WARC has launched the Marketer’s Toolkit 2024, offering strategic guidance to marketers for navigating challenges and capitalising on opportunities in 2024. The report draws insights from WARC’s proprietary GEISTE trends research, encompassing the input of over 1,400 marketers worldwide and in-depth interviews with industry leaders.
The Marketer’s Toolkit highlights pivotal trends reaching an inflection point that will influence global marketing strategies in 2024. These trends include socio-political polarisation, the utilisation of generative AI, the evolving concept of masculinity, concerns around “sportswashing,” and the rise of community-based sustainability.
The trend identification process integrates WARC’s GEISTE methodology, an analysis based on global surveys, one-on-one interviews with CMOs, industry commentary, and insights from WARC’s global team.
Aditya Kishore, insight director at WARC, particularly highlighted the economic concerns prevalent among surveyed marketers, “Marketers globally continue to be concerned about the economic picture with 64% of survey respondents seeing it as the biggest factor in 2024 planning.
“But a majority (61%) of firms expect improved business performance next year, up 10% from last year. WARC forecasts global adspend to grow 8.2% in 2024, topping $1 trillion for the first time.”
The report underscores the top five trends that marketers should pay attention to:
• Unlocking the potential of Gen AI: Nearly three-quarters (70%) of marketers plan to unlock the potential of AI in their marketing
• Preparing for the age of polarisation: 13% of marketers said the best strategy is to “drop all ‘purpose’ driven strategies and political positions”
• Masculinity in crisis: Almost two out of three marketers (63%) agree that the way they communicate with young men needs to change
• “Sportswashing” is a growing concern: 61% of marketers concur that it is “very important” for sports organisers and owners to avoid being politically divisive.
• Sustainability should be locally relevant: Nearly two-fifths (38%) of marketers are investing in local communities
A sample of The Marketer’s Toolkit 2024 is available to read here.
A series of podcasts and a webinar will follow on The Marketer’s Toolkit 2024.
See Also: Study from WARC & Royal Mail Marketreach reveals how mail commands media attention