2024 in Review: ADMA on uncertainty, disruption, and the future of marketing

Uncertainty may have defined 2024, but at ADMA’s End of Year event, optimism and resilience were at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Gathering marketers at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the event featured thought-provoking insights from ADMA Chair Steve Brennen and Professor Mark Ritson, who came together to address the year that’s passed and what they predict is yet to come - from AI’s rapid evolution to the need for stronger marketing skills and regulatory clarity.

Here is a breakdown of what was discussed:

Uncertainty prevailed in 2024

The industry landscape against which ADMA’s End of Year event took place was one of uncertainty, with an industry that’s borne the brunt of wider macroeconomic trends this year.

“If you’re exhausted, I understand and I empathise with you,” explains Steve Brennen. “It was a massive year for the entire industry, and transformational as well.”

“There is an absolutely palpable sense of uncertainty everywhere,” says Professor Mark Ritson. “It’s like something's going to happen, but we don't know what it is yet. It doesn't feel like pre-COVID. It doesn't feel like the turn of the century. It feels like something else is going on.”

Ritson points to the downturn of jobs in the tech space and the widening understanding of proper implications for AI usage as two reasons as to why the industry feels as if it’s on the precipice of something unknown.

He says: “There's a real sense that the next 10 years are going to be very different politically and environmentally than the previous 10 years. You feel it when you leave Australia, and Australia is relatively constant. The rest of the world definitely is not.”

Embracing tech disruption

“In the next six to 12 months, AI video will be more realistic than a human. We will not be able to distinguish between a human or an AI test,” says Brennen.

This prediction came off the back of a pitch Brennan participated in with an AI video company, revealing just how far the technology in this space has come in a year. The rapid development of this kind of technology comes with widespread implications, both for marketers and beyond.

"I work a lot in America with an artificial intelligence firm that uses synthetic data. We've now reached the point where the data can match a human survey and it can do it almost immediately,” shares Ritson.

“Humans are pretty good, but we’re not AI-good. By the 2030s, we will be looking at systems that do these things for us,” he adds.

Brennen also believes this kind of technology is both “super exciting and super scary”, adding that the innovation from AI will likely make an impact on the dark web before reaching the mainstream.

Solving the capability crisis

As budgets decrease and technology evolves, how people spend, deploy and execute projects has changed dramatically - yet the training marketers receive often does not match the kind of work they are now expected to do.

Ritson in particular believes there’s a critical gap between capability and expectations, explaining: “Marketers in 2024 continue to become non-marketers. Most marketers in Australia aren’t marketers at all. They're just working in advertising. What you're seeing now is a relatively superficial discipline, with some exceptions.”

This phenomenon is what’s now being called a ‘capability crisis’, with 2024 being a pivotal year in this space.

It’s this demand that led ADMA to announce its Capability Compass at its annual Global Forum in August, as Brennen shares. ADMA’s Capability Compass was built by the industry for the industry, and is a tool to help both marketers assess their own skills and team leaders to evaluate skills gaps in their teams.

“We just didn’t feel the capability was there in the industry, We needed to lean into that,” says Brennan. “Capability Compass measures 13 capabilities across 65 different skill sets. We think these are the critical skill sets for marketers, and we've had huge progress in a short time.”

Ritson flags the four Ps of marketing (product, price, promotion, place) as critical areas where marketers are lacking skills.

“We have to recognise that the good marketing teams are still just as involved in product and pricing as they are with promotion. Everyone else, however, isn't,” he says.

Preparing for regulatory changes

This year was a pivotal one for the regulatory landscape in Australia. Highly-anticipated changes to the Privacy Act were finally announced, giving marketers a clearer indication of what to expect once the review is complete.

This is where ADMA has truly come to the fore, providing much needed guidance to marketers in an increasingly complex environment.

“We’ve worked extremely closely with regulators - it’s a high trust environment that’s been built over many years, which is absolutely critical,” says Brennen.

He also shares that ADMA is advocating for a “more practical, balanced outcome”, than what the Attorney-General’s Department has recommended.

Brennen explains: “This topic may be seen as somewhat dry, but we at ADMA are committed to creating a space where people can understand this information, businesses can thrive and customers have their best interests put forward.”

Despite the challenges of 2024, this year was a reminder that the marketing industry thrives on adaptability and resilience. With the Capability Compass, a clearer regulatory path, and disruption fuelling innovation, marketers have the insights, resources, and advocacy needed to drive the industry forward - and ADMA remains committed to guiding marketers throughout all these shifts.