Looking at our top Luxury Digital Trends Predictions for the year ahead
Stepping into 2024, we anticipate an impressive amount of transformation in the realm of digital luxury. In this ever-changing landscape, as luxury experts we make it our job to stay ahead of the curve for our clients and look ahead to the shifts we see across HNW audiences, consumer behaviour, technology, and the wider luxury industry. Amidst these transformations, we see an additional layer of complexity emerging, as there is change in the UHNW population. Worldwide billionaires experienced a decline for the first time since 2018, as indicated by a 3.5% downturn according to the Altrata Billionaire Census in 2022/23. This shift renders high-net-worth individuals harder to reach globally, adding a unique challenge to the ever-evolving digital landscape.
We share below our Luxury Digital Trend predictions through the lens of Organic Search, Paid Media, and Creative. We have a full blog on our Social & Influencer predictions which can be viewed here. As we navigate the change ahead, our predictions aim to empower luxury brands not only to adapt, but thrive in the face of this evolving landscape and stay ahead of the curve.
Organic Search: Elevating the User Experience
Experience is imperative
Experience is going to be at the forefront of search in 2024 and beyond. Over the last few years, Google has accelerated its focus on serving users with the most relevant, quality & authoritative results and we saw this start to come to fruition with the launch of its own AI search engine – Search Generative Experience, in 2023. This shift highlights how crucial it’s going to be for brands to understand how they are communicating with audiences and the experience they’re providing (search, content, videos, images, social channels) and how you’re engaging with them through their journey – but also, how we’re going to be measuring organic success in 2024.
Diverse Content Strategies
In the rise of AI, Google has also been cracking down on its battle to filter out low-quality, AI-created content across the web – a challenge within the luxury landscape in particular, that should be avoided. It’s more significant now than ever to have a diverse content strategy, with clear targeting highlighting authority and thought leadership through your pages. Engagement is a rising ranking factor alongside authority, so the more you can have your audiences engage with your content that’s regularly published, the better.
Multi-Channel Approach
Combining the above two and echoing our Luxury Social & Influencer team predictions in the growth of social channels as search engines, it’s also going to be key in 2024 to really utilise the content you have across all organic channels and build holistic approaches to existing and new audiences. Understanding how users are interacting with content across social platforms, what they’re searching for, and even optimising your UGC for editorial onsite will help build organic visibility online and grow your presence as authorities.
Investment in audiences
There’s no doubt 2024 will see even more roll-outs, updates & changes to how we search, but investing in your audiences will ultimately drive success for your brand.
Paid Media (Digital): Adapting to Voice, Conversions, and Inclusivity
Voice Search
Voice-activated devices are growing each year, with this, optimising paid campaigns for voice search is a must. Marketers will need to think about their creative and keyword strategy to align with these queries. With this in mind, creating ads that are voice-search-friendly will ensure maintained viability as the search landscape evolves.
On-platform conversion for Tracking & Attribution
On-platform conversion will be a larger focus in 2024 in a new, cookie-less world. With upcoming cookie changes, tracking and attribution will become more challenging, on-platform conversions will allow greater understanding of performance and ROI shaping better strategic decisions.
Match types will be no more
With the continued evolution of AI in advertising we’ll see paid search platforms continue to lean into enhanced optimisation functions. We predict 2024 will be the year match types as we know them are no more, instead allowing AI to match to searches it deems compatible.
Inclusive Creatives
We foresee 2024 will be the year where brands that don’t advocate inclusive creative will be left behind. The increasing prominence of body positivity will result in a distinct lack of engagement for brands who don’t support inclusive creative messaging. Whilst factors like audience targeting and ad account structure remain crucial, creative content is the Number 1 key in achieving scalability on paid social platforms.
Paid Media (Above-the-line): Rediscovering Traditional Formats and Environmental Responsibility
Greater investment in traditional formats (Print, OOH, TV, Audio)
Brand budgets are back on the increase for luxury brands, with the number of high-net worths in decline worldwide, luxury brands are needing to work harder and think outside the norm to capture the attention of high-net worth individuals. Our expert teams believe this will mean larger investment in more traditional marketing and advertising formats such as Print, OOH, TV & Audio.
The rise of CTV
CTV has seen continued growth, and will continue into 2024 with more than 68% of TV viewings already coming from a streaming device. Due to the ability to be driven by real-time data, this type of digital connection provides more refined targeting opportunities. We’ll see a rise in usage as the marketing landscape changes and the need to be more targeted with our advertising as a result of economical factors continues to increase.
Exponential growth of DOOH
2023 was a strong year for DOOH which will likely result in more inventory going into 2024, with media owners erecting new screens and converting traditional display boards into digital formats to capitalise on the growth. DOOH spend is predicted to increase by 30% over the next 18 months.
Greater emphasis on Environmental Impact
Looking to a greener future, brands are having to go beyond the focus of clicks and interaction and begin to consider platforms and partners that actively reduce their carbon footprint and align with their ESG strategies. Brands will be as concerned about the planet’s well-being and their environmental impact as that of their business of objective. As an agency group we’re embracing this responsibility, working with a fully automated measurement system to assess our entire carbon footprint, making Croud the first in industry to build a path to net zero.
Creative: The Fusion of Virtual Realities, Influencers, and X-Channel Storytelling
Increase in VR/AR OOH activations
There has certainly been a surge in terms of brand activations across CGI advertising as well as AR/VR in 2023 and we think this is set to increase in 2024 with a particular emphasis around creating more ‘PRable’ moments online. We’ve seen this done through the likes of The North Face on the famous London landmark Big Ben and believe the popularity of this type of brand interaction will only continue to grow.
Larger Influencer investment
We predict larger influencer investment, as the continued rise of Tiktok as a search engine deems it imperative for associative reputation through verified profiles (i.e. advertisers and influencers) to increase content discoverability.
Brands will look at how they can work with influencers to feature them within their owned creative to drive resonance with their audiences.
X-channel storytelling & Creatives
The successful brands of 2024 will look to invest more in omni-channel creative in order to provide a full brand experience which adds value to their audiences, rather than taking a siloed channel approach.
Brands who simply push their marketing messages at consumers, instead of thinking through how they can become an authentic and valuable part of their world, will be left behind.
X-channel story-telling is key in 2024. Gone are the days where a handful of hero creatives get repurposed for different channels. The brands who’ll succeed will understand the importance of tapping into consumer mindset and moments; producing multiple creatives tailored specifically for the platforms they’re consumed on.
Get in touch
As we steer through the digital transformations of 2024, our predictions serve as a compass, empowering luxury brands not only to adapt but to thrive amidst the evolving digital landscape. If you have any questions about our digital trend predictions or if you’re interested in discussing your brand’s digital strategy for 2024, please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you.
Social & Influencer
We have a full blog on all of our Social Media & Influencer predictions for 2024, check out the article here.