Ogilvy has identified key trends including brand collaboration, artificial intelligence and the transformation away from traditional influence in its latest social media report.
The “Social Media Trends 2024: A Culture-First Reset On Social” report draws on conversations across the agency’s global workforce, as well as its client base and social media leaders.
The report’s recommendations for brands include prioritising quality engagement over more traditional media metrics, utilising social creators and putting the audience first.
Ogilvy CSO Awie Erasmus said in the report: “To succeed in the age of social 3.0, brands need to become culture-first players.”
“This necessitates the development of increasingly dynamic social strategies that allow brands to respond to trends and shifts at the speed of culture”.
Ogilvy identified a growth in collaborations, including with movie partnerships like Barbie and Mattel as well as collaborations between Heinz x Absolut Tomato sauce, which draws on already developed brand identities.
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Absolut senior brand creative manager Rashi Lakhotia said: “Successful work that resonates in culture, comes from the ability to give creative freedom to artists and culture makers we partner with”.
“Freedom of expression is a core value of Absolut, so we equip them with our distinctive brand assets – our logos, font, Absolut blue, the bottle silhouette and adverting style”.
The report also identified a rise in creator-led content, with sponsored partnerships with TikTokers and other social media creators on the rise, for instance Dove’s ‘Turn Your Back on Glamour’ campaign.
In addition, Ogilvy identified LinkedIn as a key area for influencer growth, with CEOs, academics and doctors.
The platform is the most highly used among B2B marketers and their clients, but the report highlighted that a rising number of professionals were also exercising influence on TikTok and Instagram.
Artificial intelligence also, unsurprisingly given Ogilvy’s recent work with AI generated images, was also flagged, with the rise of campaigns such as Cadbury’s Shah Rukh Khan campaign – which saw an AI rendition of the megastar front its campaign in India – a sign that the trend is set to continue.
