Every penny counts when you’re allocating marketing spend so spending it where it will have the most impact is crucial. Jemma Robertson, director of Glasgow-based marketing agency GRA, has predicted some key marketing trends for 2024 with her team and suggests these six top ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ for the year ahead. 

IN FOR 2024 

1. Broadcast and radio advertising for smaller brands

Five or 10 years ago, only the biggest of brands could have advertised on TV or radio. Now these channels are becoming much more affordable and accessible, we think we’re going to see much smaller brands utilising these to help increase brand awareness and visibility.   Initiatives like the STV Growth Fund has already provided more than £15 million in funding over the last three years to help more than 300 Scottish businesses of all shapes and sizes advertise on TV which gives brands a great opportunity to either dig a little deeper in their marketing spend and explore advertising channels that may have been out of reach before.

2. Omni-channel marketing

This is by no means a new thing and merely means: brands using different channels at the same time in a cohesive way. We’ve all heard of the ‘rule of seven’ which is the marketing principle that your customers need to see or hear your brand at least seven times before they are aware of you or will commit to buying something. The secret here, however is to make sure there is consistency across your channels (TV, radio, social media, out of home (OOH) and paid advertising) with the same messaging, same creative aimed at the same audience for maximum brand impact. So, someone might hear about you on the radio and again from a friend at work – and then on their phone. That’s impact at its finest! 

3. Brand collaboration

Brand collaboration works best when two brands –in different industries doing different things – collaborate. It’s a royalty free way for brands to reach a new and relevant audience and a great way to create a buzz online. Lots of collaborations are usually just ‘stunts’ to cause a stir, but it’s even better if the collaboration actually creates a new, or limited edition product. Over the past few years, we have seen Heinz excel at this- teaming up with paint company Lickto create a Heinz Tomato Ketchup coloured paint and vodka brand Absolut to create a vodka pasta sauce off the back of Gigi Hadid’s famous recipe.  

OUT FOR 2024

4. Threads

Threads was the new kid on the block that launched last year and gained 1 million users in just one hour. Since then, the heat has died down and now begs the question – do their users still exist? In our opinion, it’s totally out for 2024 (sorry!). Brands have enough to be to be doing just now and other conflicting priorities to worry about Threads (which is, in reality, just a worse version of Twitter?). If you have a dedicated team (or person) with the sole job of managing your Threads content then crack on but for smaller brands with less resource, we would say bin it and put your time & effort into your best performing platform. 

5. Basic influencer sponsorship

Using influencers or bloggers to promote your product or service online is a popular tactic used by many brands across the world and one that has generated the influencer and company A LOT of money. Although it’s quite a saturated market now, we don’t see this disappearing completely. But, and it’s a big but, consumers aren’t stupid so influencers need to cut through the noise and try to harness a genuine, authentic relationship with their followers. Instead of brands using influencers for a one-hit wonder, they should try to build a longer-term relationship with a network of affiliates/influencers who are genuinely passionate about their product.  

6. ‘Lights on’ social content

Are you posting on social media just for the sake of it? To ‘keep the lights on’ and show that your business is still there? Then stop! If your content isn’t educating, intriguing or entertaining then what are you posting and what value are you adding to your audience? We’re seeing a real drive for quality over quantity in 2024 so post content because it’s actually good. Not because you feel you have to.

 Jemma Robertson is director of Glasgow-based marketing agency, GRA.