Manila, Philippines – Huskee Digital, a local creator commerce marketing agency specialising in transforming stories into sales on TikTok and other platforms, has launched ‘TRENDS’, its official training arm designed to empower brands to harness TikTok’s full potential for business growth.

Drawing on years of expertise and a commitment to innovation, Huskee Digital’s ‘TRENDS’ equips brands with crucial technical guidance, cutting-edge content creation strategies, and valuable consumer insights. The program features intensive workshops tailored to elevate marketing strategies and propel business success on TikTok.

‘TRENDS’ addresses the need for businesses to adapt to evolving social media trends, including social commerce, short-form video, and affiliate marketing. It will offer two key programs: ‘Become TikTok-Ready’ and ‘Launch Your Brand On TikTok Shop’.

‘Become TikTok-Ready’ provides an assessment of the business’ marketing funnel and equips them with skills to unlock the “media-first” potential of TikTok. Meanwhile, “Launch Your Brand on TikTok Shop” provides a clear understanding of the power of social commerce. From comprehensive guidance on setting up your TikTok shop to implementing strategies that boost sales and drive significant growth on the platform,.

The programs are designed to empower businesses to win on TikTok. This includes SMEs, established corporations, and brands across the B2B and B2C sectors.

As a TikTok agency partner, Huskee Digital collaborates with TikTok’s regional office to launch and optimise high-performing marketing campaigns. The agency will utilise their insights from managing successful case studies as the foundation for their training, allowing brands to implement effective TikTok marketing campaigns and drive measurable results after finishing the courses.

Huskee Digital sees ‘TRENDS’ as a key driver of business growth on TikTok, from boosting store traffic and launching successful TikTok Shops to improving employer branding. With TikTok being the second-largest social media platform in the Philippines, Huskee Digital predicts TikTok Shop will lead the country’s marketplace in the next three to four years.

‘TRENDS’’ launch comes amid increasing recognition of TikTok as a platform for driving business growth and how it revolutionised content creation for brands. 

The training program launches on June 20 and will be available on the Huskee Digital website. Businesses can enrol in workshops or customise training plans. The first program, ‘Become TikTok-Ready,’ offers a select group of business owners and marketers an exclusive preview of intensive TikTok mastery training.

Speaking on the launch, Miggy Azurin, managing partner of Huskee Digital, said, “We are thrilled to launch ‘TRENDS’ and share our marketing insights on a larger scale. Our work on TikTok over the last few years has been significant for our clients, and our goal is to help more brands become media powerhouses on TikTok.”

2024 hasn’t been an easy year. Tight marketing budgets, a challenging digital advertising landscape, and the crunching of third-party cookies — there are plenty of hurdles for digital marketers. But with challenge comes opportunity, and smart marketers can use them to do more with less.

This article covers some of the biggest trends that will shake and shape the digital marketing industry this year, based on Brandwatch’s latest Digital Marketing Trends report. We’ll cover how you can use them in your digital marketing strategy. 

Trend: Marketers embracing AI

AI’s the secret sauce, but even robots need a human touch. 

Mentions of AI are everywhere. Game-changing companies, such as OpenAI and Midjourney, are disrupting industries and making headlines regularly with new features and developments. 

AI will change the way we work in the near future, and companies that don’t embrace AI will be left behind. This year, marketers will need to figure out how to apply AI to their marketing efforts without losing the human factor.

In September 2023, Brandwatch asked 516 marketing professionals about their predictions for the biggest digital marketing trends in 2024, and a staggering 92% said that integrating AI into their marketing will be the number one trend. The industry is seeing a significant shift, with marketers redefining their strategies to improve their results with AI technologies. 

And discussions about the challenges and opportunities of AI are massive. From November 2022 to November 2023, over 1.64 million articles were published, generating over 55.8 million total engagements. Interestingly, articles over 3,000 words in length receive a higher engagement rate than shorter articles. This could indicate that readers are really interested in learning more about the topic. 

What do marketers care about when it comes to AI and marketing? Mentions of SEO and content creation increased by over 90% in conversations among marketers on X and Reddit.

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The analysis shows that AI can help in a variety of marketing activities. This year, we’ll see marketers implementing AI as an integral part of almost all their activities and becoming more sophisticated about how to use AI for the best business outcomes.

Pro tip

Don’t forget the human touch when implementing AI, or you risk losing your brand’s voice and, ultimately, your customers. For inspiration, you can keep up with the latest AI trends by monitoring online conversations.

Trend: Personalisation as the customer magnet

The marketing persona is dead.

Many brands are in the same boat – trying to win customers in highly competitive markets. Standing out from the crowd and getting consumers’ attention is getting harder. And turning one-time customers into loyal customers is even more tough. 

This is where personalisation comes in. Brands that deliver a superior, tailored customer experience are more likely to convert new customers into repeat customers. In one survey, 60% of consumers said a personalised shopping experience made them want to return and buy again.

But here’s the thing: Consumers not only appreciate personalised marketing, they expect it. When consumers share more personal information with a brand, they expect a more personalised experience in return. In fact, three-quarters of customers expect personalisation after a company asks them for personal information. 

There are many ways to personalise a customer’s experience. For example, offering special offers to celebrate a customer’s birthday is an easy way to surprise and delight on a personal level. Another is to offer personalised products. Let’s take the British brand Skin + Me as an example. The cosmetics brand not only offers personalised packaging of its products, but customers can also consult a dermatologist to get the skincare products that best suit their needs.

Pro tip

Keeping your customers happy and engaged is critical to a long-lasting relationship. Implementing well-crafted loyalty programs can effectively entice customers back while demonstrating appreciation, ultimately nurturing lasting connections.

Trend: Creativity wins consumer attention 

Creativity is the neon sign in a sea of greyscale. 

In today’s world, getting consumers’ attention takes a lot of work. The average American is exposed to between 4,000 – 10,000 ads every day. This information overload makes it difficult for content marketers to cut through the noise. 

Getting information across as quickly as possible is key, and short-form video will continue to be the tool of choice for marketers. Whether it’s Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, or YouTube Shorts, marketers will become more sophisticated in how they incorporate video content into their content strategy to get their message across in a matter of seconds. 

Content marketers will also have to get more creative to grab consumers’ attention. With the human attention span shrinking to shorter than that of a goldfish, content marketers need to shake things up. In 2024, more experiential and interactive content campaigns will keep consumers entertained. 

Mars Wrigley, for example, ran a campaign in November 2022 that capitalised on the controversy surrounding one of its products. According to Mars, 40% of consumers hate their Bounty chocolate, and the brand used this insight to run a “No Bounty” campaign, announcing that they would be removing Bounties from their Celebrations box.

Lovers and haters alike took to social media to post their opinions and memes, and the campaign quickly went viral. Online conversations about Bounty and Mars catapulted to nearly 29k mentions in November 2022, and over 24k people were talking about the Bounty affair. In total, the campaign generated nearly 75 billion impressions.

Pro tip

Keeping it simple and short is the recipe for success. Remember to get the most important information into the first few seconds of your video. Look at your existing content and repurpose it into short, snappy videos.

Trend: Social listening powers strategy

Social listening is the secret weapon for marketing strategists. 

Did you know that only 1.5% of online discussions about brands and their products and services come from brands themselves? With social media users worldwide expected to reach 5.17 billion by 2024, social networks are becoming an even larger pool of consumer opinions and insights.

Brands that don’t monitor these online conversations miss a huge source of what consumers are saying about their products and services. They also miss insights into how consumers feel about competitors and their barriers to purchase. These unsolicited online consumer conversations contain valuable insights for marketing departments as well as customer services and product development teams.

With social listening tools, marketers can gather real-time consumer insights that can help them optimise their marketing strategies to become more customer-centric. In Brandwatch’s survey of 516 marketing professionals, 76% agreed that social listening tools will be used to inform marketing strategies in 2024. 

With insights from social data, marketers can see how their campaigns are being received and use the unsolicited feedback to optimise their current and future campaigns. They can see which content performs best, which products customers love, and what their pain points are. They can benchmark their brand awareness against competitors and identify threats and opportunities.

Pro tip

Stay ahead of the competition by using social listening to discover the latest market insights, consumer trends, and emerging competitors. Regularly monitor the conversations around your competitors to identify opportunities and optimise your marketing strategy.

The biggest digital marketing trends for 2024

Consumer behaviour and preferences are constantly changing. It’s a universal truth that brands need to adapt and refine their marketing strategy constantly to stand out in a competitive landscape. 

Whether implementing new AI technologies or experimenting with video content, it’s crucial to prioritise the customer’s perspective. Understanding the value these initiatives offer to your audience is key to staying ahead.

A customer-centric approach should be at the core of your marketing strategy, and tracking consumer opinions with social listening tools will be key to staying ahead of the competition.
Interested in more digital marketing trends that will have an impact in 2024? Read the full report to find out more.

This article is written by Emily Smith, Content Marketing Manager at Brandwatch.

Singapore – 8 in 10 companies in Singapore are transforming their business models in response to global megatrends such as generative AI and changing customer expectations, according to a report by customer platform HubSpot.

With this in mind, HubSpot’s research stated that a significant majority (81%) of Singaporean businesses said that they’ve evolved more in the past four years than the previous two decades due to these emerging trends – giving the highest level of disruption across all countries surveyed.

The report also said that Singaporean companies are the most likely globally to feel that their current growth tactics are becoming less effective (71%) and are also the most likely across all countries surveyed to agree that the introduction of AI has required them to reinvent (82%) their business.

The study also found out that Singaporean companies were struggling to meet demands for multi-channel content, with 82% sharing a need for tools to help remix content from one format or channel to another. Singapore is also the most likely across all countries surveyed by HubSpot to cite an increasing number of channels as a pain point (40%).

Furthermore, a separate HubSpot study revealed that 92% of Singapore companies agree that consumers find customer service interactions frustrating, and that 81% of Singapore companies consider customer service and customer success separate functions with distinct goals and responsibilities.

This hinders visibility and the flow of information across customer facing teams, impacting the ability to deliver impactful, personalised customer service. Common challenges faced by customer service teams in Singapore include extracting meaningful insights from customer data (49%), tracking KPIs (46%), ensuring alignment of customer service goals with overall business objectives (38%), as well as ensuring agents have access to accurate and relevant information (34%).

Aligning with Singapore’s strong national focus on AI, the study uncovered that nearly all (96%) local companies are using AI as part of the customer service process. To transform customer service into a more proactive function, about two thirds of (66%) CX teams in Singapore are implementing predictive analytics and AI-driven tools to better anticipate customer needs.

With all this in mind, HubSpot has announced the launch of the new Service Hub and Content Hub. These tools are designed to help local businesses deliver streamlined, personalised customer experiences, which 80% of local companies view as key to business growth. These solutions are part of HubSpot’s Spotlight, a bi-annual initiative where the company highlights its latest innovations to help SMEs win.

Talking about this, Kat Warboys, senior marketing director of APAC, HubSpot, said, “A combination of rising business costs, new technology and evolving customer expectations have impacted the effectiveness of conventional growth tactics among Singapore’s businesses, accelerating a need for reinvention. Our research shows that a majority of local businesses agree that personalised, impactful customer experiences, powered by AI and automation, will be vital to their growth in 2024.”

“Long term success will be determined by the ability of businesses to effectively engage with their audiences across multiple channels throughout the customer journey, and demonstrate value to customers to maximise retention,” she added.

Singapore – Following Charles & Keith’s response to the viral TikTok video of Singapore-based Filipino teenager Zoe Gabriel, it’s revealed by research firm YouGov that consumer impression and purchase consideration towards the brand sharply increased. 

In a recent trending incident, Gabriel was bashed online by several users after posting a TikTok video of her purchasing a Charles & Keith bag and sharing that it’s her ‘first luxury bag’. An additional caption read, “Thank you dad.” 

As a response, the brand invited Gabriel and her dad to its headquarters in Singapore and were given more gifts. Charles & Keith later on praised Gabriel for her ‘grace and humility’ despite the online bashing.

According to YouGov, the brand’s ‘Buzz’ score–pertaining to measurement of positive and negative sentiments of the brand in media–soared by 19.7 points: from 7.9 on January 8 to 27.6 by January 16.

Meanwhile, the brand’s ‘WOM Exposure’ score–which tracks the percentage of consumers who are talking about a brand in the past two weeks–also rose by 12.3 points – from 8.4 on January 8 to 20.7 by January 16.

In terms of consumer perception metrics, Charles & Keith’s net ‘Impression’ scores–which measure whether more consumers have a positive or negative impression of a brand–gained 13 points: from 8.2 on January 8 to 21.2 by January 16.

Lastly, the brand’s ‘Consideration’ scores–which track the percentage of Singapore residents who would consider buying from the brand when they are next in the market for a fashion product–increased by 8.3 points – from 11.5 on January 8 to 19.8 by January 16 – indicating that more consumers are interested in shopping for Charles & Keith products following the incident.

Following the incident, the trending topic also sparked quite a conversation within Singapore’s politics, with deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong using the incident as an example of questioning what is truly deemed as a ‘luxury’. 

Singapore – With many brands going more digital, amplified during the pandemic, brands need to understand that they need to be innovative and creative in their upcoming business strategies and endeavours to further reel in potential customers, a report by global marketing agency TEAM LEWIS and audience insights company GWI showed.

According to the trends guide, screen time continues to grow in most countries, with the exception of Malaysia and Singapore, furthermore, Hong Kongers & Malaysians prefer to spend more time on their mobile devices compared to PCs, laptops, and tablets. In terms of device ownership, audiences own at least three devices, Malaysians on average own fewer than three devices but spend the most time on the internet globally.

The report notes that the top concern amongst consumers is how companies use their personal data online, with 39%, followed by a preference to maintain anonymity online, with 34%.

The marketing landscape was also highlighted, with the website serving as a leading channel with 56% of audiences visiting a brand’s websites in the last month. Newsletters and emails were also still proven to be effective with 26% of the audience reporting to reading them. In line with the theme of ending monotony to avoid marketing immunity, consumers unanimously wanted brands to be innovative, authentic, and reliable.

In the last three years, there has been an increase in consumption of music streaming services and podcasts with Singapore seeing the most growth year-on-year.

Finally, only 23% of consumers globally think social media is good for society with Malaysians being the most positive about social media, with 40% seeing it as a force for good.

Simon Billington, executive creative director at TEAM LEWIS, said, “It’s no longer as simple as getting in front of your audience with a single message as many times as possible. Consumer expectations of a brand’s interaction with them are clear. They want unique, attention-grabbing creativity delivered in a personalized way. The complexity of the message and the vehicle the message is delivered in is paramount to success.”

Singapore – Global trend forecasting WGSN has announced the launch of their latest consumer tech vertical aptly called the ‘WGSN Consumer Tech’ which will aid brands in Asia in providing specialized vertical insights from up-to-the-minute movements to 10-year forecasts of the consumer tech scene in the region.

Said vertical is led by Lisa Yong, content director for consumer tech at WGSN, who has 20 years experience in product design and is currently based in Silicon Valley.

With a focus on product experience and driven by technology’s ever-growing presence, WGSN Consumer Tech will help brands, product designers, manufacturers and business owners to innovate with purpose and create meaningful consumer-first products and experiences.

For Yong, the observable breakneck speed at which Asian consumers are adopting new technologies has only been accelerated by the global pandemic and active programs by regional governments to digitize their economies, adding that the next 10 years will see technology transform or disrupt almost all industries, changing the way of live, work, play and move in the new reality.

“As technology continues to permeate all aspects of our lives, it’s vital for companies to understand new behaviors and expectations in tech consumerism, and develop the right products that consumers will want and need for years to come. WGSN Consumer Tech works across industries to outline the shifts that can be actioned today and built on tomorrow,” she stated.

As part of the launch of their consumer tech vertical, WGSN has also published its first flagship report entitled ‘Future of Consumer Tech 2030’, providing actionable insights to help tech businesses adapt and make the most out of the systemic changes affecting the post-pandemic world. 

Key insights in the report include the rise of the augmented self, an increased focus on regeneration and survival, and a post-pandemic focus on wellness that will accelerate consumer adoption of health-tech.

“WGSN Consumer Tech offers specialized insights into evolving consumer tech trends, from up-to-the-minute movements to 10-year forecasts, on one platform. With a talent map of over 250 people around the world, WGSN provides global trend insights and expertly curated data. We empower clients to develop products and services today, for tomorrow’s world,” said Carla Buzasi, president and CEO at WGSN.