Afere projects culture, context to shape IMC this year
By Felicia Nwosu
Akinola Afere, Director, Client Services at Kantar (Insights Division), has envisaged that 2024 will be characterized with brands having a deep understanding of the context in which customers are interacting, in order to provide them with a personalized and relevant experience. He urged professionals to brace up to align with the new realities.
Exploring the future landscape on Integrated Marketing Communications in 2024, during the MARKETING EDGE 4th Quarterly Virtual Summit themed “IMC Trends to Watch Out for in 2024″, Afere x-rayed the major trends that would shape the IMC landscape and how businesses can respond to them to connect with buyers and sellers across a plethora of channels, while creating value at the same time.
Highlighting the value of context and culture, the marketing expert said that, with consumers discovering new tastes and priorities, tilting towards value, understanding them in the context of their lives and following each step in their journey, ensuring that the message is nuanced and contextually embedded will enhance creating a seamless customer experience.
He reaffirmed the need to look at the context in which those trends are going to run, maintaining that culture & context will matter more in 2024. He cited Kantar Monitor, which stated that “80% of consumers will “make an effort” to buy from companies that support causes important to them.
“As much as we live in a global village, 2024 will bring with it a need for more contextual and culture-driven campaigns. We learn to use culture to help us connect with consumers by infusing norms through fashion, music, and aspirations. Success comes when brands are able to align good culture and bottom line. Consumers will be able to get into sales in various ways because, remember, revenue is life.
“So, as I spend my revenue, I want to find my needs, my cares, my concerns and the things that matter to me. Consumers want to see clearly that their needs are well targeted by the brand they want to be identified with.”
He noted that, presently, most consumers focus more on a survival first-prioritisation mentality to food items. Afere projected that these are some of the trends that are going to guide the future of Nigerians in 2024, with the food category remaining resilient compared to all other categories. This, he mentioned, is in response to diminishing disposable income as most Nigerians expect incomes not to keep pace with the rising inflation.
The brand strategist highlighted several other emerging trends that will be high on business agendas in the year in view and urged business owners to prepare ahead of the opportunities. Pointing out that first on his list was the deployment of AI, which he said many brand managers will be leveraging more in their marketing communication messages, he encouraged those who are afraid of technical opportunities to relax, assuring them that AI is there to stay and to help them achieve better results.
“Due to the economic flux in Nigeria, revenues and, by extension, campaign budgets are shrinking. IMC service providers will need to deploy innovation and creativity at an even higher level to bridge the gap going into 2024. ROI on campaigns will be even more of an imperative. Linking this to creativity and innovation, studies show that creative ads/campaigns are 4 times more profitable. Brand owners will demand more value for expenditure. Radical innovation will provide a means of bridging the gap in 2024 and beyond,” he said.
The seasoned professional also projected that there will be a radical innovation to counter shrinking revenues and budgets, as everybody is looking for ways to maximize efficiently and aid productivity. He also opined that there will lots of discussion both globally and locally, bothering on guidance and regulations.
“Now for global brands that are operating in Nigeria, this is especially important, we want to see more context, more localization, because consumers want to be able to see themselves rightly connected with those brands. We are going to see the need for more contextual and more culture-driven campaigns for those of us that follow the discussions and regulations in the sector. We know that there are a lot of discussions already going in this direction, there is a lot of legislation that is being discussed and that will guide a lot of the things and the kind of campaigns we will see in 2024, across all channels.”
Relating his view from Nigeria’s perspective, he noted that climate and environmental issues have continued to be on the front-burner of every conversation between 2020 and 2023, and this has also become a major business and brand management imperative, adding that there will be a rise of sustainability driven marketing campaigns.
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