It’s been an interesting year for the ad world. Between the widespread adoption and evangelization of generative AI, the return of the blockbuster movie in the form of “Barbenheimer,” and the crystallization of global cultural moments with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, 2023 was a welcome shakeup from the largely shut-in years of our recent past. 

Marketers rolled with the cultural waves (and punches) to produce some truly resounding work for audiences craving real experiences and connections, while responding to the call for greater authenticity, purpose and quality. 

“In 2023, I feel the advertising game really switched gears,” said Andrés Ordóñez, chief creative officer at FCB Chicago. “Artificial intelligence took a front seat, sparking some serious creativity. We saw a real effort to bridge the equity gap. And we saw the comeback of humor in ads.” 

Ordóñez went on to note that the partnership between marketing and business growth got tighter, and that brands and agencies are learning how to create better marketing strategies that captivated and connected audiences without invading their privacy. 

For this month’s spotlight, we heard from members of the Amp community about the key trends that emerged over the past 12 months, with a look ahead at what we might see in the coming year. The consensus? The themes that defined 2023 will continue to gain momentum in 2024—especially as we look to the forthcoming election—alongside a push for greater regulation and stricter guardrails around AI, data and privacy.

Getting comfortable with the artificial
If advertising in 2023 were to have a headline, it surely be the rise of generative AI and the soaring success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which became a household name (and tool) seemingly overnight. For advertising, that rise centered around harnessing the tool in service of better, smarter creative work and data integration. 

“The general excitement and confusion around how to implement generative AI beyond automation is a defining trend for the ad world this year, and it’s a trend we expect to continue as the AI arms race continues to heat up,” said Richard Yao, strategy and content manager at IPG Media Lab, UM’s innovation division.

Yao said that though these tools offer significant benefits to marketers—namely light-speed data analysis and content creation for many set of needs—the challenge has been adapting to this new toolset within existing ways of working, as well as important ethical considerations around privacy and potential bias. 

“Brands and marketers alike are eager yet cautious about harnessing its full potential,” he said. 

While many marketers may have proceeded with caution at the outset of the year, others have since embraced the creative power of AI. The team at Fred & Farid Los Angeles has taken to experimenting with various tools with exciting results. 

“In the past few months alone, we’ve seen remarkable improvements in the input, output and overall quality of what AI can do,” said Eileen Zhao, the agency’s strategy director. “While we know AI isn’t an end-all-be-all solution, it is important to acknowledge its limitless potential in helping us concept and visualize ideas at scale—something that simply wasn’t possible unless you had unlimited resources.” 

That spirit of openness around innovation defined 2023 for many creatives, and the agencies who were quick to get on board with generative AI have reaped its benefits, both for the campaigns they produced and the folks behind them. 

“These innovations led to a wave of creativity and boldly strange campaigns, reshaping how agencies and brands approach advertising,” said Praytell Creative Director Summer Burton. She added that such creativity comes with the caveat of the need for greater regulation to prevent the perpetuation of biases and the potential for harm. 

“In 2024, I expect the hype around AI to give way to more ethical, integrated applications focused on amplifying human creativity and expertise over pure cost savings. While 2023 marketing focused on AI novelties, 2024 will demand more measured, ethical applications. With public trust at stake, advertising leaders must champion responsibility along with innovation.” 

Added guardrails will be critical moving into the coming year, with AI already having touched nearly every aspect of our lives. The degree to which that impact will grow in 2024 is boundless, according to Dave Walker, VP and director of brand strategy at Cornett.

“In the last year, AI has changed how we research, write, visualize ideas and sell them through,” he said. “It gets us to the 50-yard line of a lot of labor intensive work almost instantly. We think AI and all the evolutions that come with it will continue at a pace that’s impossible to predict.”

The push for purpose
While consumers have embraced the artificial at a rate never before seen in history, they have also demanded brands to be truly human in unprecedented ways. As much as AI defined advertising in 2023, so too did the push for authenticity from brands, challenged not only to speak to their values but to live them through action as well. 

“Purpose-driven campaigns took the spotlight in 2023, going beyond just selling stuff,” said Justin Blyth, creative director at Ambassadors. “Brands and agencies got real, aiming to uplift marginalized communities.” 

Blyth pointed to Nike’s “Home” campaign, which put the spotlight on refugee athletes and demonstrated how an ad can rally their audience around a cause while simultaneously underscoring virtue. 

“In 2024, I think we will see more campaigns with heart, empathy and a real impact,” Blyth said. “Authenticity’s the buzzword, pushing brands to align with values that resonate authentically with their audience. It’s not just about what we sell. It’s about what we stand for and who we empower.”

The need for authenticity from brands is closely tied up to the shift in how audiences consume content. If it doesn’t resonate, consumers will scroll past. The task for marketers now is being able to deliver something worthy of users stopping mid-scroll. 

“The expectation is that brands increasingly step away from traditional frameworks and instead focus on carving out unique voices,” said Sol Ricagni, general manager and VP at Migrante Content. Noting the change in user experience brought on in large part by the rise of TikTok, Ricagni and others highlighted the importance of “snack content” in the approach to content strategy.

“Short-form video content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts cemented themselves as the de facto channels for advertisers to drive higher engagement,” added Sam Zises, CEO at [L]earned Media.

The collective movement toward more humanity in ad content has likewise impacted the evolution of influencer marketing, with branded content looking less and less branded and more seamlessly integrated into newsfeeds. 

“Marketers will continue to shift away from overly branded influencer content to drive better engagement and audience reception,” said Alyssa Stevens, director of PR, social media and influencer marketing at Connelly Partners. She noted there is more widespread adoption of “lo-fi” social content over highly produced campaigns. 

“Authenticity will remain key, and influencers who seamlessly integrate brand messages into their content, maintaining a genuine audience connection, will see better results over overtly promotional approaches with heavy branding and scripted voiceovers,” Stevens said. 

Influencer marketing continued to define ad spend for a major segment of the industry, with brands devoting significant dollars to influencers on social in 2023. 

Tiffany Borland, director of strategy and project analytics at HireInfluence, noted that an Influencer Marketing Hub benchmark report reveals that 71% of respondents spent more than 40% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing, proving it is an essential part of modern-day marketing.

“Prior to this year, brands traditionally worked with influencers on one-off projects, but with the increased need for authentic content, brands are choosing to extend their partnerships with influencers to collaborate on long-term activations,” she said. 

The existing trends around influencer marketing, including the rise of micro and nano influencers, as well as the diversification of platforms moving away from Instagram and over to YouTube, TikTok and others, will persist through 2024. 

“I expect to see a continued move away from salesy content and a continued push toward authenticity in influencer partnerships and content,” said Borland. 

Tapping into big moments
If we learned anything in 2023, it was the sheer size and power of Taylor Swift’s army of fans—and the awakened desire in consumers for tangible, real-world experiences. The unprecedented frenzy the world witnessed around Swift’s Eras Tour ticket sales was as shocking as it was contagious, causing a literal craze around scoring a “Golden Ticket” and underscoring for advertisers the key touchpoints around experiences like these. 

“This year demonstrated consumers’ thirst for experience, and how people are willing to splurge on must-see moments, with savvy marketers deftly promoting or quickly capitalizing on these tentpole events,” said Nat Wittstruck, senior creative director at George P. Johnson (GPJ). “Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour showed the world that even multicity concerts could be unmissable.”

Along with this phenomenon, 2023 travel saw 10 of the biggest U.S. travel days in airline history. It became clear that consumers were ready to get off their screens, out of their houses and into the world. The turbulence of inflation and interest rates will fail to stymie consumers spending on exclusive moments that deliver lifelong memories.

“Marketers should know where to meet this live-for-the-event patron. It’s en route to an amazing experience,” Wittstruck said.

The coming year will likely see more brands tag along for touchstone moments in pop culture, modeling after the success of activations like Airbnb’s Barbie Dreamhouse. 

“From all the Barbie-themed marketing that went out this year to trend-jacking moments like Heinz’s ‘Seemingly Ranch’ custom sauce, and Barefoot Wines’ ‘Bandwagon Box with Donna Kelce,’ brands are clearly seeing the benefit to being part of the cultural zeitgeist and tapping into existing conversations that consumers are already passionate about,” said Praytell Executive Creative Director Brianna Bishop. 

Some of those cultural moments that caught audiences’ attention weren’t new, with the past year seeing a number of campaigns successfully dipping into our collective memory. 

Nostalgia continues to be a dominant theme in creative, Bishop noted. Despite being around for a while, it doesn’t seem to be a trend that shows any signs of slowing down. If anything, it was more relevant than ever this year with boy bands showing up in a number of campaigns, to the return of most of the “Mean Girls” cast for Walmart’s Black Friday campaign.

Nostalgia marketing helped brands land meaningful moments with audiences this past year, with a few notable examples at this year’s Super Bowl. Iconic moments included Alicia Silverstone reviving her “Clueless” character for a Rakuten commercial, and Adam Driver’s Squarespace ad with the “Matrix” flashbacks.

“Absurdism in advertising is another trend that appears to be continuing into 2024,” said Alexa Schummer, copywriter at Wondersauce. “It’s evident in quirky campaigns like Brie Larson and Jon Hamm’s miniature roles in Hellman’s Super Bowl spot, and the dark TikTok Grimace Shake trend on behalf of McDonald’s. There’s a growing consumer desire for humor and creativity in brand messaging.” 

The evolution of data 
Looking ahead to 2024, one forthcoming event sure to leave its mark on advertising is the end of the third-party cookie. The website fixture users have grown comfortable clicking away from will finally see its demise in the coming year, with a phase out plan that stretches back to 2020. 

For many advertisers, the death of the cookie will leave a hole in customer data collection that may not be easy to fill. 

“Next year will no doubt see cookies crumble apart,” said Julia Linehan, CEO and founder of The Digital Voice. “The deadline is looming and there is likely to be a rushed panic to adapt. Those who take context, curation, attention and brand metrics seriously will be armed and ready to thrive.”

Still, the removal of this data-collection fixture will likely cause some upheaval for advertisers, while exacerbating existing challenges. 

“Most brands have far more visitors who just browse and bounce their sites, rather than make a purchase every visit,” said Tim Glomb, VP of digital, content and AI at Wunderkind. “Identifying these site browsers is one of the fastest-growing headaches for brands, and it’s only going to get harder as third-party cookies finally phase out in 2024.” 

Glomb predicted that 2024 will see increased interest in identity resolution technology, which can help brands identify more site visitors and intelligently trigger the best offer in real-time to a given visitor across multiple channels to scale revenue on owned properties.

These types of innovations in data and analytics will help drive growth for creators, allowing marketers greater control over performance metrics and better ability to make informed decisions on spend, noted Brit Starr, senior VP of marketing at CreatorIQ. 

“Advanced measurement capabilities have empowered marketers to not only validate the ROI of their investments, but also recognize the superior performance of creator-led content compared to traditional creative,” she said.

Starr observed that, as a result, creators are playing an increasingly important role in advertisers’ overall marketing strategy, whether it’s leveraging content in email and paid ad campaigns, experimenting with short-form video platforms, or just generally shifting budget from other underperforming channels.

For some platforms, like TV and streaming, data will be key moving into an election year. With so many eyeballs glued to the news, advertisers will have an important role in the coming year. Making informed choices around those campaigns will be critical. 

“The latest figures predict a $12 billion year for political advertising in 2024,” said Kristin Wnuk, senior VP of sales at Madhive. “And local broadcast and streaming are going to play an important role, as candidates look to leverage TV’s sight, sound and motion to connect with potential voters in specific geo-regions. The key to success for political buyers is the ease of execution and granular forecasting to deliver on specific outcomes.”

Advertisers will be challenged to think beyond the tried-and-true approach in the coming year to win audiences over, rethinking traditional ads to become fully integrated into platforms and content. 

“As viewers continue to shift to streaming, it’s allowing brands to think beyond the traditional 15- and 30-second spot and really become the entertainment,” said Katlyn Wilson, director of branded content sales and strategy at Vizio. “Next year, we can expect brands to continue taking advantage of branded entertainment opportunities to deliver emotion-led storytelling, centered around audience interests. And when you integrate shoppable elements such as QR codes into this content, it can serve as a full-funnel tool to drive both awareness and actual sales.”

To some, data collection matters less than the content itself, the creative work that draws audiences in. The major epiphany for 2024 will be that creativity will replace data at the top of the funnel, according to John Higgins, CEO and chief creative officer at OS Studios.

“Then, once they’re a fan, data will drive hyper-personalization,” he said. “What won’t change is the need for quality content. People’s attention spans are not getting shorter. They have more choice. If it’s boring, if it’s inauthentic, if it’s irrelevant, they’ll move on. We can all learn from the gamerverse. Authentic brand integrations, interactive content and personalization—that's our playbook for 2024.”