Evolution or Revolution?
by Daniel Rice
It’s been a long time since traditional channels alone were enough to effectively reach corporate affairs audiences. The options to engage them and influence their views of companies and their issues have never been greater. Here is a look ahead to 2024.
AI application will continue to grow in 2024. Businesses must understand how to manage it effectively.
Platforms such as X have grown more divisive, Threads has struggled to find its place, but LinkedIn looks set to continue to thrive.
Offline in conjunction with online advertising will make for a potent partnership in 2024.
The broad range of channels can seem overwhelming but should be seen as an opportunity. To communicate effectively, companies must embrace the fact their corporate audiences are consuming information across numerous touchpoints.
AI
2023 was the year everyone learned the power of generative AI. Open AI released ChatGPT at the end of 2022, but 2023 was the year it got a full run out with, social media managers across the globe testing its real world application, with everything from copywriting and image generation to strategy development.
AI’s rapid acceleration and uptake will continue apace in 2024, adding another element to the social media toolkit which companies will be keen to apply. However there is another more complicated side to the technology that we could see grow in 2024 around misinformation.
We saw numerous examples of political deepfakes during 2023 - including an audio clip of Sir Keir Starmer berating a member of his team ahead of Labour Party Conference, a manipulated video of US President Joe Biden (despite being shown to be fake, Meta refused to remove the video), and a fake audio recording published online of the leader of the Progressive Slovakia Party discussing how to rig the election (which he subsequently lost) - all shared with the intent to discredit the politician in question.
AI generated content will have the power to sway people to their will. With regard to corporate affairs therefore, businesses will need to be more robust than ever in their crisis preparedness, ensuring any reputational damage is limited. While the biggest threat to businesses from deepfakes is currently financial (scams etc), the increase in AI usage will undoubtedly lead to a subsequent increase in reputational issues. Businesses need to ensure they are prepared to act quickly if and when they do.
Meta
2024 will be a make or break year for Threads. After coming in hot in July 2023, reaching 100m users in just 5 days, its user base has since plateaued with limited daily use in comparison to its primary competitor platform, X. While EU rollout in mid December added a slight boost to its fledgling user base, jumping nearly 20 million users in a week up to 160 million, the real focus will be on when Meta releases a paid option for advertisers. Zuckerberg has previously said Threads won't introduce ads until its user base reaches a critical mass (roughly ~1 billion users), but without it Threads will struggle to be a legitimate challenger to X.
As a cursory nod to Facebook and Instagram, while they may have lost some of their glimmer, they’re still two of the largest social media platforms in terms of monthly active users (three and two billion respectively) and they remain integral for campaigns building and mobilising local community support.
X
Twitter officially rebranded to X last year as owner Elon Musk begins the transformation to the ‘everything app’. It has long been Musk’s ambition to create a western version of China’s WeChat – a one stop shop for all digital transactions. X however has been faltering as of late, with revenue falling by 54% between September 2022-August 2023 as a slew of major brands removed advertising from the platform, concerned with the actions of its new owner and his unwillingness to combat hate speech on the platform.
And on that note, the EU announced at the end of last year that it had launched an investigation into X over disinformation on the platform. While Musk has done little to assuage the nervousness of X advertisers, for interactions with MPs and journalists X remains the de facto platform. Brands are however justifiably concerned with brand safety and need to make sure they take important steps to ensure their content doesn’t appear next to anything unsavoury.
LinkedIn will remain king for B2B content among social media platforms, with 60%* of marketers finding the platform either very or extremely effective for B2B marketing (vs 23% for Facebook and 17% for X).
Previously somewhat overlooked from a brand perspective, LinkedIn is now a valuable platform for the personalities behind the brand. Thought leadership on the platform is no longer a nice to have, it’s a must in adding a face to your brand.
Cookies
At the beginning of 2024, Google kicked off the next stage of its Privacy Sandbox initiative with Tracking Protection - a new feature which “limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default”.
The move will allow Chrome users to further restrict the data that they share, limiting the personalised advertising and website analytics brands and businesses rely on for their campaigns. While this has only been rolled out to 1% of all Chrome users (a measly 0.63% of the globe), it is another step in the initiative leading toward the deprecation of third-party cookies for everyone in the second part of 2024 (subject to approval from the CMA).
With businesses set to lose access to much of the third-party cookie data they have become accustomed to for their campaigning, it will be essential for digital teams to store, and explore further options for, first party data, ensuring they are prepared for a post-cookie future.
OOH
There is a lot to be learned from traditional consumer campaigns for corporate campaigning, particularly with regard to out-of-home advertising (OOH). Bus shelter ads reach 92%** of the population every week, while nearly 26% of customers have visited a website in response to an OOH advert. Targeted OOH campaigns in Westminster, and around key constituencies, should be the extra arrow in your 2024 quiver.
Influencer marketing
Influencer’s have been a large part of consumer campaigns for a while now, though major brands have struggled to incorporate this as part of their corporate campaigning. 2024 could be the year we start to see more of this in action. This doesn’t mean getting what’s-his-chops from off the telly into your campaign because you think they speak to the person on the street - the emphasis on getting the right person for your brand is more important than ever. Focus on micro influencers who speak to your target audience.
Daniel Rice is a Director at 5654 & Company. He is an experienced marcomms strategist and practitioner.
*Smart insights
**75 Media