Dentsu Creative has released its 2024 trends report, The Futures Less Traveled, exploring the power of world-building and storytelling in shaping new futures. The report emphasises the role of hope in navigating an uncertain world and encourages brands and businesses to actively design their desired futures.
The report identifies five macro trends for 2024, exploring various sub-trends within each. These trends encompass the unexpected potential of joy in times of anxiety, the transformative power of storytelling for societal change, and the ability of deep local insights to connect diverse global communities.
Specifically, the key trends explored include: Ode to Joy, recognising joy as a crucial element amid global chaos, The Memes of Production, showcasing the underestimated power of soft, superficial or trivial as forces for change, Here We Are Now, about engagement with all things local and homegrown, The Magic in the Machine, delving into the role of AI in human experiences, and Me, Myself and Us, addressing changing demographics and the emergence of “digital twins”.
The report also presents innovative practices worldwide, aiming to act as a resource for brands, businesses, and individuals to navigate the evolving landscape of 2024 and beyond.
Yasuharu Sasaki, global chief creative officer at dentsu, commented on the findings, stating: “Against the backdrop of this uncertain world our report turns to hope as a deliberate choice, to empower us to take control and design our own futures.
“Through creativity, armed with the powers of technology and storytelling, we hold potential to pave ways for many exciting Futures Less Traveled, borne of core principles of optimism and ambition.”
Pats McDonald, chief strategy officer, EMEA, Dentsu Creative, remarked on the importance of designing for the future amidst exponential change, emphasising that “Hope is not a strategy but it is a choice.”
“No one can predict with certainty what the future will bring. But we can design for the future we want to see. We see consumers around the world taking control of a chaotic world through small but powerful acts of connection and self-care.”
Amit Wadhwa, chief executive officer, Dentsu Creative India, also highlighted the role of creativity, technology, and storytelling in shaping the unknowns of 2024, presenting the 2024 trends report as a valuable tool for guiding this journey.
Said Wadhwa, “As we face the unknowns of 2024 and beyond, we want to help our clients discover and design futures that are less predictable, but more desirable”
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