Penny Shell.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.
Penny Shell, Chief Strategy & Product Officer, Zenith Media
Every trend has a countertrend. As Taylor would say, every hero has an anti-hero.
It’s what makes our stories, our society and our industry interesting. It fuels creativity. As important as it is for media to continue to embrace new technology, we should never underestimate the innovation potential of ‘traditional’ channels.
AI Obsession
Have we ever talked about anything in media as much as we talked about AI in 2024?
It’s optimising creative executions across digital, social, video and audio. In Australia, audio partners Mamamia introduced us to ‘Sam’, the dynamic addition to their voice over talent pool. Meanwhile, more than half of social creators say they use AI weekly in their content.
Advertisers can access basic DIY creative functions through video partners, while Cannes Lions reported 12% of all entries utilised AI.
Clients and brands are optimising messaging and offers behind the scenes, with customer service AI functions taking the form of everything, from avatars to personalised products.
In agencies, AI is being used for generating idea inspiration, meeting notation and real time campaign and competitive dashboarding, complete with findings. While we haven’t quite reached mainstream usage of the ‘Hey Gen’ app to create an “AI version of you that speaks 175 languages, moves naturally, and always follows the script,” I do look forward to mine never having to be reminded to come off mute.
In 2024, we saw this widespread AI obsession meet with its countertrend – real world resurgence.
Real World Resurgence
Faced with significant AI innovation, the ‘real world’ of tangible media formats is experiencing a resurgence.
Despite our industry forecasts predicting a decline for print media, we saw a 7% year-on-year increase in magazine readership, and an 8% rise in lifestyle titles (September 2024). Us 90s girls rejoiced when Cosmopolitan hit the stands again, immediately purchasing for our younger counterparts. Could magazines mirror the success of the vinyl renaissance?!
And though we have at least 6.6 screens in the average Australian household, cinema audiences have increased by 15% year-on-year come September 2024, proving the desire for real world, big screen experiences.
2024 also saw the comeback of the ‘dumb phone’, and the chance to beat your Snake high score on today’s version of the Nokia 3210. (Yes, you still tap each number three times to spell out your text messages...) HMD offers a ‘Barbie version’ in trademark pink, with the added enhancement of a Barbie meditation app. Rather than appealing to a nostalgic Millennial / Gen X demographic though, it’s Gen Alpha who seem to have them on their holiday wishlists.
Earlier this year, the envied Australians with VIP access to Taylor Swift proudly donned their ‘real world’ printed tickets on a lanyard, as the rest of us scrambled to scan our phones for entry to the restricted viewing area.
Amidst the on-demand era, where technology provides unparalleled access and AI is infiltrating every channel and platform, it’s exciting to consider the creative potential of tangible, real world media experiences in 2024.
So, here’s to both the heroes and the anti-heroes. I’ll leave you to decide which is which. Bring on the 2025 era.
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