Havas Red’s James Wright and Shane Russell share 2024 PR predictions
Havas Red has unveiled its 2024 PR predictions, and according to global CEO, James Wright, and Australian CEO, Shane Russell, the new year will be full of truth telling, brand authenticity, corporate purpose and ‘minfluencers’.
Launching its annual Red Sky Predictions this week, the holding company’s PR arm aims to “find the order in the chaos, and the solutions within the problems”, Wright told Mumbrella.
“Like it or not, it was chaos that defined 2023. It was even our agency’s word of the year,” Wright said. “In the wake of a global pandemic, we were walloped again and again by climate disasters, wars, mass shootings, humanitarian crises, economic upheaval, and social and political turmoil.
“Once upon a time, brands wouldn’t have been expected to have a perspective on any of these matters. Now, they are. And our job as communicators is to help brands expertly navigate this volatility. Our annual predictions are designed to help PR professionals do this – to find the order in the chaos and the solutions within the problems.”
Russell told Mumbrella there’s a theme that runs through almost all the predictions – trust and authenticity.
“There’s certainly a thread that connects all of them – doing things for the right reasons, being well educated on when you take action, personalisation, its all connected in some way,” he said.
1. Truth telling trumps storytelling
The agency predicts that brands connecting with consumers more meaningfully will find that truth telling is now more of a differentiator than storytelling.
“Our industry has always been proud storytellers,” Wright told Mumbrella. “But the nature of storytelling has changed, and in recent years, disinformation has made it just dangerous.
“There is a distinct difference between storytelling, and telling stories,” he explained. “I question whether we should be storytellers at all.”
According to Havas Red, broken trust has tarnished demand for brand strategists’ old tricks – including storytelling. When it comes to brand communications, there’s far less room for ‘creative liberties’, and far more responsibility to tell the truth, be accountable and accurate in how facts are presented. In 2024, more brands will recognise they hold this responsibility, and the role of PR professionals will be pertinent to ensuring the truth is told well.
“PR is a power that can be used as a force for good,” Wright continued. “The role that we have is more important that ever, to help brands articulate, educate and facilitate the truth, to ensure they remain trusted and have maximum meaning to their stakeholders.”
2. Curiosity as a competitive advantage
Havas Red argues that brands purposefully cultivating consumer curiosity will have the greatest success at changing behaviours.
“We’re seeing this era now where we’re treating people as individuals rather than a collective, and we rely on employees and customers to tell us how they want to interact with the workplace or with friends, so that’s where I think curiosity can lead to better outcomes,” Russell told Mumbrella.
What, if instead of providing more answers, a brand provides better questions? The agency argues that it’s okay for brands not to have all the answers, and sometimes, asking questions to get people thinking is an answer in itself.
“There has been a shift in the way we communicate,” Russell continued. “We’re taking more on board from the audiences around us, and cultivating curiosity is vital to growing a brand.”
3. GenerativeIRL
According to the agency, the use of AI for brands will grow in 2024 – mainly to deliver and integrate in-store and physical experiences.
While the ‘helpful vs harmful’ debate continues to rage on, Wright said 2024 will be the year PR professionals “get comfortable” with using AI.
“AI will make us better as marketers, but we still need to be better than AI,” he said. “It will be such an asset for the communications industry – it will be used in the fight to slow down the spread of mis and disinformation, it’s great to use for brainstorming and research, for creation of copy and imagery at a basic level.”
Wright told Mumbrella AI will be further integrated in 2024, into social media strategist and real life experiences.
“There is a real force of good that we can tap into with AI, it will always need to be complemented by the unique human element that technology will never understand, but PR professionals will be using it to boost the IRL [in real life] experiences we create for brands.”
4. The corporate purpose buddy system
Businesses that pull together to advocate for causes will create more impact and better safeguard their brand against backlash, according to Havas Red.
2024 will be the year of reckoning for corporate purpose, the agency argues.
“Brands have got to be authentic to the causes they jump behind, and again, know who their audience is and what their audience cares about,” Russell said.
“They will be most impactful when they take a stand alongside other businesses, their purpose buddies, and pull together to advocate for causes.”
Russell acknowledged that there are many causes brands have jumped behind, that led to largest disasters, “so there is no right way to do it”.
“But, if brands pull together, it will safeguard them from backlash,” he said.
5. The raging ’20s
In a decade of huge historic moments, from the Covid pandemic, BLM movement, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and 40 upcoming elections around the world this year, the agency predicts the brands that turn this era’s anger and upheaval into a force of connection, will be the ones remembered.
Wright said brands should be leaning into people’s anger, passion and concern about issues, and align themselves.
“More brands are taking positions on these big social issues,” he explained to Mumbrella. “They can help consumers feel energised and live, and they can create real meaningful connections by tapping into this.
“As PR professionals, it’s our job to make sure the brands know who their audiences are, and be conscious of how they align themselves. It’s not about taking risk, because that can be very dangerous, it’s about delivering for your customers, employees and stakeholders.”
6. Women’s wellbeing in the workplace moves to the forefront
A conversation that has been had for many years, Havas Red predicts that 2024 will see a real push for women’s wellbeing in the workplace, with businesses becoming ‘women’s health companies’.
“I believe we’re starting to see the groundswell of hard work, tough conversations, brave people and bold actions starting to make an actual impact in the workplace,” Russell told Mumbrella.
“I say all of that acknowledging that there’s still a long way to go, but I think we’re starting to accommodate individual needs and address women’s health as a core priority.”
Russell, who is part of a majority female village leadership team at Havas, said he’s “gaining a new perspective”.
“It’s something we all must continue to support through policy and flexibility,” he said.
7. Meet minfluencers: The next influencer generation
With Gen Alpha (kids born between 2010 and 2025) now coming into a social presence of their own, ‘minfluencers’ are the next big influencer category to consider, according to the agency.
“If you use minfluencers in the right way, and everybody is fair, imagine what that could do for a brand in the future. When these kids are 12, 13 years-old, imagine what power they could have when they’re older,” Wright told Mumbrella.
“There are kids with millions of subscribers on YouTube, who are worth millions of dollars, and we should be considering them as PR professionals.
“I do think that we need to ensure there is some sort of regulated component to this, such as the USA’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule,” he explained. “But whether or not the idea of minfluencers is growing on you, their influence certainly will.”
8. Redefining personalisation
Havas Red argues that personalisation will becoming a journey brands embark on with consumers, not just an end point.
“Untimately, loyalty is very difficult to achieve,” Russell said. “There is so much competition, so if a brand has the power to customise something to make me, as a consumer, feel special, that’s going to increase loyalty. Personalisation is the key to a greater output of loyalty.”
Redefining personalisation, according to Russell, will be up to PR professionals.
“We need to help brands improve the customer journey, from the very minute someone interacts with a brand, right through to post-sale. Personalisation should not just be a one-and-done thing, but should be the future of brands,” he said.
“And we also need to make sure brands are doing it right,” he told Mumbrella. “When done inauthentically, customers are not always willing to forgive,” he concluded.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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