2024 wrap-up: Thoughts and contemplations from a full-stack marketing studio

On the economic climate:

The first half of 2024 was driven by a challenging economic climate that influenced our clients’ engagement levels. It changed their willingness to commit, their timelines in briefing us and their budget allocations.

With some clients we noticed a thinning of in-house teams, whether a result of economic downturns or changes to internal strategy. It’s meant we’ve had to diversify in our skillset to address these gaps effectively.

From our perspective, we recognised the need to become more nimble in crafting creative solutions, as we were often given shorter time frames for campaign development.

On commercial creativity:

We found ourselves redefining our approach to brand building. With the rise of low-fi content and UGC, we focused on maintaining the quality of our work despite tighter timelines and budgets. Our engagement strategies showed that less traditional, branded social ads, along with memes and skits where the brand takes a backseat, were highly effective in driving performance.

On AI:

We also bucked the trend of scaremongering around AI and embraced it wholeheartedly.

Early on, we identified AI’s role in the same way we view traditional tools like Photoshop and Adobe – skilled professionals are key for effective input into these platforms, and so we evolved our internal processes and invested resources to ensure we were at the forefront of AI tooling and methodologies.

On the shift to prosperity:

We’ve seen a significant change in client sentiment in the second half of 2024. More confidence has led to better budgets and greater timelines. Clients are more willing to spend on stronger tech foundations, positioning and future proofing for upcoming marketing initiatives and campaigns.

On diversity of talent and resources:

Many senior creatives in our network have ventured out independently, which is fantastic for our village model. We now have access to a plethora of diverse creative giants.

Thinking about diversity, we’ve loved diversifying the platforms we look to engage. The rise of legitimacy of podcasts has been very successful for us. As consumers change the way they consume content, we go where they are and have had very positive results.