As small and medium-sized businesses gear up for 2024, iStock, a leading e‑commerce platform providing premium content to SMBs, SMEs, creatives, and students everywhere, predicts top data-backed insights from its VisualGPS research to guide and inform businesses on what will drive their customers to action in 2024.

In a world dominated by technological advancements and uncertainties about the future, consumers’ concerns have heightened over the past year. According to iStock’s research, 52% of people express anxiety about the future, with 47% nervous about the world's increasing reliance on technology. Notably, 40% feel overwhelmed by the multitude of available technologies. However, amidst these concerns there is a curiosity with 75% of people excited about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI).

"In an environment marked by AI, image manipulation, deep fakes, information overload and technology saturation, authentic visual storytelling is a crucial pathway for establishing trust between businesses and their consumers in 2024," said Dr. Rebecca Swift, Senior Vice President of Creative for iStock. "Our VisualGPS research indicates that 98% of consumers agree that 'authentic' images and videos are pivotal in establishing trust. This year, businesses should focus on visual storytelling that emphasizes relatability with visual narratives that feel real and true."

To help small and medium-sized businesses, from all industries, inform and guide their visual strategy next year, iStock experts share top marketing trends to watch in 2024:

Build brand trust through authenticity
To create a real connection between your business and your customers, use images and scenarios that feel genuine. Infuse your visuals with humor, show a broader range of facial expressions that may not be posed or “pretty” per se, but that capture a candid moment of irreverence. You can always leverage aesthetics that pass for amateur or that resembles user-generated content (UGC). Avoid luxury and overtly glamorous and instead focus on accessible and relatable. This is especially important for the travel and hospitality industries.

Bring humanization to your visual storytelling
VisualGPS indicates 1 in 3 people prefer human interaction over technology, surfacing that amid the AI hype, people not only want, but prefer, human interaction. In 2024, as technology continues to evolve, communicate the idea that tech, especially AI tools, are ultimately in our hands. Do this, by visualizing human presence and control over technology and AI tools in your marketing. Interestingly, nostalgia for early Web 1.0 aesthetics, will continue to be on the rise, and are a great way to convey control and familiarity in the face of the unfamiliar. Remember to use bright tertiary colors such as magenta, teal, lime, violet, and yellow-orange to enhance visual appeal towards the future.

The evolution of search and social commerce
The #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend, UGC tutorials, and influencer reviews have propelled platforms like Instagram Shop and TikTok Shop into the spotlight. However, 60% of people expressed distrust in in-app shopping features on social media platforms. Recognizing the paramount importance of building trust online.

Due to its immersive capabilities, video formats emerge as a pivotal tool to tackle consumers’ concerns and showcase what your business can do for your customers. VisualGPS indicates that 62% of people are going to social media for learning or self-education. Leverage the power of video to craft tutorials or "explainers" that captivate and engage viewers, also while full explainer videos can be user-generated, the ideas and feelings surrounding your video can be conveyed through B-Roll clips.

Despite the immense potential within the realm of video content, a mere 11% of SMBs and SMEs are currently using video. In contrast, a staggering 82% are finding inspiration in videos on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. The call to action is clear: Embrace the video revolution!

The rise of TikTok videos has also impacted consumers’ search behaviors, as they use this and other video platforms to find services or products, making video SEO a priority for businesses. Addressing a common SEO myth, iStock's experts underscore that stock images -and videos- do not have a detrimental effect on SEO. In fact, high-quality pre-shot images and videos can significantly contribute to content growth, particularly on platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, and Alphabet. To optimize SEO for videos, it is important to use keywords in video and image titles, descriptions, and social media posts.

The rise of text-to-image AI
Incorporating technology into the creative process is another avenue for SMBs and SMEs to explore in 2024. VisualGPS highlights that 42% of businesses are already harnessing AI-generated content. By leveraging commercially safe AI tools and capabilities, businesses can produce innovative and unique visuals, ensuring risk-free and ready-to-use creative content.

LiveRamp appoints Chief Officers in Revenue, Product, and Connectivity to drive data collaboration platform expansion

LiveRamp today announced the promotion of three senior leaders to C-level roles, to accelerate LiveRamp’s recent momentum while continuing to position the company to deliver enduring brand and business value for customers by collaborating responsibly with data. Vihan Sharma was promoted to Chief Revenue Officer, Kimberly Bloomston was promoted to Chief Product Officer, and Travis Clinger was promoted to Chief Connectivity & Ecosystem Officer.

• Vihan Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer: Sharma will lead revenue generation strategies across the company’s global operations, overseeing worldwide sales, commercial innovation, customer success, and channel partnerships to expand market reach. Over the last 8 years, he has overseen key international and commercial functions for LiveRamp, including the global rollout of its first data collaboration solution in 2020.
• Kimberly Bloomston, Chief Product Officer: Bloomston will continue to lead LiveRamp’s global product organization with an emphasis on innovation, strategy, go-to-market, design, and user experience, ensuring alignment between the product roadmap and customer needs. She has been instrumental in the evolution of LiveRamp into a unified, platform business enabling cloud-native and embedded capabilities, empowering companies to build their enterprise identity foundation, collaborate flexibly across any environment, and improve measurement outcomes.
• Travis Clinger, Chief Connectivity & Ecosystem Officer: Clinger will further scale LiveRamp’s successes by continuing to build the world’s premier global ecosystem to enable enterprises to seamlessly activate and measure every consumer experience. He built and led LiveRamp’s global Addressability efforts from the ground up, scaling Authenticated Traffic Solution on digital, CTV, and mobile experiences across 22 global markets, as well as leading LiveRamp’s strongest and most strategic relationships across media, adtech, and martech.

“Vihan, Kimberly, and Travis have been critical in helping to build LiveRamp into the leader for data collaboration and these promotions are indicative of LiveRamp’s leadership team’s depth and strong guidance in shaping the company,” said Scott Howe, LiveRamp CEO. “This trio of leaders embodies the expertise, vision, and teamwork required to propel LiveRamp toward an even higher trajectory of business and customer success.”

Sharma, Bloomston, and Clinger will all take the stage as part of RampUp 2024, the premier event for marketing and advertising technology professionals to connect, create, and build new partnerships, and discover innovative SaaS solutions to their shared challenges.

Linktree, the most popular Link in Bio service for the creator economy, today announced that it has acquired Koji. With over 400 mini apps published to its app store, Koji gives social media creators countless new ways to generate revenue, engage their audiences, and connect with supporters.

"Koji's app store changed the way the world thinks about creator businesses and the creator economy. Linktree is the obvious best fit to take Koji's innovation to the next level," said Dmitry Shapiro, Koji CEO.

"When we began working on Koji five years ago, the creator economy looked nothing like it does today. We are immensely proud of the work we have accomplished and the innovation we have brought to market—from Subtractive Development to Koji's innovative web-based app runtime—and could not be more excited for this next chapter," said Sean Thielen, Koji CTO.

First Connections Platform to join IWF demonstrating the company's commitment to user safety while setting industry standards

Bitly Inc., the world's leading connections platform, announced a new partnership with UK-based nonprofit Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to detect and block child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The partnership will allow Bitly to use the IWF's URL list and other tech services to remove and block links or scans that lead to CSAM images further safeguarding its Platform and users. Bitly is the first Connections Platform, a service that enables users to create, share, and track custom short URLs, QR codes, and Link-in-bio all in one place, to establish itself with this initiative. This marks a significant step in the company's commitment to overcome human rights issues within the technology industry.

Internet safety is a key pillar for Bitly, given the breadth of its platform. Millions of links and QR codes are created by Bitly users every day, translating into billions of clicks per month. While abusive activity is much less than one percent of the company's overall volume, Bitly is committed to investing in an anti-abuse system that mitigates the spread of harmful content. Bitly has committed to investing in a combination of non-profit organizations (like the IWF), third-party vendors, and trusted technology partners while also developing proprietary technology to ensure user safety and improve industry standards.

"There has been a prolific rise in the misconduct of people utilizing technology for questionable content. We believe that it is important to prioritize the safety and integrity of our Connections Platform for each of our users," said Ben Kleiman, Director of Product, Bitly. "Our new partnership with the IWF is an important step forward to enhance the capabilities of our proven and robust trust and safety features while also doing our part in prioritizing human rights issues that have become prominent in the industry today."

Bitly takes every opportunity to provide a trusted and safe Connections Platform. With capabilities like its Threat Detection Service, the company's Trust and Safety team can communicate with other services to determine whether a given link threatens its community. This partnership enhances the breadth and accuracy of Bitly's technology so that the company can continuously adapt to security risks and provide a safe experience to its users.

"There has been a rise of technology misuse to create images and videos of children being harmed and sexually abused that are being distributed widely throughout the internet," said Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of IWF. "The IWF is making great strides to protect the global population from this content by creating key partnerships with the right technology providers to remove and block all child sexual abuse images from the internet. Our job is extraordinarily challenging and now with Bitly we are one step closer to creating a safer future for all internet users."

Bitly joins more than 190 technology companies that use the IWF's services and continues to back the importance of the IWF's global mission to hunt down any online record of child sexual abuse.

The partnership melds marketing and localization strategies to boost conversion

The first tool for growing subscriber lists by removing the friction from signups

Today Postscript unveiled their latest innovation with Onsite Opt-In, a patent pending feature that allows merchants to compliantly collect phone numbers onsite without visitors having to move into their phone's messaging app to confirm.

Popups are one of the most adopted subscriber acquisition tools and the ones that shoppers likely see the most when engaging with a brand.

With Onsite Opt-in, brands can improve SMS opt-in rates on popups to increase list growth and keep shoppers onsite to maximize order conversion and maintain campaign attribution. Beta results have shown up to 3X subscriber list growth versus other list growth methods, outperforming double opt-in and two-touch technologies.

Beauty brand Jones Road was able to acquire as many subscribers in their first two months using Onsite Opt-In than they had all year. Apparel brand True Classic grew their automation revenue by 40% in their first week of implementation.

"Onsite Opt-in will give merchants the highest opt-in rate across all platforms," says Postscript Co-founder and CEO Adam Turner. "Most popups move people off-site, which breaks the cardinal rule of ecommerce. You just paid Facebook to bring that person on your site and now you're moving them off site to opt-in. This messes with attribution. And Onsite Opt-in solves this problem."

Visitors will instantly recognize the experience, similar to Apple's OTP, without having to stop shopping and move into their messaging app to sign up.

"Overall, it just creates a really great experience for our customers to stay on our site, stay shopping, and then also subscribe to SMS," says Joanne Coffey, Retention Marketing Manager at Jones Road.

This innovation in list growth will power a merchant's owned marketing channels, both in email and SMS, and will drive millions of dollars of new revenue for Shopify brands.

Hot Topic, ba&sh, and DIFF Eyewear Choose Attentive AI to Deliver 180% Increase in Revenue; AI is a Force Multiplier In New Era of Marketing Intelligence

• Over 6,300 businesses have used Attentive AI since its launch in March 2023

• With Attentive AI, top brands are seeing 160% more conversions and 114% more clicks compared to manual messages

• During Cyber Week, brands working with Attentive sent 218 million AI-driven messages

Today, Attentive, the world’s #1 conversational marketing platform, announced its continued momentum behind its AI strategy. Since officially launching its first AI solutions in March 2023, already 80% of Attentive customers are using AI, including Hot Topic, ba&sh, and DIFF Eyewear.

Tailored-made for marketers, Attentive AI is trained on the industry's largest SMS marketing dataset—over 2 trillion data points from 78+ billion messages across 70+ verticals for the highest performance outcomes. By using Attentive AI, early results show that top brands are driving up to 180% more online revenue and seeing 160% more conversion with relevant, hyper-personalized messages to better engage their customers.

“We are excited about the momentum we are seeing around our AI offerings and we’re just getting started,” said Amit Jhawar, CEO of Attentive. “The last twelve months have been some of the most dynamic we’ve ever seen in technology, but they’ve only set the stage for the innovation that’s yet to come. We’re thrilled to be leading the way on this journey in partnership with our customers as we continue to introduce new products in the coming months.”

Early Customer Praise for our Next Generation Attentive AI

Earlier this year, Attentive AI first launched with AI copy assistant, image generator, and automated campaigns. The company also released the next generation of Attentive Concierge™, powered by AI, to deliver hyper-relevant and contextual responses to customer prompts. These early offerings represented the beginning of Attentive’s investment in next-generation AI tools for marketers. Since then, beta customers are actively testing new, groundbreaking products that are powered by Attentive AI, and are seeing impactful results. During Cyber Week, brands working with Attentive sent 218 million AI-driven messages and AI Concierge conversations delivered a 2.4x higher purchase rate.

The early reaction from customers is bringing praise for what’s to come:

“At Hot Topic, our goal is to talk to our customers at a personal level. Attentive AI is like having a digital thought partner in the room that helps us take our marketing to an elevated level, mirroring the face-to-face interactions of an in-store experience. Using Attentive AI also gives us time back in the day to really think about our marketing strategies and analyze the results,” said Faith Bukauskas, Email Marketing Manager of Hot Topic.

“Take advantage of Attentive’s product innovation. With Attentive’s Automated Campaigns, we not only saved invaluable time, but also unlocked untapped streams of revenue,'' said Steve Lamb, VP of eCommerce and Growth Marketing of DIFF Eyewear.

Inbenta, a conversational AI platform designed to optimize customer experience, today announced the appointment of Merlin Bise as Chief Technology Officer, effective January 1, 2024. Bise will oversee Inbenta's IT infrastructure and lead the development of new products to further expand Inbenta's conversational AI platform with GenAI capabilities.

Bise joins Inbenta from GIACT Systems (an LSEG business), which he co-founded and served as Group Director, Head of Technology Digital Identity & Fraud. During his tenure, he drove new product development and implemented technology across some of the largest global enterprises, including Equifax, Walmart, Costco, PayPal, Intuit, AIG, Quicken, PNC Bank, American Red Cross and federal and state entities. Bise brings over 20 years of experience in technology leadership, with deep expertise in combating fraud through innovative solutions and designing a sophisticated OCR platform. His forward thinking and creativity have allowed him to build multiple AI platforms that serve some of the largest corporations in the world.

"We're constantly looking to stay at the forefront of how businesses solve complex customer experience challenges," said Melissa Solis, CEO at Inbenta. "The addition of Merlin as Chief Technology Officer will be a crucial component in transforming both our product roadmap and technology stack, which will further advance our suite of conversational AI products with new solutions."

"We've seen AI completely revolutionize the future of customer experience by intelligently automating internal operations, from answering customer inquiries to providing 24/7 support and engagement," said Merlin Bise, Chief Technology Officer at Inbenta. "Inbenta has been able to leverage conversational AI to provide a suite of solutions to digitally transform businesses and achieve significant results. I'm excited to work with the team to push the boundaries of what conversational AI can do for the CX industry and to build upon the success they've achieved so far."