6 Marketing, communication and public relations trends for Latin America in 2024

Do you know how the latest global trends in marketing, communications and public relations will affect the Latin American continent this year? At LatAm Intersect PR, we have brought together six of the most significant experiences that will impact the commercial scenario in Latin America over the next twelve months – and how they could work on our continent, which is so unique and diverse.

AI will continue to dominate headlines, both positive and negative

Latin Americans are among the fastest and most enthusiastic users of AI in the world, with Brazil being the country that has accessed ChatGPT the most. A survey carried out by LatAm Intersect PR showed that the vast majority (82%) of Latin American journalists consider AI-powered tools, such as Chat GPT, to be useful for their work and do not classify them as a threat.

While 2023 was the year of our introduction to AI, in 2024 communications professionals in Latin America will be able to use the innovative tool for content automation, from personalized messages and emails to instant images and graphics, translations and audio. While in the public relations arena, agencies will have to negotiate how to handle any negative outcomes from increased AI adoption, especially when it comes to potential lawsuits against AI technology.

Humanized and authentic communications will find new value

In a complementary and also paradoxical trend to the rise of AI, in 2024 consumers will begin to seek and place more value on authentic and 100% man-made communication, across a variety of platforms and industries. Latin American consumers are especially interested in recommendations from influencers, so brands and companies in the region should be aware of the growing trends of micro-influencers and user-generated content (UGC).

Latin American marketers will also be able to harness the power of their own consumers’ narratives and messages, especially when interacting with visual social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. It is expected that these networks will focus much more on unfiltered real-life scenes, more on ”people like us” than on professionals hired to advertise.

Powerful data analysis tools combined with cookie phase-out will usher in a new era of personalization

Google is already eliminating third-party cookies on the web, and Latin America is no exception. However, new tools that combine big data with the analytical processing power of AI offer companies a new way to deliver a hyper-personalized consumer experience without the invasive reputation of cookies.

Marketers should benefit from this as they can produce a customized experience and product recommendations at scale: all in a fraction of the time than usual. More than 80% of Brazilian consumers now prefer personalized products. So this will be obvious for both e-commerce and physical stores across the continent. Improved data analytics will also allow companies to continually adjust services according to individual consumer behavior.

Sustainability and purpose continue to gain importance for consumers

According to a recent study by Kantar, half of Latin Americans actively seek out companies that offer ways to offset their impact on the environment and diversity, with 44% stopping purchasing products due to their harmful footprint on the Earth. As climate change continues to have a real impact on the lives of many people across the continent, conscious consumption will continue to grow in 2024.

In this scenario, communication and public relations professionals must ensure that the brands they represent engage in sustainable and intentional actions in a genuine way, avoiding any accusations of “greenwashing” (the famous unjustified appropriation of environmentalist qualities by organizations, through use of marketing and public relations techniques), without the risk of alienating a large part of your consumer base. However, with the right message and tone, brands can support a variety of worthy causes in a respectful way that avoids being exploitative or separate.

Web 3 and Phygital transform the customer experience

Although the Metaverse has taken a backseat to AI, Latin America is a continent that continues to use this new technology in innovative and socially inclusive ways. Experts predict a ‘return’ of Web 3 technologies like blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrencies, especially in conjunction with AI. At the same time, the shift to a “phygital” omnichannel customer experience will continue to make huge inroads in massively online Latin America, whose Internet penetration surpassed that of China last year.

Metaverse offers marketers a new way to advertise and bring brand visibility to an entirely new audience. NFTs have helped brands position themselves as innovative and unconventional, while offering customers exclusive and valuable digital products, improving customer loyalty and satisfaction. The continued rise of phygital will force communications professionals to completely rethink customer engagement and retention. They will need to deliver a seamless brand experience that goes beyond the traditional point of sale and instead becomes an ongoing lifecycle of pre-purchase communication and engagement, in-store personalization and discounts, and post-purchase feedback, listening, loyalty analysis and construction.

Journalists face their most challenging year

According to a recent survey by Reuters and the University of Oxford, journalists face an exceptionally complex and challenging year as the impact of AI changes everything from monetization models to the production and dissemination of texts. This occurs during a period of significant political and economic developments. Our recent survey of journalists in Latin America also showed how social media use among journalists is fragmenting, with a third (29.4%) of professionals never using Twitter/X’s trending topics feature to suggest stories and fewer than a third (29.4%) %) paying attention to Threads when creating stories.

Public relations and communications professionals should be aware that by 2024, journalists will be more focused on video content than text as a way to reach new audiences on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, as traffic increases. Facebook and Twitter/X benchmark continues to drop significantly. An increase in algorithmically generated news will also lead to more media outlets opting for a subscription model in order to ensure continuous reading and quality control, which in turn will influence PR professionals to choose whether to They want quality or quantity in their coverage and readership.

*Claudia Daré is an award-winning communications professional and director of LatAm Intersect PR. She is also listed among PRovoke’s 25 Innovative Professionals of America. With more than 30 years of experience in the field, she is a specialist in strategic planning and international coordination. She led dozens of professionals in the region’s most important economies and managed communication strategies for several brands and products. She is the winner of Saber Latin America 2017, the Saber Awards and Davos Awards as Woman Professional PR of the year 2022. As a journalist, she was an international correspondent in Mexico and the United States (2008 – 2013) for Grupo Globo.