Trend Spotting: A topsy-turvy ‘24 and hope for a thriving ‘25
As we count down to the end of 2024, I hear many letting out a long sigh of relief. It has been an extra-long and bumpy year in the APAC arena. The global economic and geopolitical landscape put us in a cautious mood. The extra care given to navigating communication and marketing risks led to ‘toned-down’ activity across the region. That said, there certainly were bright spots and growth areas in the marketing communications space too.
Here are a few of my observations from the year that was, and what to expect for the year ahead.
Growth Areas We Saw in 2024
Consumer brands are investing more in corporate reputation building One area where we have seen interesting growth has been in the specialisation of B2B2C communications. Luckly, this is a core area of expertise for the Sinclair team. As brands recognise the need to double down on their corporate reputation and company footprint, we have had the honour of working with renowned brands on reputational and community campaigns. For Booking.com, we have launched trend reports and travel predictions for 2025, leveraging insightful data from the platform and survey results. This initiative is driving thought leadership for the brand while providing valuable tips for travel enthusiasts across the region.
For Carlsberg, we launched a regional campaign with delivery partners to reinforce their safe drinking message. For UNIQLO, we highlighted the importance of the circular economy through new initiatives such as RE:UNIQLO.
Cultural communications reclaims its lead in the region After a few relatively quiet years in the arts world in Asia, 2024 saw a reinvestment in cultural and arts communications. Brands, recognising the power of culture to capture hearts and minds, doubled down on their commitments in this category, finding new and unique ways to activate cultural storytelling. In March of this year, Hong Kong’s Arts Month was back to its full scale, and we were delighted to lead headline projects.
Art Central 2024 returned to its iconic location on the Central Harbourfront, The Peninsula Hong Kong’s Art in Resonance wowed both local and international audiences – especially for the façade artwork by a local artist. Meanwhile, over at Pacific Place, Art Basel Hong Kong’s off-site Encounters was a huge success. The second edition of the ASEAN Film Festival took place mid-year, proving that cinematic works from our close neighbours are gaining in popularity and serve as a key tool in sharing cultures amongst friends. More recently, RedBall Project made headlines across Hong Kong, as did the first Maison&Objet Design Factory which took place at DesignInspire alongside BODW. Across the year, we continued our long-term, award-wining relationship with Sotheby’s, and built exciting relationships with new art fairs, auction houses and public art projects.
The best part? Seeing the excitement and wonder on the faces of visitors when they encountered artworks for the first time or in an unexpected place.
Social media storytelling sees exponential investment From LinkedIn to Instagram to WeChat, social media storytelling continues to prove a vital tool for corporate and consumer communications. We had the honour of partnering with powerhouse brands across Greater China such as Henderson Land, MTR Lab, FRANKE Coffee System, and more to drive strategic social storytelling to new heights. A niche expertise in the communications industry, social media storytelling requires a strong backbone strategy, visual and written creative skills, and the ability to capture attention within only a few seconds and words. Our social and digital teams have harnessed that skill impressively this year.
Celebrating milestones through emotive video storytelling We love to celebrate with our clients, and anniversary campaigns are an important milestone and communications hook. It is a key time when a brand campaign can dive into the company’s core values to share meaningful human stories. Our work with Hysan for their 100th celebration and MTR for their 45th anniversary are key examples of how video storytelling can create touching moments that connect audiences with brand purpose.
Education institutions reestablished their international reputation Connecting with the wide-ranging stakeholder groups within each of our leading institution clients requires the communications team to consider a variety of viewpoints when creating the strategy. From government and legislative bodies, to potential and current students, alumni groups, research institutions and wider communities, creating meaningful storytelling that champions their leadership requires creativity and consideration. Our work for Chinese University of Hong Kong, Baptist University of Hong Kong, The Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and Croucher Foundation all showcase exemplary work on reputation building within the education sector.
International investment opportunities We also secured some very interesting, time-appropriate, international investment-driven projects with the likes of Chelsea Barracks, Opportunity London, and Race Capital. We had the valuable opportunity to tell stories about why high-end luxury property in London is the top choice for global investors, especially those in mainland China. Furthermore, in that vein, we supported the Asia leg of Opportunity London’s CEO and furthered his mission to find investors into London’s tech, property, sustainability, and healthcare centred remits through select top tier media interactions. We are helping Silicon Valley founders talk to select investors in Asia who are looking at the USA to gain from tech and deep tech investments.
Travel and tourism trends towards cultural, wellness and lifestyle experience making Across the board, we see travel and tourism brands back to full strength but with a new focus. The focus on ‘product’ has shifted towards ‘experience’ and creating meaningful lifestyle connections. Making an impact through marketing communications requires tapping into the emotive needs of travellers and their travel purpose. For business, family gatherings and independent trips, travellers are looking for unique cultural experiences that connect with local communities. In our work with leading travel brands such as W Macau – Studio City, Booking.com, and Airport Dimensions, we leaned into the latest trends to ensure relatable storytelling with consumers. International events and concerts were also an area of growth and our capabilities leading marketing communications for mega events, such as The Longines Hong Kong International Horse Show, continue to expand.
Our Take on Trends to Thrive in 2025
Climate messaging incorporated into all aspects of communications As climate concerns continue to grow, consumers are more often making buying considerations with the environment in mind. Companies and brands are taking note and investing more in sharing their sustainability journey – on both the product and corporate level – with the public. Communications teams are on this journey too, as we upskill in conscious ESG knowledge and constantly monitor changes in both legislation and consumer concerns.
Purpose gets new purpose From employee communications to societal impact, brand purpose will continue to be at the core of marketing communications campaigns and programmes in 2025 and beyond. Distilling purpose into action and ensuring stakeholders are made aware and involved has been on the uptick. I feel that in the years ahead we will see not only the leading international brands investing in purpose communications, but a wider range of businesses understanding that employees, stakeholders, and consumers are taking a deeper interest in the impact a business has on the people and communities they reach.
AI-overdrive The AI hype is real. Many communications practitioners are already using some form of AI in their work and via their supplier offerings. Over the next year I suspect that agencies and communications teams will increase their investment as new tools and models come to the market. It’s not going to be too long until we see off-the-shelf AI-facilitated products that are made specifically for our industry. It will change the way we work, that’s for sure, but in a good way – allowing teams to focus on strategy over tasks. Bring it on!
Permacrisis requires reputational reinforcement Uncertainty is the only certainty in the current geopolitical environment. Over the last few years, we have already seen an increase in the focus on reputation management, media training and issues/crisis work. This can only increase as risk factors become more prominent and gain every day potential. Social media makes crisis and issues management a part of our everyday. Constant monitoring and always-on reputation management is going to be the norm moving forward. Spotting issues and managing communications response needs to be quick, authentic, and considered from a variety of viewpoints. That’s where agency can bring strong skills to the fore.
Emotive corporate storytelling Long gone are the days when B2B and corporate communications were built upon stale company-focused jargon. Understanding that there is a human behind the corporate decision-making has changed the way that B2B communicators strategise their programmes. Human-to-human (H2H) communications will continue to grow in the corporate world, and as the c-suite across APAC better understands this, the volume of work in this area is going to increase more each year for the foreseeable future. It’s exciting times for what was once considered to be the more stale of the communications practices.
Here's to a thriving 2025. If you are looking for an agency where storytelling meets impact, do reach out. We are ready to serve.
Wishing you all a wonderful year-end celebration and good fortune in the year ahead.
