What to watch in 2024 if you work in comms - DIEM predictions

Suffice to say that 2023 made us all want to burn our bingo cards. Increasingly mainstreamed artificial intelligence tools, evolving labor dynamics, the elusive “soft landing” that’s helped the U.S. avert a recession and the ultra-successful tours of two powerhouse entertainers that amassed the revenue of mini-economies unto themselves – just a few examples of the developments that made brands rethink the business landscape in big ways over the past 12 months.

Making predictions for the year ahead would give any comms pro heartburn. But at this newsletter, we ain’t no punks! So we’re going to bite the bullet and rattle off just a few things we expect to see in 2024. Hit us at DIEMcomments@gmail.com to let us know if you agree with our thoughts.

Jason's Predictions

1. AI continues to surge as the top business headline in 2024, primarily by giving CEOs and communications pros bigger headaches. We already see how enhanced generative content tools can spit out scripts, email copy and even code that’s allowed scammers to impersonate some of your favorite brands. In the months ahead, two things will surge in importance for every leader of a brand with national or global scale: 1) ensure your brand’s voice and identity are impeccably differentiated in the market, i.e., when you post on social, is the tone so unique that your followers know it’s you?; and 2) identify a trustworthy digital watermarking solution that allows brand content to be verified over fakes. The mounting plethora of better AI tools – plus the fact that 2024 is an election year – will lead to an explosion of people (and some bad actors) experimenting with content that’s meant to grab attention; and there’s no easier shortcut than to copy the likeness of an established brand (or celebrity). Cryptography experts might lead the way in the efforts to create universally verifiable digital watermarks for AI, but it will require collaboration across several disciplines to develop a lasting solution (Fox Corp.’s blockchain-based Verify protocol seems like an interesting step in this direction).
2. You thought Chief DEI Officers were here to stay? They’re not. After the racial reckoning of 2020 that led most large brands to install a fairly visible executive “responsible for DEI,” these roles have been disappearing from org charts like sinners in a prayer circle. This trend will continue in 2024 (top job sites reported a 44% drop in DEI-related open roles by mid-2023) and lead to muddier organization of companies’ efforts to be leaders of internal and societal inclusivity. In fact, we can expect most companies to continue retrenching on their ambitious DEI commitments in the months ahead, weakened by what many interpret as growing backlash from consumers, regulators and other stakeholders. In a nutshell, CEOs “played the game” for what seemed like long enough, weathered backlash when missteps have been made over the past three years and now they’re deprioritizing DEI (or folding it into broader, less socially “vexing” initiatives). You can blame the co-opting and bastardization of the term “woke” for this…but that’s for another newsletter.

3. Twitter (I’ll never call it by that one-letter flop name) will become an even less desirable platform for brands to participate. Let’s be honest: Twitter wasn’t a routinely profitable business before it was bought and turned private, the “safe nature” of the platform was questionable and organic reach for marketers was shit. But the relevance of Twitter in the public discourse (not to mention the more confined mass media echo chamber) was undeniable. No more. By the end of 2024, Twitter is likely to be missing its current CEO, millions of active users and billions in revenue (the platform’s already lost more than 70% of its value since the October 2023 deal). I’ll also surmise that affinity for the platform will grow with far-right enthusiasts in the U.S., which will be a MESS (topic for another newsletter). And, no, hosting “The Don Lemon Show” there won’t be enough cloud cover to paint over the damage that’s making the platform crumble.

Natasha's Predictions

1. You’re about to be tired of talking about charging the EV you’re putting off buying. Oh and supply is up, so go buy that EV (quickly). EVs will continue to dominate all auto news in the U.S., but we’ll be talking about charging instead of cost (thanks, Grandpa Joe, for that Infrastructure and Investment Act $$). The pressure for consumers is going to be on as California and New York State emissions regulations are right around the corner (2035, but automakers have made big commitments that begin in 2025). A bunch of automakers threw in the towel (VW group) and adopted Tesla NACS charging ports. The Biden administration has a healthy skepticism of Tesla and Elon, but their ability to scale could no longer  be ignored (4.2% of all U.S. auto, surpassing VW and Subaru in volume). The IIA has $7.5B for charging infrastructure that has to be spent; we’ll see if the U.S. closes the gap for adoption against China and Europe.
2. Social Media expertise is becoming a prerequisite for CMOs. Social is where brand and performance come to life. It’s also consumers’ first stop, with 68% turning to social media to stay informed about new products and services. Those going after CMO roles are in their early 40s, meaning they graduated during or just before the Recession and had the college-only version of Facebook. With the cost of attention these days, CMOs need to be Maxinistas with their budgets. People who were once siloed into Digital Media roles are showing how prepared they are to take big brands into the combative attention economy – and win.

Without a doubt, 2024’s going to be a wild year. We expect these trends will heavily influence the way brand communications pros have to consider the recommendations they make to the leaders who depend on their guidance and develop the best talent on their teams.

There’s so much more to come with DIEM in the year ahead. Share this newsletter with a friend and remember: we want to hear from you. Got a tip, a topic you want broken down, career advice we can share with subscribers, or even a blind item you want discussed (all in good humor) – hit us in the DIEMs at DIEMcomments@gmail.com.