Welcome to the MKTG Trends Report powered by Decoding 360.

The Decoding 360 dataset gleans insights from more than 10,000 consumers globally. Taking our cue from the signals within this study, we have looked at some of the broader cultural trends shaping human behaviour in 2024.

The pace of change feels faster than ever, driven by the rapid advancement of technology and associated cultural shifts. Trends from just a few months ago can feel like ancient history, and what we value and expect from brands across the sports and entertainment landscape are evolving just as rapidly.

In a world where content cycles last hours or days, consumers are increasingly valuing long-term cultural relevancy and authenticity from brands. We still enjoy engaging with viral trends, but don’t necessarily value them. TikTok’s combination of algorithmic precision, engaging content formats, and a culture of trends and challenges has made it a powerful engine for virality and magnet for screen time, and influencing other apps to follow suit. This growing influence of technology in our lives means that it has also become a major source of mistrust and disillusionment for consumers. Social media has gone from being a desktop-first, personally curated tool for connecting with friends and family, to an algorithm-powered experience driven by extremes, fuelling excessive smartphone usage and dopamine addiction.

The widespread use of AI, filters, and CGI has undermined the validity of the content we consume, and we can sometimes feel simultaneously served and limited by the platforms that keep us within our own online echo chambers.

A great example of how fast things are changing is the apparent rise and fall of CGI marketing. Pioneered by trendsetting brands like high-end fashion house Jacquemus, it wasn’t long before other brands, from Maybelline to JD Sports and Herbal Essences, offered up their own versions (bonus points for incorporating a capital city landmark in some way).

In a full-circle moment in July, Jacquemus appeared to herald the end of the CGI craze with their most recent sports-themed social campaign ahead of Paris 24, featuring intentionally real props and people.

However, challenging situations often spark creative solutions, and this is when good marketers get to work. An increase in cross-sector partnerships and an openness to brands moving out of their comfort zones have led to some interesting and unexpected collaborations.

Thanks to the fluidity of social media platforms and the significance of psychographics over demographics, communities are more accessible, easier to discover, and more fluid to move in and out of. Oversaturation of digitally created content is giving birth to new swathes of increasingly creative analogue and unmistakably ‘human’ marketing concepts that have the opportunity to span multiple territories across entertainment, sport and commerce.

In other words, there’s a whole new set of ways brands can connect with consumers, and a new world of opportunity when it comes to what that could look like. Through this Trends Report, MKTG has outlined some key developments supported by examples of best practice, with some initial guidance on how brands and rights holders in sports and entertainment can tap in.

Want to explore the full report?

Read it here 👉 MKTG Trends Report 2024.