Trends are the highways that shape the future of marketing

As a brand specialist or marketer, staying ahead of trends is key to winning consumers – and this applies especially to the Gen Z audience, the demographic with strong opinions, unique tastes and ever-growing buying power.

With an attention span that taps out at around eight seconds, the question is: what are you doing to engage this audience? Capturing the attention of the Gen Zs and keeping it long enough to interest and educate them about your products and what you offer them is key to winning over this generation of digital natives.

There is a reason that platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels dominate Gen Z’s media consumption, creating an unprecedented opportunity for engagement. Tapping into the power of entertainment, these platforms show bite-sized videos garnering more views, shares and likes than traditional long-form content ever did.

Gen Zs are big on trends and love trying out new products and experimenting with new experiences – especially if the people they look up to – the celebs and influencers they respect, relate to and share common values with – are leading the way.

Knowing the trends that will shape the future, especially the immediate future, may well be the determining factor for success in 2024.

These are my top four trends for 2024 to watch out for if you want to win over this generation.

Trend 1: Tapping into culture and passion points

Right at the top of the list of trends is doubling down on the passion points of this culture-driven generation – the things they allocate their time and money to, in search of building community, finding their tribe, connecting with those that they love, and taking a break from their everyday reality.

While art, fashion and street culture are rated highly, music is by far the strongest passion point of Gen Zs – the ‘creatives’ – and the opportunities for marketers to reach them through this medium continue to be huge.

Music festivals offer abundant opportunities for various types of brands to create memorable moments of connection, and increase visibility in spaces that matter most, while platforms like Spotify offer another ideal opportunity to reach the Gen Z.

It is essential to remember that creating deep and meaningful connections, that are authentic and show your brand understands who they are and what they need, is key. Anything less is unlikely to win this generation over – or to inspire them to make a purchase.

Sneaker brand Nike recently tapped into **Hypebeast Street Culture – Hypebeast being the term for Kevin Ma’s leading online destination for men’s contemporary fashion and streetwear: hypebeast.com – for the launch of their collaboration with one of London’s most prolific streetwear clothing brands Corteiz, orchestrating a city-shutdown in New York with the special colourway of Corteiz’s Nike Air Max 95 collaboration.

Corteiz dropped coordinates on their social platforms that led thousands to a local bodega (a specialised grocery store), where inside, followers could grab the special Pink Beam pair. As anticipated, hysteria unfolded en masse.

Seldom has a UK label congregated and commanded such a buzz in a foreign country – demonstrating the power of tapping into street culture. **The ’hypebeasts’ are a growing subculture of streetwear enthusiasts who are obsessed with fashion and trends.

With predictions of a tough financial year ahead of us on all fronts, tapping into culture streams will be even more relevant. According to the Africa Entertainment & Media Outlook 2023 – 2027, Africa’s entertainment and media industry is forecast to grow despite the steep cost-of-living challenges consumers are faced with.

Trend 2: Radical innovation to boost sustainable brand growth

In the landscape of Gen Z trends for 2024, radical Innovation is front and centre. And not only as it relates to brand campaigns and activations. At the end of the day consumers buy products, so it’s important for them to invest in the way they market their products – not least to maintain a competitive advantage with this savvy market segment.

Over the years we’ve seen incremental innovation in flooded markets like smartphones, for example. Everywhere the consumer goes, it’s the same bells and whistles. The question you need to be asking is: what is your differentiating factor?

When it comes to innovation, most will agree that Samsung is one of the leaders in innovation. They’re always looking to stay ahead of the curve in their markets, with this having been proven by them being one of the first big companies to bring foldable smartphones to the general public, with the Galaxy Z Series.

It will come as no surprise, then, to learn that Samsung focuses heavily on innovation with their products. They are always looking ahead and asking, ‘What is the next Trend?’. Gen Z is one of their core markets and they know that this generation is always looking for brand new experiences.

The Freestyle Projector is another Samsung innovation. The versatile features that come with The Freestyle (Smart portable projector) was a result of listening to the Gen MZ (Millennials and Gen Z ) and learning the importance of actively reflecting the Interests and experiences of Younger Generations.

This forward-thinking generation are also open to experimenting and new ideas, if they align with their own values. Other innovations include The Frame TV, which has been showcased locally through their partnership with Usurpa, one of the first digital art galleries in Africa, where the Samsung Frame TV allows for an immersive viewing experience for visitors.

Essentially, Frame TV turns a Samsung television into a canvas while it’s switched off, displaying a choice of over 1 600 artworks from museums and galleries all around the world – or owners’ own photographs and artworks. It even comes with auto rotate. Talk about enriching your living space!

Tough times ahead

Looking at the trajectory for 2024, we know that we are in for a tough time economically. Disposable income is shrinking, and the way consumers are spending is changing. Black Friday 2023 is a case in point. The majority of South Africans are no longer shopping for luxuries, they are look for good deals on necessities – the things they believe they need, the things that solve a problem in their lives – like quality electronics that can withstand the electricity surges that come with load shedding.

That is why innovation needs to speak to the real needs of consumers and, when it comes to Gen Zs especially, show understanding of their pain and passion points.

Recent research by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company indicates Gen Zs are willing to spend on experiences that enrich their daily lives – although how they determine what enriches their lives, like spending on wellness and self-care, differs from previous generations.

Trend 3: Digital communities open the door

Reaching new digital communities will be a game-changing strategy for South African marketers wanting to command the attention of Gen Z in 2024. Staying informed about these trending marketing strategies and adapting quickly can provide you with a competitive edge.

By far the most coveted of these is the gaming community, where this generation lives and breathes – primarily though mobile devices.

Africa is a mobile-driven economy, and the continent’s gaming eco-ecosystem has been viewed and nurtured through a mobile-first lens, with the design and development of all new technologies keeping the device firmly front and centre.

With 186 million gamers in Sub-Saharan Africa recorded in 2021, and 95% of these playing on mobile, the region is predicted to be the fastest-growing mobile gaming market in the world.

Thanks to improved gaming performance on mobile devices, those communities have the greatest potential to market to the Gen Z consumer because of gaming’s inherent ability to truly capture audiences, dishing up what is currently the highest-value currency for advertisers and marketers: attention.

Trend 4: GenAI as an enabler

My prediction is that AI will continue to play a significant role in the marketing space, streamlining processes and increasing productivity, as it does. 2023 marked the year in which generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) exploded into the mainstream with the launches of ChatGPT and Bard.

GenAI is being touted as the new frontier, because of its ability to leverage AI to create creative assets, which helps smaller businesses – especially agencies who don’t have a lot of manpower – to increase their output of work.

Gen Z is the internet generation and they are ready and willing to embrace new technology and new ideas that speak to their lifestyle and ideals. In fact, they have been the fastest to embrace AI, and will probably be the first to embrace GenAI.

The industry is exploring opportunities to use GenAI to create efficiencies in the way we develop and personalise creative and innovate at scale. According to Gonca Bubani, global thought leader of media for Kantar (producers of the Media Trends and Predictions report that illuminates the opportunities and challenges confronting the content and advertising ecosystems) GenAI is not a hype but a transformational development that is already profoundly impacting our industry.

Kantar’s Media Reactions 2023 shows that 67% of marketers feel positive about the possibilities of GenAI. This optimism points to a rapid adoption of the new technology. Are you ready?

Positive sentiment

Sharing the positive sentiment towards AI among marketers, MMA SA’s Youth Development Board (YDB), of which I am Vice Chair, is actively pursuing AI as part of its contribution to the future of marketing in South Africa.

We believe AI is an enabler and an enhancer of creativity and we are currently developing a new project called A Marketing Minute. Here we take extensive reports published by the MMA, and script minute long summaries from these, using AI to create the content – both visual and audio.

As we progress, the idea is to share what we learn from this on platforms like LinkedIn so that fellow marketers who want to use AI can add this to their ‘toolkit’ to use in their everyday working lives.

In a business landscape where productivity and revenue growth are at the forefront of organisational priorities, the role of GenAI is taking centre stage, and we are proud to be at the coalface of this phenomenon that is taking us into the future.

Also known as The Blck Sparrow, Anesu Malisa (Samsung Africa’s Gen Z marketing lead) and the newly elected vice-chair of the MMA SA Youth Development Board, is a multi-hyphenate creative, who loves to express himself through music, TikTok comedy, scriptwriting and more. With prior experience as a youth mentor, content creator and a tech start-up founder, this cultivated Anesu’s deep love and passion for technology, storytelling, connecting brands to Gen Z, and most importantly, raising the next generation of creative innovators. Instagram/TikTok: @TheBlckSparrow. LinkedIn: Anesu Malisa