It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Managing Director Art Lindop from Alphageek Digital.
There is no doubt that times will be tough in 2024 for both the UK and global economy, which means that customers will be saving hard and thinking twice before parting with their hard-earned cash. Companies that treat their marketing budget as an investment rather than an overhead will reap the benefits – as long as their activity is focused, and they stay on top of the performance data they’re seeing from their marketing. This means there will need to be an even greater focus on analysis – it will be more important than ever before to have an acute understanding of outlays and efficiencies. Unique and purpose built softwares will be more significant too, enabling clients to see a clear input and output on their spend and revenue.
It’s always great to chat with Dan Wild our head of paid digital and we think that in terms of platforms the heavy hitters will still be Facebook and Instagram, but the rise of TikTok will continue; it has had a meteoric rise and still gets the highest number of minutes. Its advertising capacity is still basic, but I’m sure this will develop quickly in 2024 and then TikTok will become a strong port of call for many ecommerce brands, particularly those pushing to a younger demographic.
I expect to see increasing use of AI next year and my business partners Alex Mills and Kieran Flynn agree with me. ChatGPT 4 is likely to be increasingly used as a day-to-day assistant and all the best businesses will be asking how they can leverage AI to be more efficient, without sacrificing quality. It’s got to be measured – AI can’t replace finesse, but it can replace legwork, so all firms should consider how they can integrate it.
