37 ad execs predict 2024 second half trends—and what they don’t want to see

July is here, which means so is the second half of 2024. The first half of the year was dominated by talk of generative AI; the U.S. presidential race; the brand power of Taylor Swift (as well as whatever morsel of information the media could get on her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs’ player Travis Kelce); seemingly never-ending brand missteps; layoffs; the fallout between Michael Kassan and MediaLink; and a law forcing TikTok to sell its U.S. assets from its Chinese-based owner ByteDance or face a ban, among other topics. 40 under 40 entries are open The final deadline for nominations is Aug. 2 Enter here Ad Age asked industry insiders and execs to share their thoughts on what they think will continue to trend in the second half of 2024, as well as what they’d rather not read in headlines through the rest of the year. Fatigue around generative AI (and talk of its threat to creativity), unsurprisingly, is at an all-time high, but some executives said they’re even growing tired of Swift dominating brand marketing conversations and headlines around the advertiser fallout on X (formerly Twitter) under Elon Musk’s ownership. Other predictions and comments range from calling for more investment in Pinterest, given its growing popularity among Gen Z, to embracing more immersive and wearable tech to reach younger generations. Brands will also continue to navigate politics amid the upcoming U.S. presidential election and pour money into women's sports, especially with the Olympics on the horizon, some said. Below are the responses from 37 industry executives, edited slightly for brevity and clarity, and ordered alphabetically. Manfred Abraham, CEO at brand and strategy development company Yonder Consulting It would be great if we see organizations move beyond merely talking about everything they are doing for their customers and actually start delivering to customers' real needs and wants. Consumers are tired of hearing about all the things a business claims to do with them in mind. They want to see those claims put into action. We’ve seen a sharp rise in redundant research recently, and we are starting to feel a bit fatigued by it. There is a trend of publishing reports with a certain number of respondents just to hit a quota. The goal is to gain better insights and overall understanding of your customers. Using that logic, it doesn’t make sense to have 2,000 survey respondents just to boast about that number. Having a smaller, more targeted survey will actually give you insights that are useful for your company. The increasing emphasis on tracking clickthrough rates, views on social ads and banner ad clicks is a troubling trend. Consumers are growing tired of all the spam. While a clickthrough rate of 2%-5% is often considered good, depending on the industry, few consider what happens to over 90% of those other consumers. You’ve likely annoyed them, angered them and possibly alienated them from your brand. Craig Atkinson, CEO at digital marketing company Code3 Things I don’t want to see: Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer, North America, VML Even though the spatial tech category is just ramping up, we’ll see more significant growth and brands creatively experimenting in this space in 2024 and 2025. The contextual advantages of smart glasses and headsets can turn smartphones into a sidekick and a hub for all things wearable devices. This presents a massive opportunity for app developers, web developers, brands and retailers to get their feet wet. Brands should be testing, playing and creating here because the generations leading the future market for brands (Gen Z and Alpha) see the possibilities of a tech-empowered world in a way that no other generation has. There’s now a long and storied list of brands forced to apologize for their advertising missteps, and the emergence of the brand ad apology coincided with the rise of social media. The fact is, brands are acting more like people and entering conversations about politics, personal identity and sex unlike ever before. ...You can’t enter a conversation—especially one that is personal—and then back out when it is inconvenient. When entering a cultural conversation you must create scenario plans; look at the risks; go in with eyes open; and wholeheartedly commit. Do I always agree with the message? No. But if this is the brand’s point of view and voice on the topic, they should commit to it. Fewer whoops, and more sorry not sorry. April Carlisle, executive VP, commerce, Spark Foundry I’d like to see no more new retail media networks starting up. Clients are overwhelmed with the number and bifurcation of the retail media networks with separate walled gardens and measurement standards that don’t meet industry standards. Retail media has been a significant source of revenue for retailers, but overall marketer budgets are relatively flat in that space, so retail media networks are working fast to expand into upper funnel brand budgets and focus on non–endemic advertisers to continue their growth. [Also read: Inside CVS’s retail media ad deal with The Trade Desk] Phil Case, president and chief client officer, Max Connect Digital The window for capturing consumer attention will come down to the millisecond by the end of the year, causing clickthrough rate chaos across the board. The brands that come out victorious in this battle for consumer attention will be the ones that are viewed as helpful, rather than intrusive. With the bombardment of political ads in the latter half of 2024, I hope that the trend of ad blocking will not reach new heights because, if it does, it will only enlarge the pool of wasted ad spend across the industry. This will cause marketing campaigns to underdeliver, which is a marketer’s worst nightmare. Google and Meta need to step up the pace if they wish to prevail in the war on ad blockers. Michael Chapman, chief client officer, The Martin Agency I would like to see less focus on expected results and more emphasis on unexpected results. While the market continues to do well, the market is not the economy. And people are feeling the pinch. This is leading to an over-emphasis on tactical marketing plans, compounded by the seductive promise of AI-driven data capture to predict and measure all parts of marketing effectiveness. When we over-rotate toward the expected and known, we risk losing more creative solutions that can drive unexpected and outsized short-term and long-term business impact. If brands want to thrive in the second half, we need more briefs focused on business problems and growth opportunities and fewer briefs focused on a predetermined, tactical media plan. Gati Desai Curtis, president, Elite Media I’d like to see less trending topics and more trending action. There are a lot of discussions around diversity, inclusivity, AI, impact, the death of the agency model, the rebirth of humor … which are great to ground everyone and get us on the same page. But now we need to turn words into action. What are we as agencies, leaders and marketers doing to drive the change or future we want to see? We have the power to shift culture, conversations and perceptions, so let’s get to it. Agency Review Tracker Stay up to date with the latest account reviews Click here Samantha Deevy, chief strategy officer, BBH USA We often use the adage ‘fewer, bigger, better.’ We’re going to see a different approach–‘more, smaller, better.’ Election years always create a certain context—increased pricing, increased noise, increased cultural anxiety. This year this is even more heightened. You’ll see brands looking to experiment with how to connect with people in this context. You’ll see brands looking to lessen their reliance on the channels that will be subsumed by election noise or looking to offer an antidote in these spaces—things that are fun, dumb (the good kind!) and designed to bring levity to the moment. I’m hoping it will inspire an experimental attitude, a willingness to play with tone a bit and where brands show up … and, yes, maybe a willingness to get just a little weirder than usual. [Look back: 80 ad predictions for 2024] Vin Farrell, chief operations officer for Publicis' content and production network PXP The conversation around social media’s influence on culture as a mental health issue will further accelerate. There will be regulations placed on social platforms like how substances are treated in the marketing arena. This will foster new rules, barriers and boundaries when marketing in these spaces, especially towards youth. Pinterest is becoming a force for good amongst Gen Z. Usage is up and driving renewed buzz around the creative platform. The root functionality and purpose are not based on addictive doom scrolling—it’s seen as a creative expression platform for positivity. This past week they announced new tools to help users convert Pinterest boards into socially friendly videos that can be shared. Lisa Giacosa, chief investment officer, Spark Foundry I’d like to see fewer walled gardens that claim ROI in their ecosystem without connecting the dots to all activity that has occurred to drive business outcomes. And no more discussion on cookie deprecation when we know how to solve it (ID-level data can unlock what is needed). [Also read: What Amazon thinks of alternate ad IDs] Amy Gilbert, VP of social innovation, Social Element TikTok isn’t going down without a fight. With the launch of their new Instagram competitor photo tool and their continued efforts to bring on new creators and gain public favor, this platform isn’t going to go away quietly. It’s aiming to find other ways to strengthen their position within the U.S. We will see more pushes from platforms to fill the (possible) TikTok void. We see this with Pinterest’s new feature that allows you to make videos from your boards and share them on other platforms. Tomas Gonsorcik, global chief strategy officer, DDB Worldwide It would be refreshing to see agencies and holding companies stop trying to out-process each other, but instead focus on building cultures and environments that nurture transformative creative breakthroughs. We are obsessing about proprietary processes and resourcing solutions instead of focusing on our clients and how we grow their business. It is only in an inclusive, empowering and emotionally-safe creative environment where true breakthrough thinking can happen. Ad Age Agency Report 2024 Revenue and analysis for agency companies Click here Tom Hamling, founder and chief creative officer at Nashville agency The Mayor I’d love to see fewer pharma ads involving highly choreographed, musical ensembles. The scope, scale and frequency of these productions are relentless and have forced me to spend my weekends singing jingles about plaque psoriasis when what I should really be focused on is my underperforming professional sports teams. Tim Harkins, executive creative director at creative production company Hook Over the last several months, we’ve been noticing a trend in how brands cautiously approach advertising on social media. Whether they’re somewhat new to the space or expanding their presence across new platforms, brands are being asked to prove the value of each platform despite limited budgets, tight timelines and only a handful of assets. This approach often leads to underwhelming results, causing brands to walk away from that respective platform and miss out on opportunities to connect with their target audiences—which in turn creates room for their competitors to thrive. I expect that this trend will only become more prevalent. To succeed, brands must invest time upfront in developing distinct concepts and allocate sufficient resources for execution and production. So as for what I’m hoping to see in the coming months, it’s this: More earnest investment with a tailored strategy to make an authentic impact. [Also read: How agencies are reinventing their social practices] Jeremiah Knight, chief operating officer, Saatchi & Saatchi We anticipate seeing a huge uptick in the marketing use of text-to-video prompted content. We have already seen some stunning proofs-of-concept in long-form video, edited from smaller prompted snippets. As Google Veo takes off and as OpenAI’s Sora opens its doors after the presidential election, a new wave of creativity may begin. But, caveat emptor, the possibility for doing harm is very high with such convincing tools and we are terrified that bad actors might use similar tech on candidate deepfakes that confuse the general public and make a mockery of democracy. [Below, a Toys R Us ad generated by the AI tool Sora] Keri Kokayi, managing partner and CEO at strategic management consultancy Advise Worldwide While not favored in marketing halls, cost efficiency will continue to trend upward. As brand marketers are being asked to deliver loftier outcomes with fewer resources, the need to manufacture value from marketing expenses will be a competitive imperative. To that end, transparent compensation models revealing agency overhead and margin will become a mandate. While smart advertisers will keep the work commercially attractive to agencies, they will require the transparency their consumers demand of them; the ability to openly see ‘the ingredients’ that make up costs. This sort of visibility will help brands optimize their spend to drive more engagement and conversion opportunities. Evan Levy, CEO, Fitzco Consumer priorities will shift with the looming election. Brands will need to find new and creative ways to break through during these unprecedented times. We’re seeing the new business machine cranking back up, and this time around it’s coming with some new ways of thinking about the pitch process—reducing rote activity, concentrating more on what really matters to clients and agencies. It’s not a sea change, but if we can close 2024 having started to turn that tide, that’s real progress. Clients continue to appreciate the need to balance performance and brand—that it’s not one or the other. By the time we move into 2025, I think that will be much more universally appreciated. [Also read: How to fix new business pitches] Ashley Marshall, executive creative director, The Martin Agency I would love things to stop being so responsibly boring. We are overwhelmed with the choice of products now and I’d love to see some bold ads out there again, that make people love brands. It’s been a bit since I’ve been truly blown away. Mark Marshall, chairman, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal Big live events will continue to set viewership records and drive results for marketers. This will start with the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games and continue through the holidays and NFL season. Marketers need immediate reach more than ever and these moments across linear and streaming are providing that. I also think we will see an increase in marketing partnerships in live to make a client’s brand and message create even more impact. The bifurcation of linear TV and connected TV: They both deliver content and ads to a television in a home with multiple people using advanced targeting. We need to stop looking at them as cannibalizing each other when instead they are driving incremental reach for brands. Nick Miaritis, chief client officer, VaynerMedia The trend I would like to see not talked about this year is worshipping creative work that no one actually consumes—most TV commercials and work designed for award show trophies. As an industry, we’re still obsessed with putting yesterday’s work on a pedestal, versus the creative work happening today in social media, which is consumed by billions of people every day. We need to move forward and recognize there’s a whole new world of work being created that looks very different and is driving massive growth for brands around the world. Rajesh Midha, North America CEO, Ogilvy One With the increasing importance of data privacy, as marketers we need to provide reasons for customers to provide first-party data, and then leverage that data to create personalized, relevant and impactful marketing. The separation of technology strategy to overall business strategy is outdated. An integrated approach where technology, digital and data strategy is a core part of business strategy is what is required. Andrea Palmer, president, Publicis Health Media Name, image and likeness deals grew 146% in 2022-23 [per SponsorUnited]. College football players accounted for 60% of all new deals, whereas NIL deals for women's college basketball athletes grew 186%. This introduces a new influencer class as social media represents nearly three-quarters of all NIL activity, typically dominated by female athletes in the moment when female sports are finally seeing widespread mainstream attention. Mark Penn, CEO and chairman, Stagwell Despite AI fearmongering, creativity will continue to dominate over technology. It’s actually marketing that makes technology available to the masses, not the other way around, by funding innovation at scale. Because of the value of that advertising revenue, I predict tech and entertainment services will increasingly revert to advertising-based models rather than subscription-based ones. You’re already seeing it with how aggressively Netflix, Amazon and Disney are focusing on advertising these days. In the industry overall, since last year, when the much-hyped recession never appeared, I predicted 2024 would be the year of competition. I expect that to continue playing out with tech companies returning to marketing to capture consumer attention and win market share. On the AI front, I believe AI-based targeting will grow across media, and bots that simulate humans will become the ultimate brand ambassadors. Sarah Personette, CEO, Puck From the rise of generative AI to the influences of the geopolitical environment to the run-up to the election, there has been an overall uncomfortableness with uncertainty. I believe volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are the foundational characteristics of our post-covid, post-globalization world. Media companies should embrace uncertainty and lead with action to create focused confidence for their teams and customers. Darla Price, president, Ogilvy New York The business climate has caused many brands to pull back on more culturally relevant work and shift more into sell mode through reasons to believe rather than connections with consumers. I don’t want to not see brands doing brave stuff as we close out a great year. I would like to see the RFP process move from request for proposal to ready for progress. In other words, I would love to see fewer brands that aren’t ready for the change required within a pitch and more who are brave and want to be change agents. Tom Ramsden, CEO, Sid Lee U.S. There are a lot of things we’d be happy to not see again this year, or right now, or ever again: Big, fake AR things floating around as if we’re supposed to believe they’re real. Chasing engagement by asking everyone to take and defend a definitive position on something trivial such as, “Where do you stand on pineapple on pizza?’’ Who gives a shit? Lazy opinions and repetitive sound bites on the potential of AI. Above all though, the trend that needs to stop ASAP is the rollback and apathy of DEI. [Also read: The state of diversity in advertising] Sean Reardon, CEO, media practice, Dentsu Americas I am keen to see more practical applications of AI come into play. I think we will see the trend move from AI being talked about to it actually being applied. Sports will also continue to reign supreme for the remainder of the year and well beyond. Not a new trend, per se, but we are at an interesting inflection point where sports are more present in the media landscape than ever before. The correlation between the rise in popularity of women’s sports and female athletes such as Caitlin Clark is undeniable and the Paris Olympics are sure to introduce new (and old) names to the broader cultural zeitgeist. Combine this with the advance of streaming platforms that will shape the landscape for the decade ahead and you've got something particularly worth watching unfold. Hope Richards, media director at independent media agency Media+ A trend I would like to see go away is inauthentic marketing. Inauthentic marketing, where individuals or companies promote products or causes without genuine belief, has become prevalent and problematic. Examples include influencers endorsing brands they don’t use and brands superficially supporting social causes. This leads to loss of trust, decreased loyalty and negative word-of-mouth, as informed consumers quickly recognize insincerity. To counteract this, brands and influencers should focus on authenticity, transparency and genuine engagement, fostering trust and long-term loyalty for more meaningful marketing success. [Also read: Why Gen Zers want authenticity from brands] Trina Roffino, CEO, The Marketing Arm In the first half of 2024, we observed a troubling trend of short-termism across both brand marketing strategies and internal agency operations. This short-sighted approach, focused primarily on immediate sales and cost-cutting, can have detrimental effects on long-term brand health and agency sustainability. Brands, especially certain retailers, exemplified this trend by heavily investing in short-term, sales-driven campaigns. The focus on quick wins undermines the development of a strong brand identity and equity, which are essential for sustained success in a competitive market. We need to find balance in the back half of the year. Both brands and agencies must strike a balance between immediate objectives and long-term goals. For brands, this means investing in campaigns that create cultural resonance and deliver strong brand equity as well as conversion. For agencies, it involves maintaining high standards of creativity and service by getting back to investing in talent and resources. Shawna Ross, chief strategy officer, Dentsu Creative Something that there seems to be no ceiling to is the craving for frictionless interactions. But it’s something I’d love to see start to balance, because with tech-enabled ‘frictionless experiences’ continually advancing, we stand to lose much-needed human connection. We are seeing a real tension between consumer demand for increased ease and seamlessness and the ongoing loneliness epidemic. If we solely strive for the frictionless, human connection is at stake. How do we put friction back into experiences? This is not something that a lot of people are talking about right now, but maybe we should be talking about bringing some friction back. James Rowe, managing director, adam&eveDDB NY At the risk of facing the wrath of large swaths of adam&evers, I think it’s time we say thank you and goodbye to Taylor Swift and Eras Tour … for now. We’re all in awe of what Taylor has achieved and what we can all learn from her ability to build a loyal army of fans. She was the best thing to happen to the NFL in 50 years, and ‘Brand Taylor’ has never been stronger (some value the brand in the multi-billions). However, I think we’ve reached max-Taylor, so let’s give some others airtime. There are thousands of talented artists and creators out there producing some incredible content every single day. As advertisers and brand owners, let’s continue to find, support and champion new and rising talent, rather than hanging on the coattails of big names. Amir Sahba, CEO and founder at creative studio Thinkingbox New technologies and tools will continue to accelerate the speed with which agencies deliver work. Rapid ideation and execution, along with real-time integration, will become table stakes to meet the growing demand for quick, actionable outcomes. However, while technology serves as a powerful catalyst, creative vision coupled with efficient execution will truly drive results. AI doesn’t power creativity; it empowers creative people. I would like to see our collective focus as an industry shift back to how AI enhances our work, not replaces it. Gordy Sang, co-founder and co-chief creative officer, Quality Meats These smaller indie founder-led agencies that keep popping up, it’s like “We get it already.” Kidding! We love them. Let’s keep that going. But for real, AI. Not the trend of using it, but the constant talking about AI as a trend-trend. Let’s let that maybe die down a bit? [Also read: New ad agencies are opening rapidly] Pete Stein, global president, Merkle I don’t want to see AI being used solely for cost efficiency, but rather for employee and customer empowerment, experience improvement and revenue growth. To succeed with AI, marketers need to get their enterprise data architecture in great shape because we will continue to see data coming together from more disparate places than ever before. Enterprise AI initiatives should seek to avoid the problems that can arise from flawed or insufficient underlying data assets and data architectures. AI is only as good as your data that feeds it. Kris Tait, managing director, U.S. at digital agency Croud As far as what shouldn’t be trending for the second half of the year, it’s the misconception that generative AI is the answer to all creative woes—I’d love if that fell by the wayside. Instead, we need business leaders to recognize how it’s best used, specifically as it applies to concepting, ideation and editing. In other words, letting AI run wild with 1,000 creative variations turned into Meta ads is not the answer. Also, I think we’re in the “do more with less” era. There are opportunities everywhere to do more, using AI, GPT, machine learning, speeding up processes with smart technology. Sharpen what you are doing, get rid of the things that don't have an impact. We should use this as a good reset and rebuild opportunity. Justin Tobin, founder and president at innovation consultancy Gather It’s time we stop grasping at straws and actually ground AI in a proper strategy. This means we need to move away from the hype around AI into the reality of AI—to a place where we’ve found an understanding of what the application for each business could be, so that we can find ways to implement it. That also means that we need to move the AI responsibility away from the CFO and towards the CCO—so that it’s no longer just about cost savings, it’s about efficiencies more broadly and the pursuit of new value. We need to move away from the anxiety and the fear—on a global, political and economic scale. There’s a lot of confusion and pessimism, and we need to get back to a place of assuredness. And that’s going to require C-suites and executives across the board to get a bit more brave. Stacey Wade, CEO, Nimbus I hope to see fewer brands only leaning into influencers and thinking that will cause conversions. Influencers lead to awareness and consideration, but they shouldn’t have the burden to drive sales overnight. That’s something that’s rare and has become a cheat code for brands. This also leads me to the term “hijack culture” being put to rest. In a lot of ways, it’s offensive to think that you can ask an agency to “hijack” a cultural conversation authentically [that] brands, who have no input in culture, can somehow “hijack” a cultural moment. This term popped up for us as an agency last year and continued into the first part of this year, floating around brand marketing teams as a tool for virality. In marketing, we all know how hard it is to create virality, near impossible, it’s our industry’s way of saying “Catch lightning in a bottle for us. You’re hip right? You’re a culturally connected agency, right?” It puts the brand and the agency teams in a tough position, almost guaranteeing failure amongst the two, but the lack of success is unfairly balanced between them, almost guaranteeing that the agency will bear the lion’s share of the failure to “hijack culture.”

37 ad execs predict 2024 second half trends—and what they don’t want to see

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