Marketing Trends & Insights: July 2024

Written by

redpepper Staff

multiple authors

Updated on

July 31, 2024 3:18 PM

The lastest trends and insights in the marketing industry from July 2024.

Let's break down a few trends we've been seeing lately in the industry:

2024 Elections
Gen Z & Accountability
Measuring Creative Effectiveness

2024 Elections

Over the next 5 months marketers will face several challenges and opportunities due the 2024 U.S. elections. A record $17 billion in media spending is expected, driving up cost. This is a 31% increase over the 2020 election. The goal will be to embrace creative experimentation to help navigate these challenges and seize opportunities.

How Brands Can Succeed

Performance vs. Curiosity

Brands should prioritize curiosity-driven experiments over performance goals.
Marketers need to pay attention to how audience behaviors shift during the election.

Experiment with Political Reprieve

There are opportunities to provide relief from election stress.
Ex: Calm successfully ran an ad on a Key Race Alert during the 2020 elections.

Brand politics

Consumers are increasingly interested in brands’ political stance but brands face the risk of alienating people regardless of the position they take.
According to Edelman study, 54% of U.S. consumers buy or avoid brands based on political positions.

Calm's successful ad during the 2020 elections

Gen Z & Accountability

For Gen Z, brand accountability is a vital marker of trust and integrity. This generation expects brands to be transparent and responsible, making it essential for companies to uphold high standards and align their actions with their values.

Cancel Culture vs. Accountability

Gen Z’s scrutiny is often mistaken for cancel culture, but it’s about accountability and pushing back against deceptive practices.
- This generation holds high standards that lead them to hold brands accountable.

Growing up amid social and economic turmoil, they value stability and trust.
- They favor brands that contribute to social causes (72%) and exhibit genuine authenticity (82%).
Brands must be honest and strive to positively impact the world to gain Gen Z’s favor.
- Brands can support the changes Gen Z wants to see—increase in racial equality, mental health, and sustainability.

Examples

Poppi, an alternative soda that is popular with Gen Z is receiving backlash due to accusations of misleading health benefit claims.
- Gen Z ifluencers on TikTok have criticized the brand, showing a commitment to ethics, transparency, and authenticity.

Mario Badescu was under scrutiny, with customers accusing the skincare line of damaging their skin.
- There was a lawsuit filed for falsely advertising only natural ingredients in the products, and it was discovered that the products were full of steroids.

Measuring Creative Storytelling

Meta, Kantar and CreativeX unveiled a new AI-powered study at Cannes Lions helping folks quantify the effects of their marketing creative.

Quantifying Effectiveness

Measurements of human connection, visual dynamism, atmospheric cues, and the way objects portray meaning all have a positive impact on an ads effectiveness.
There are 4 levers that can improve ad effectiveness
- Human connection and interaction with the viewer, even eye contact vs. averted gaze (intimacy)
- Seamless brand integration (intimacy)
- Visual dynamism and pacing (immediacy)
- Atmosphere such as music and color (immediacy)
Human connection was the most talked about and highest performing lever, boosting ad effectiveness 81%—humans want humanity which ironically can help better enable AI-powered work.

“It’s the vibe that pulls it all together, that helps your brand tell a consistent story that’s maybe emotive or funny but still fast-paced,” - Rebecca Dykema, Creative X