The Setup Women in Marketing series highlights the thoughts and advice of prominent marketing brand and agency leaders in companies such as Aflac, Mizuno, Great Clips, Lionsgate, Blackbaud, and Regal Cinemas. The takeaways from these blogs are not only informative, but incredibly insightful for any marketer on their career path. 

At the latest “In This Dame and Age” event, the Setup team pulled out a list of hot trends that marketing leaders were prioritizing over the last year. We tracked the Top 10 Marketing Trends by Marketing Leaders from multiple interviews with marketing professionals, and polled this year’s Women’s Event attendees to expand on the relevance and usefulness of certain topics. Are trends like “metaverse” still hot, or not? What are the latest updates with AI? Our attendees shared some fruitful insights!

Trend #1 - Artificial Intelligence 

Past Insight: AI/machine learning has been on the radar for some time. A huge benefit to advanced AI is that it can target specific audiences, works 24/7, and makes thousands of decisions every second to receive the highest ROI. The data AI collects to help predict better and higher engagement on products or ads ensures a more targeted experience for the audience and more traffic for the company. 

2023 Insight: The sentiment is still the same, but AI feels more relevant now than ever. There is so much talk around ChatGPT, and misunderstandings circulating AI. Based on the event conversation, marketing consultants and marketing agencies are dealing with educating clients on the proper use of ChatGPT or AI. Basically, it is a great resource for inspiration and moving market research forward by organizing overview work and easily conducting competitive analysis. 

Using AI engines as a tool for brainstorming content or outlining speeches or briefs can give marketers the foundation they need to then tweak the output into their own voice. Since the learnings stop at 2021, there is so much that is missing that a creative team can offer through conceptualization and strategy. One attendee shared, “As far as good marketing strategy, guide clients away from leaning on it because it does not (hopefully) replace the human brain.” 

Trend #2 - Video 

Past Insight: Videos are key storytelling tools that are digestible for the consumer. Whether it’s showcasing the uniqueness of the company or the consumer, video brings the brand to life and personalizes the story. People love to be a part of the magic or an “insider,” so behind the scenes videos are currently all the rage. 

Videos on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram Reels, with the help of captions, are also accessible to anyone. The barrier to entry to create is so low that creators can gain an organic audience with hard work and a strong, authentic voice. 

2023 Insight: Everyone on the call agreed that video is here to stay and is such a crucial part of content creation and audience engagement. Whether your company is B2B or B2C, your audience is human, and video is a great channel to form and increase connection. Depending on what your goal is, more and more marketers are discovering that video does not require a high budget. Audiences are digesting content at a rapid rate, and some marketers have discovered that content that is genuine or authentic is accepted instead of highly polished and fabricated content. 

The attendees listed some video tools they use: 

• Lensa

• Vixer

• Temply

• Feeds

• Pictory.ai

Trend #3 - Content Creation and Accessibility 

Past Insight: Consumers are creative and want to have deeper relationships with brands. Since tools to create or learn how to create content are extremely accessible, brands that leverage the fandom and creativity from their consumers or niche markets are more in touch with their audience and can lean deeper into personalization and customization.

2023 Insight: It is critical that your content resonates with your consumer, that’s a no brainer. But what are ways to get into the heads of the consumer to better inform them? Amanda Thompson, the President of Setup, discussed a recent blog we wrote based on a conversation with sports marketing leaders and strategies they use to analyze their audience to shape the experiences around their fans. Read more. 

The conversation around this trend then turned into more of a discussion around the importance of accessibility to your audience. Not only is it important to provide content that is easily digestible, but also content that is inclusive - that can be seen, heard, and absorbed by anyone. A participant from the Financial Services Industry stated that learning how to be accessible has been a challenge for Financial Service workers as they turn graphs, visuals, and pdfs to descriptive text.

Trend #4 - Augmented Reality 

Past Insight: AR improves the customer experience by allowing them to envision the working components of a product. Picturing possibilities allows consumers to make the right purchase decisions and simplifies the sales process.

2023 Insight: We briefly touched on this topic since it always seems to have bigger promises than real-world use. The fact that AR can help elevate the consumer experience when it comes to retail like trying on glasses or seeing certain furniture is notable. Some participants noted that AR has helped them with larger campaigns, and that industries like Skincare, Beauty, and Medical thrive with AR because they help advance the personalized experience. 

Trends #5 + #6 - Data 

Past Insight: Cloud computing allows marketers to collect data, analyze it, and apply smart algorithms to surgically address opportunities and challenges. Blackbaud’s CMO, Catherine LaCour, shared, “The more data we have, the smarter our marketing gets…it unlocks new potential for how marketers can create value for prospects and customers, while servicing and even connecting them in meaningful and differentiated ways. For the customer, that’s value creation. For the company, it builds customer loyalty and informs stronger lifetime value.”

The modernization of business has forced companies to digitize their efforts which leads to not only cloud computing, but virtual environments, website enhancements, augmented reality interactions, and trackable data. Using data that analyzes the customer journey allows marketers to make more informed decisions and create more personalized experiences. 

2023 Insight: The main takeaway here is that analysts are needed. The biggest current challenge for marketers is finding analysts to optimize the data, demystify the insights, and effectively make relevant steps leveraging the data to reach the audience with the right message at the right time on the right marketing channel. 

Trend #7 - Standing for Something 

Past Insight: Whether it be through sustainability, social justice, public health, or more, people are looking to be better. “Because of this, they’re calling for brands to do the same,” shared Jennifer Pisciotta, the Global Vice President of Marketing at Bacardi. “Consumers are expecting brands to stand for more than just the products they sell, and they’re not afraid to hold these companies accountable.”

“Companies who are figuring out how to be profitable and altruistic are going to win,” states Amanda Forgione, the President and COO of Morrison.

2023 Insight: The marketers on the call noted that this has become more prevalent over the last few years, and that working on campaigns with a cause that connects to the community resonates more with the audience and is more motivating to the employees. Chloe Kelsch from CJK Consulting Group shared about her work on a breast cancer campaign for SkinSpirit to partner alongside and stand with women. The impactful campaign connected with survivors and a percentage went towards research. 

Trend #8 - Mental Health 

Past Insight: In the same vein of being more mindful about work and purpose, more and more companies are emphasizing mindfulness and prioritizing physical, emotional, and spiritual health in their companies, products, and marketing. 

2023 Insight: In the last few years, companies have also leaned towards being more human and supporting their teams’ overall well being. A certified health and wellness coach on the call shared that organizations are providing more resources and conversations around well being, and that leaders are demonstrating prioritizing health more. 

Trend #9 - The Metaverse 

Past Insight: The marketing world is expanding beyond reality and into the unlimited realities of the metaverse - opening up more opportunities to collect customer data in addition to interacting with, reaching, and developing relationships with consumers. 

2023 Insight: It’s not as much of a priority as before. 

However, even though our conversation regarding The Metaverse was short during the event, that doesn’t mean marketers shouldn’t have an eye on the concept of a “data-driven experience”… 

We recently saw this quote from Shelly Palmer articulating the power of a virtual world:

“Tonight, Major League Baseball (MLB) is set to broadcast a regular season game in a virtual environment. The Tampa Bay Rays will face the Los Angeles Angels at Tropicana Field, but fans will have the option to view the game as a real-time animation.This initiative is powered by Improbable, a metaverse technology company. Their platform will use MLB’s Gameday 3D technology, combined with Sony’s Hawk-Eye camera-tracking system, to translate the live game into a 3D virtual experience. 

This approach offers a real-time recreation of the match, akin to a video game.Improbable CEO Herman Narula says he sees potential for new revenue opportunities, suggesting features like microtransactions for exclusive items and specialized fan zones. The virtual platform will also allow fans to choose their viewing angles and interact with others using spatial audio.MLB previously introduced a virtual ballpark during an online event for the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in July, though without the real-time game recreation.

I’m not sure that this is the highest, best use of real-time content transformation tools… but it is the right place to start. The output will be recognizable to everyone. The experience will be anchored in the real world, and the event will demonstrate the power to manipulate the viewer’s experience in real time. In practice, this technology is far more powerful than this use case would suggest.

The word ‘metaverse’ may be dead, but the idea of generating data-driven experiences in (or near) real time, at low (or no) cost, is still fresh and new.”

We love to gather marketing leaders to network, connect, and hear what other industries are noticing and capitalizing on. It was amazing that most leaders were aligned on their observations and recommendations regarding certain trends. 

In fact, because the discussion was nonstop, we did not get a chance to explore the last trend, “Experiential marketing” which, now that pandemic precautions have slowed, is in full swing. 

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