As actual and perceived fears of a “Crisis in America” continue, brand credibility counts even more, according to Horizon Media’s 2023 Trends Report, which spotlights nine specific cultural shifts that stand to remake the connections between advertisers and consumers in a variety of ways.
The severity and shock of the pandemic have become one aspect in a litany of outside forces among many pressing on Americans or the average American. Horizon Media’s WHY Group, the agency’s intelligence center of excellence, identified the chief topics weighing on the populace’s mind as they look ahead: Inflation, Uncertain Job Market, New Congress, Outrage Fatigue, Maturing Tech, and Hidden Influences.
Topline discoveries and conclusions in Horizon’s study include:
- Generation Anomie: 80% of adults 18-34 say financial success is much less attainable for their generation versus previous ones.
- Crypto Winter: The massive $8 billion collapse of cryptocurrency marketplace FTX severely chilled the crypto boom. Meanwhile, the volatile stock market and stubbornly high inflation have dampened interest equities and bonds for many as well. Therefore, it’s not surprising that an overwhelming 75% of 18-34-year-olds are considering alternative investments like reselling luxury goods or fine art.
- From Hero to Zero: When tech stocks were booming and startups turned unassuming engineers into unlikely high-flying corporate chieftains, billionaires were hailed as heroes. No more: 73% of adults don’t trust the wealthiest people to make decisions in the best interest of society.
FTX’s disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s fall from crypto coin grace is the cautionary tale for brand stewards. There was a time when SBF, as he’s known, was feted by global leaders. He seemed to support all the right causes. He certainly said all the right things.
But apart from alleged financial fraud on an unprecedented scale, he ultimately revealed his public positioning was entirely calculated to curry favor with influential tastemakers and media mandarins, who subsequently turned on him. In these times, disingenuousness is just as toxic as financial misdeeds.
“When untruths and even mild dissembling can be uncovered and condemned so readily, brands that lead with honesty, directness, and transparency are held up as exemplars of credibility,” said Maxine Gurevich, SVP of the WHY Group.
“Credibility is more valuable and precious than at any other time,” Gurevich added. “The ongoing investigation into FTX offers an abject lesson in how brands and leaders can achieve great heights of esteem — and how that respect can come instantly crashing down. This moment is ripe for brands to adhere to the highest ethical standards. It’s clear that brand identity matters to the public at large. It’s not just a matter of what or how brands sell their products and services. It comes down to how they connect with consumers, show honor for people’s trust in them, and contribute something more than material goods to people’s lives. The contrast between the brands that recognize the importance of maintaining credibility and the ones who don’t is stark.”
Brand Trust Brings New Opportunities
As legacy brands that have been a part of people’s lives for generations have built up decades of emotional equity, marketers have an opportunity to rethink the role they play in people’s lives. Brands have a chance to empower the public and create new forms of value for all stakeholders, not just a handful of shareholders.
As a whole, brands present a unifying force conveying comforting, entertaining messaging along with the ability to satisfy marketplace desires. That’s a strong foundation to build on, especially in difficult, bewildering times when consumers’ faith seems constantly tested.
“Brands can learn from the poor examples of recent bad actors and shepherd new systems that adhere to ethical codes with checks and balances in place,” the Horizon report notes. “For example, if people trust Starbucks to hold money in an account, could the world’s largest coffee chain compete with banks for other services?
“And if monetizing these new systems invites advertiser participation, brands that established credibility and solid brand safety guidelines will be an attractive draw,” the report suggests. “For example, an insurance brand could provide insurance (and reassurance) for platform safety and data privacy.”
Purpose Is the New Leadership
Horizon’s trends analysis makes it clear: leading advertisers have grown comfortable demonstrating a clear, substantive sense of mission over the past two years. Consumers and stakeholders have responded positively as a result.
That more purposeful, compassionate stance is a balm to people struggling with larger events and personal matters that seem to be constantly spinning out of control, or even comprehension.
Inherent in Horizon’s findings is the recognition that every stakeholder is a customer service representative. Conversely, brand affinity and awareness are driven by consumers’ seeing a positive or negative reflection of their experience reflected in how brands conduct themselves in the world. It’s not about appealing to consumers or stakeholders separately anymore.
“There’s white space for brands to partner with people in ways that not only guarantee bottom-line success but future wealth for shopper-stakeholders,” the report states. “For example, an entertainment brand could crowdsource funding from potential viewers as an alternate investment in the success of a feature film or newly produced show. Fans will be even more motivated to promote it.”
Ultimately, in Top Trends 2023, Horizon illuminates the ideas that are impacting peoples’ sense of themselves, the entities they trust (or don’t), what inspires and worries them, and how to make sense of it all from a brand perspective:
- Financial Frontiers: Advanced tech and human ingenuity are spawning new systems of creating, exchanging, and securing wealth as a necessary survival strategy.
- Failed Alt Systems: When new systems designed to be more egalitarian than their predecessors fail, there is an opportunity for new shepherds (i.e., brands) to meet the needs of more people.
- Local Love: People are scaling down their worlds in search of more intimate and authentic connections.
- Little Luxuries: Living by one’s own definition of happiness in a chaotic and restrictive world is morphing into an embrace of small-scale hedonism.
- Living History: With the future uncertain, people are gravitating toward experiences, content, and legacy-preservation tech that keeps the past alive.
- Personal (AI)ssistants: To tackle the daily pressures of productivity and burnout, people turn to AI-driven solutions for relief.
- Tech Morality: Despite growing adoption, people are questioning advanced technology’s impact on society as ideas of ownership, authenticity, identity, and altruism spark debate.
- Extreme Expressions: Polarizing expressions, from chaotic and unhinged to fully stripped of any pretense at all, lead to content that rebels against the middle ground.
- Flex Aesthetic: While rent hikes and mortgage increases keep people in place, the appeal of routine aesthetic refreshes is sprouting more style changeups than ever before.
