Since the beginning of 2024, the advertising landscape has been shaped by evolving media behaviors and the new digital marketing trends that determine how consumers interact with brand messages. From the overall decline in attention to the rise of powerful new formats that focus on precise and context-based targeting, our benchmarks reveal insights and perspectives on the future of the industry.
DOOH, OOH, and Digital Audio shine
Most media are experiencing a decline in creative diagnostic KPIs, which assess the inherent qualities of an ad creative (interest, clarity, attribution, enjoyment). This decline is particularly noticeable online (Display, VOL, social media, CTV, In-game advertising, digital audio), where attribution is down 5 points from Q1 2023.
In this context of advertising saturation, where brands are struggling to stand out, certain media such as DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home), OOH (Out-of-Home), and digital audio are attracting more attention. This is mainly due to their ability to be perceived as less intrusive by consumers. Digital audio, a high proximity format, also benefits from a certain intimacy with audiences, increasing attention to advertising messages.
Audiences remember DOOH advertisements better than in the first quarter of 2023 (+6 points), thanks to their nonintrusive format and content quality. This is a trend that stands out significantly from the overall memory average, as this curve tends to decline for other media.
In terms of creative diagnostics, the media that are gaining traction and managing to capture interest are OOH and digital audio. Indeed, these are the only two media that stand out with significant growth for this indicator.
Ad Recall drives purchase behaviors
Despite a decline in overall interest in advertising, the impact of ad recall is on the rise. In the first quarter of 2024, indicators measuring the impact of a campaign on purchasing behaviour have improved significantly across all media: +4 points in consideration (the brand is a possible choice to meet an individual’s need for a future purchase) and +3 points in specific intention (immediate and concrete intention to act towards the brand).
DOOH, OOH, and digital audio are particularly effective in increasing brand consideration, as is CTV, which also promotes concrete and immediate actions. It stands to reason that DOOH, OOH, and digital audio will perform better due to their ability to capture attention in a saturated environment. VOL and CTV benefit from the strength of the video format, both entertaining and high quality, to convey the right messages and maximise the influence of advertising recall on impact indicators.
These results highlight the value of more premium ‘showcase’ formats that drive memorisation, consideration, and thus engagement. This may also indicate a renewal in how consumers view the purchasing process, possibly linked to inflation stabilising.
Targeted ads are on the rise
The growing adoption of contextual advertising formats such as in-game and social media is another strong trend since the start of the year. These native highly targeted formats are valued for their ability to reach audiences directly and generate interest. They appear during a recreational moment when the consumer may be more receptive to advertising messages.
Compared to the average of all media from 2021 to 2024, the in-game format stands out significantly with +12 points in ad recall, proving that this format is a highly effective showcase for brand promotion. Social media also performs much better than the average of other media, both in terms of message quality and relevance.
We can therefore expect promising performance in terms of impact and purchase engagement for these two formats in 2024.
Conclusion
“In a context of audience fatigue and fragmentation, these trends invite us to rethink ad recall as a prerequisite for campaign success and to guide advertisers towards creating content that strengthens the brand. A full-funnel approach, where brand KPIs play a crucial role in conversion, will better capture attention and maximise the impact of the media plan.” — Virginie Chesnais, CMO of Happydemics.
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Methodology
Analysis based on Happydemics benchmarks of over 15,000 criteria between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, as well as on all Brand lift studies conducted between 2021 and 2024 (over 4,000 in 60 countries).
