Canadian Ad Insider

Media Predictions for 2024?

Where have you seen the biggest changes in media consumption (since this time last year)

Jill - I’ve noted in my travels and studies this year, changes in consumption across social media, linear TV, print and OOH as follows: 

• Social media platforms have begun to fragment in terms of age/demo usage more than before
  • Generational usage by platform is more notable reinforcing the need to target psychographics vs demographics to reach a variety of age groups across platforms
  • Also, the reason for using various social platforms continues to be more specific in nature
    • For example, for some demos, Facebook usage is now more streamlined to FB marketplace and buying goods and things, vs before usage split to sharing pictures and videos. IG is taking up that space now vs FB for some demos
• Linear and print continue to decline in usage, however, as per the latest CMUST study, TVs in the home continue to be the main source for video consumption - cable or non
• OOH and DOOH exposure is rising as Canadians are spending more time commuting again and hours of in-town travel go up
  • Looking ahead, my guess is that will continue to rise and transit OOH for example will increase in demand from advertisers looking ahead to the spring and fall when more and more companies mandate in-office days
  • Also, would anticipate that place-based OOH and retailer OOH (Grocery/Drug/Mass), will rise as in-person shopping stays stable or goes up
    • Particularly in the grocery where the price of food continues to rise and price-conscious shoppers will want to choose their groceries in person to ensure not only the best price but also the best perceived quality
  • That said, e-commerce retailer spending will be even more important in 2024 to maintain a digital shelf presence and be there when shoppers need your product - don't lose that sale
    • I believe the challenge will be on retailers to demonstrate how can consumers ‘save’ money & time on consumer goods and food by shopping with them vs the other retailers. Thoughtful comparisons will be made by shoppers and there needs to be a value trade and smart advertising to reach them at the right moment in time
• According to the latest CMUST study, 2023 was the year that AI entered the mainstream chat so to speak! 
  • More on that later

We have seen more concerns over Brand Safety this past year than ever before, are things better yet?

Jill - No, I don’t think things are better yet. There are many third-party advertising brand safety products and companies that can help mitigate our ads showing up next to unsafe content. However, there is no guarantee and there is no way of knowing HOW content will change over time and what content will be legitimate 

AI has become the current buzzword - how does AI fit into 2024?

Jill - For me generally, AI has many practical and time-saving capabilities - across advertising and work/ life in general. I think this can help speed up the cadence of work and create more quantity of work/ iterations etc. However, AI simply can’t replace critical thinking and unique thought. Thinking strategically is still and should be a fundamental part of a media planner and buyer’s day-to-day work. 

Many social networks have been testing paid options in other countries, will this become widely adopted across the board in 2024?

Jill - The bottom line, the subscription model guarantees revenue for these platforms and a ‘better’ experience for users. But, there is a grey area with influencers that are already being paid to create content for brands on social platforms. If the paid model is widely adopted, where does this leave influencers - will this area grow and then the paying subscription user still see paid ads via influencer content? That doesn’t seem totally fair.

Where are the consumers going to be in 2024?

Jill - The same as above.

What are you concerned/worried about 2024?

Jill - The decline in Canadian news consumption and access to news courtesy of Bill C-18 continues to keep me up at night

• Ensuring that all Canadians have access to local and national news is very important - it must be equitable and open information to all people
• As media planners and buyers, we can make decisions to invest in local publishers vs walled gardens - diversifying spending can help to make more equitable 
• As per CMUST 2023, walled gardens include Canadian, and US and Global, news publishers and sites. With paywalls in place, gaining access to news is not equitable and easy to obtain. With the elimination of local news publishers, for example, Metroland print shutdowns in Sept this year, free news at a local level is not available. This is a very scary situation and should worry most advertisers generally people in Canada