Kantar – Marketing Trends, 2024

Kantar's Marketing Trends for 2024 highlight the increasing adoption and optimism surrounding AI in the marketing industry. Gen AI, in particular, is being explored as a tool to improve creative development, personalization, and innovation. As AI brings more opportunities for scale and efficiency, marketers will need to understand the effectiveness of their content and use AI measurement approaches that match the pace and scale of the industry. The report also emphasizes the importance of aligning marketing campaigns with culture. Consumers are increasingly demanding that brands support causes and values that resonate with them. However, there is often a gap between what consumers say and what they actually do, known as the purchasing value-action gap. Marketers must take into account this consumer behavior and ensure their campaigns are in sync with cultural norms to avoid confrontations and backlash. Furthermore, the increasing prominence of cancel culture poses a challenge for brands. With social media providing a global stage for opinions, the risk and scale of consumer backlash have intensified. Marketers need to navigate this landscape carefully and give clear parameters to influencers while staying authentic. Brands that stand up for their beliefs can make a lasting impact on consumers, despite potential controversies in the short term. In terms of attention measurement, marketers are recognizing the importance of optimizing ROI by developing ads and media plans that maximize attention per dollar spent. While traditional measures like time viewed are still dominant, there is a trend towards gaining a deeper understanding of the quality of consumers' creative attention through techniques like facial coding and eye-tracking. AI-based attention predictions are also expected to play a greater role in 2024, allowing marketers to measure attention at scale for digital ads.