generation feature)
kickstart and strengthen the content creation process. Using the
ChatGPT API and DALL-E, they magnify the creative potential of small
or even single-person content teams.
In the end, the main, unofficial competency marketers need to adopt
in 2024 is dodging doomerism about the AI frontier. As Guillaume
Decugis, Meltwater’s Head of Consumer Insights, put it at our 2023
Summit, “Marketers won’t be replaced by AI. Marketers not using AI
will be replaced by marketers using AI.” Upskilling for AI is one much-
needed way to make sure your marketing team is moving forward.
Ignore AI and risk moving back.
 Monitor and manage
your brand image.
Do you want to spot new consumer trends in real-time?

Our state-of the-art visual AI technology helps marketers search

and monitor images for:
• Logo And Celebrity Detection
• Face Detection (Age, Gender, Density)
• Scenes And Object Detection
• Emotion Detection
• Memes Detection
• Object Character Recognition
• Image Clustering

Plus, you can upload an image within our influencer marketing

platform, Klear, to discover influencers creating content just like it.

Learn More

24 Marketing Trends 2024

 10
Social Platform
Subscriptions
The year 2023 saw many social media platforms integrating
more paid subscription models into their services. Some for
verification purposes, others as a means of recouping lost
revenue. The big question is: will consumers actually pay? A
small portion already is, but it will be an uphill battle for these
platforms as they try to convince users to pay for services that
have been free for well over a decade.
The departure from traditional ad-supported models signals a
recognition of the changing dynamics in user expectations, data
privacy concerns, content consumption habits, and the need for
sustainable revenue streams beyond advertising.
A notable example of course is X (formerly Twitter). After Elon
Musk took over the platform in early 2023, X introduced a
25 Marketing Trends 2024
number of paid features (not without controversy, of course,
particularly in the case of the coveted verification checkmark).
The premium model on X currently has roughly 1 million subscribers. It’s
highly conceivable that down the line, all users will need to pay some
amount to use the platform, given Musk’s opinion on the topic. Speaking
in a September 2023 interview, Musk alluded that a paying model was,
in his view, the only way to combat bots.
X isn’t the only platform putting premium features and other perks
behind a paywall.
By September 2023 Snapchat’s Snapchat+ subscriber package
(introduced in the Summer of 2022) had up to 5 million paying
members, up from 4 million back in June, a year after its initial launch.
While at first glance, this is a very impressive growth trajectory for their
paid model, Snapchat currently has over 750 million monthly active
users, meaning that of all of its entire user base, only 0.67% are taking
advantage of the paid version.
In Europe, Meta has indicated plans for an ad-free subscription service,
and earlier in 2023 they announced a paid plan for verification.
 Social Platform Subscriptions

LinkedIn introduced its premium members to some new features in

2023 that could entice more job seekers and power networkers to
jump on board. These include a “top choice” tag which indicates
to prospective employers when a position is a candidate’s
preferred choice, and custom CTAs on your profile that
encourage a wider range of actions people can take to connect
with you or your business.

What does this mean for brands?

The diversification of revenue streams, away from a purely

advertising-driven model means that brands may have to rethink
where their social advertising dollars go. Furthermore, the fact
that users could start tailoring their social media experience
away from branded posts and advertising means that the overall
approach to digital marketing from the brand side may need to
shift in focus.
Currently, brands are spending 33% of their ad budget on social
— that’s a 23% YoY increase.
In fact, social advertising is actually decreasing as a means of brand
discovery while digital ad spending as a whole is increasing.
Brands should perhaps think about diverting their digital ad spending
away from social media and investing more in non-branded and
influencer partnerships to get their message out
in the world.

26 Marketing Trends 2024

 11
2019 through 2022, with a small bump in 2023, but nothing nearly as

Creator significant as the growth increase that began in 2012.

Economy

Make no mistake: it’s a content creator’s world, we’re all just living
in it. Social media is less about “status sharing” than it used to be
(RIP to the Myspace generation…and your knees). Users are now
approaching their posts through the elevated lens of “content
creation.” And with good reason. The widening world of the
creator economy, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, and
more means that a wider swath of creators are able to get in on What does all this mean from the social platform side?
the action.
Platforms are obviously eager to keep their creators happy and active
And the social platforms know it. Content creation and user
on their sites, and this is becoming even more pertinent, given the
engagement are the key drivers keeping users stats and time in-
app up; numbers that mean more advertising dollars to keep the slowing user rates. Social media is the primary conduit through which
lights on. creators and brands communicate with their audiences, friends &
industry peers, potential collaborators & hires, etc. But social sharing
But it’s an uphill battle. Usership numbers show a stagnating styles and preferences are changing, and platforms need to adapt.
growth rate when it comes to daily active use, plateauing from
27 Marketing Trends 2024
 Creator Economy
For example, on Instagram users are turning even more to
communicating via DMs (direct messages), which has been
acknowledged by Adam Mosseri. In response, the platform has made
a concerted effort to add features to its DM space. These include things
like “Notes” which can be text, voice notes, or songs, and sharing Stories
with different closed groups.
Additionally, influencers can now communicate with their followers on
Instagram via DMs in Broadcast Channels — a unique way to feel like
you’re having a 1:1 with your favorite creators.
Of course, there are many other ways that platforms are trying to keep
their creators around.
On LinkedIn users can now display custom profile CTAs within
feed posts, eliminating the need for an extra profile visit for sending
interested parties to an email list or an online shop.
YouTube was particularly busy in 2023, adding several additional
analytics that creators can access, providing more relevant insights
to help increase watch time, subscriber count, and even understand
actions that viewers take at certain points in a video.
28 Marketing Trends 2024
Rewarding top creators as an incentive to encourage engagement is nothing
new, but it’s a method that’s still going strong, with more ways that creators
can earn monetary compensation through creator funds, rev-shares, and
ad-views.
Platforms from Reddit to TikTok have creator funds established that
encourage their communities to create content that pushes the envelope
and demonstrates creative ways the app can be used.
At the end of 2023, Meta expanded their creator monetization opportunities
and created an invite-only bonus incentive for certain top creators. They also
added increased reach as a reward for using Reels.
For influencers, the key takeaway here is that these new tools and
incentives for creators means more sophisticated and diverse ways that
you can promote your channels, grow an audience, and serve as brand
ambassadors and influencers. The pendulum swing right now may mean
that brands have a little more power and ability to be discerning when
it comes to selecting influencers to work with and implementing UGC
campaigns. Unfortunately, the creator economy also means there are
more influencers to choose to vet influencers, which is where our influencer
marketing solution, Klear, comes in.

12
Visual
Search
Instagram and TikTok comments sections are flooded with
variations of the same question: “Where did you get that?”
With infinite online shopping choices, the entirety of the digital
and physical worlds has become our shopping mall. In turn,
consumers have higher expectations than ever to be able to
purchase the exact items they want and see in any context,
whether it’s in the hands of their favorite influencer or worn by a
stranger walking down the street.
Recent platform advancements in visual search are meeting
those expectations and changing how the average consumer
shops online. Amazon updated its visual search to include
photo and text combinations and a “view in your room” feature,
TikTok Shop began testing visual search, Poshmark launched
Posh Lens, Zenni Optical launched a visual search
29 Marketing Trends 2024
recommendation tool, and Microsoft launched visual search in Bing
Chat. They joined companies more established in visual search
like Pinterest, ASOS, and Google, whose Chrome on iOS browser is
adding camera search to its Google Lens integration.
Looking ahead, a wider range of marketers will have to adjust their
strategies and outputs to stay ahead. For many, the rise in visual
search will require greater familiarity with visual SEO. They will also
have to focus on making sure the visual customer experience is a
pleasant one. Lastly, as visual search becomes more commonplace,
visually distinct brands will have a growing advantage. Those with
a unique look will be more likely to be correctly identified by search
engines and less likely to send traffic to lookalike competitors.
But visual search doesn’t just require new strategies, it also gives
marketers new tools. For example, our platforms’ visual analytics
features let marketers do everything from tracking memes to
discovering influencers with aesthetics that match their brands. The
goal is to stand apart from (and cut down on) all of the other results
that will inevitably appear alongside your product.
In 2024, we’ll continue to see visual search’s influence on e-commerce
and consumer behavior. Savvy marketers will find new ways to use it
in their favor.
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30 Marketing Trends 2024

 13
there can be no more excuses for businesses not having a deep,
Customer sophisticated understanding of their customers.

First We can access so much data about consumers: how they behave online,
how they make purchasing decisions, how they interact with each other
in online spaces, the media they consume, and the influencers they
follow.

Consumer behaviors and preferences never stop changing, and
the dynamic, interconnected nature of social media only serves
to accelerate the pace of change. Forming an accurate picture of
your customers is a constantly moving target for marketers, and
long-standing metrics like demographic data aren’t particularly
helpful in the modern world.
But in a 2016 report, Forrester Consulting claimed 60% and 73% of all
data within an enterprise goes unused for analytics.
While that figure may have improved since then, it’s likely that a lot of
businesses are still overlooking the value that consumer insights can
provide.

60-73%
Clustering customers based on things like their age, geography,
or education level, seems like a desperately blunt tool in an
age when we have access to so much rich data available and,
increasingly, powerful tools to help us understand what that data
can tell us.

So, while every year should be the year of the customer, 2024 is
of all data within an enterprise
the year that AI and data science have reached a point where goes unused for analytics.

31 Marketing Trends 2024

 Customer First
A more recent report from McKinsey & Company found that
brands that use data-driven marketing at scale can increase
marketing efficiency by 10% to 20%.
What’s changed? Why should 2024 be any different? Like so
much else right now, AI is driving a shift in marketing strategy.
Research from BCG showed that 70% of all CMOs said their
organizations are already using generative AI, and the second
most popular use case was
insight generation.
Analyzing data is tricky. Ever since the e-commerce boom, brands
have had more data than they know what to do with, because
it’s being produced faster and in greater volumes than many
companies can analyze.
But AI-powered tools, like Meltwater’s consumer insights solution,
are now making it easier to decipher the data in two different
ways.
32 Marketing Trends 2024
Firstly, AI platforms are simply better than humans at analyzing
and organizing huge volumes of data quickly enough to be useful,
they can detect patterns, relationships and trends that an analyst
might miss.
Secondly, thanks to the use of Large Language Models, AI
can explain what it finds in the data in natural language — a
capability we added to Meltwater this year with
Discovery Explainer.
The upshot of this is that not only is AI getting scarily good at
finding insights in data, but it’s also making it easier for us to
understand those insights. AI can help us understand who our
customers are, what matters to them, and how to reach them,
with unprecedented detail and accuracy.
No more scattergun targeting. No more outdated segmentation
methodologies. No more wasted advertising spend. We have the
technology, we can do better.
 14
Generative AI is now integrated into a wide range of consumer and
business applications (including Meltwater), and the quality of its
output has improved significantly. To get a good visual benchmark
AI’s Evolution for how far things have come, just play around with the Bing Image
Generator based on DALL-E 3, and look at the quality of images it can
generate from very simple requests.

But using AI to create copy and images is really only the beginning,
and we’re starting to see how this technology can do a lot more for
us. Using Meltwater as an example, we’ve recently introduced new AI-
It might feel a little early to be talking about the maturation of AI,
powered features that help our customers understand complex data
but the technology has certainly developed a lot in the past year
and has gained an increased level of acceptance in the world of more easily, saving them valuable time.
business.
Our consumer insights solution now features the Discovery Explainer
Our own research found that in 2023 social media discussions feature, which gives marketers a natural language explanation of any
about AI chatbots increased by 440% over the previous year, new trends or patterns it identifies in data.
so it’s clear the technology is really growing in the public
consciousness. We also found that ChatGPT dominates these
discussions, even though a growing number of competitors are
entering the space.

Not so long ago, tools like DALL-E and ChatGPT were viewed as
little more than a neat party trick. Things are very
different today.

33 Marketing Trends 2024

 AI’s Evolution
In our social media listening solution, Explore, the new AI Spike Analysis
feature identifies any unusual spikes in the data and helps users
quickly understand the cause.
These kinds of features make it easier for anybody to extract insights
from large data sets, even if they are not trained analysts. This hints at
the broader trend of using AI to make complex tasks easier
for everybody.
34 Marketing Trends 2024
In a recent interview, DeepMind’s co-founder, Mustafa Suleyman, described
the next phase of AI as being interactive, meaning that bots will be able to
perform tasks by calling on other software and even other people
as required.
We saw the first inkling of this in a consumer platform when Microsoft
released a preview version of Windows CoPilot, which aims to embed AI
capabilities into the operating system, bringing us closer to sci-fi-style
computers that can carry out sophisticated tasks based on natural
language instructions from the users.
AI has also become more democratized over the past year. Meta released
the second iteration of its own Large Language Model, Llama 2, as an
open-source project, which means it’s free for any organization to build the
technology into their own projects. This is spawning a wave of innovation, as
new use cases are identified and refined.
It’s all very exciting, but what does it mean for professionals? These new AI-
powered tools give us the power to work more productively, completing tasks
more quickly and delivering better results.
In 2024, expect to see an explosion of newer and better AI tools, along with
pressure to make the best use of them, but don’t be afraid to take your time
and only adopt the technology where it genuinely adds value.
 15
AI Governance
As AI becomes more powerful and pervasive, governments around
the world are scrambling to get up to speed with how the technology
is regulated. There’s a widespread consensus that AI is moving very
quickly and presents risks that are poorly understood, and social
media provides a relatively recent historical example of a technology
that legislators struggled to keep up with in its early days.
This creates risk for businesses working at the forefront of AI, because
it’s an expensive technology to develop, requiring huge amounts of
computing resources. Pouring billions of dollars into building new
technologies without full visibility of how they might be regulated in
the near future is a gamble. This threat has prompted startups and VC
firms to work with the US Department of Commerce to implement a
level of self-regulation focused on AI safety, in the hopes of avoiding
more restrictive legislation further down the line.
35 Marketing Trends 2024
At the end of October, the UK government hosted an international
summit on the issue of AI safety, with guests including Kamala
Harris and Elon Musk. At the same time, the US president issued an
executive order on the safe use of AI, which covered various measures
to mitigate risks ranging from the creation of deep fakes to the
development of new biological weapons.
Although this is a broad-ranging issue, in the marketing industry,
specifically, concerns are being voiced around the safety of
generative AI use in advertising. The risks we know about include
inherent bias in data, lack of transparency in models, the potential
to produce inaccurate and sometimes harmful content, and security
and privacy weaknesses.
All of these can be mitigated to varying degrees, assuming the will
and the ability exists. But here’s the thing: AI relies on enormously
complex systems that can often behave in ways that surprise even
experts. It’s only reasonable to imagine that there may be risks
that nobody has yet considered, and as these systems grow in
sophistication, so will their unpredictability.
It is, then, reassuring that world leaders are already asking what can
be done to prepare for this, and beginning to legislate for the safe
use and development of AI. However, this does mean that those of us
whose jobs are increasingly intertwined with AI must be prepared for
new regulations and limitations on how we can use the technology.
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36 Marketing Trends 2024