Marketing Minute – January 2024

January is a month for fresh starts and new beginnings, and tends to deliver a wave of change to the marketing landscape. Some of these may fade, while others gain steam and reshape how we connect with our audiences. And as predicted, this month we experienced a number of noteworthy events – some good, and some not so good — that will have profound impact.

Here’s the January Marketing Minute. 

1. Incredibly Shrinking Journalism 

The downsizing of mass media isn’t new, but January had a particular sting, with major outlets including NPR, Sports Illustrated, TIME Magazine, Business Insider and Los Angeles Times announcing substantial layoffs of their editorial staff (The SI news hit particularly hard for generations who built their week around its Thursday/Friday mailbox arrival). The broad implications are massive, reinforcing a decline in the power and influence of mass media  and a continued fragmentation of consumers across platforms. For those of us in communications and advertising, it forces the continued evaluation of how/where/when to reach audiences and the attention that needs to be paid to niche media, and tailored approaches, that may have smaller reach but more engaged and passionate audiences. 

2. A Cleaner Inbox

Change is coming to email marketing. Effective February, Google and Yahoo are updating their email authentication requirements, which will particularly impact bulk email senders across industries, business types and locations. If authenticity was the 2023 word of the year, relevance may be for email in 2024 as marketers need to ensure that they’re delivering quality content at the right frequency.

3. Is it Real or Fake? 

Deep fakes aren’t new, but boy did it seem like January propelled the powerful propositions light year’s forward. Robocalls had a real, tangible influence on voting in New Hampshire, presenting just a taste of what is likely to come over the next 9 months (and beyond). Meanwhile, the world’s biggest superstar was a personal victim of X-rated deep fakes, so pervasive that it shut down search on Twitter/X. And we’re just in January.  

4. Social Empowerment 

Swifties and Kelces may have dominated the January news cycle. But Kristin Juszczyk came out on top (seems fitting for the wife of a fullback). The designer and wife of Kyle became a favorite overnight for her show-stopping designs made from NFL jerseys, and recently secured a NFL licesing deal. Instances like this demonstrate the true power of social media and influencer marketing — how one viral moment or mention can make or break a business, relationship or career. 

See you next month.