Side B: What is 'In' and 'Out' for 2024?
Looking back on the year that was and making predictions for the year ahead.
It’s been a big year for Bolster. We say that every year, but this year, it rings especially true. For the public, it’s holiday season, and for agency land, it’s trend and forecast season – and we’re here for both.
This year, we've opted for a tongue-in-cheek take on trends with a crowdsourced list of ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ from our team. Our serious predictions—like the resurgence of traditional media, sustainable activations, and evolving fan-artist relationships—are coupled with some more offbeat takes. We’re predicting a curious comeback for fish tanks and a waning interest in the game of chess (the impact of The Queen's Gambit appears to have run its course). Do with this information what you will.
But first — here’s a quick snapshot of some of the team’s highlights from this year:
2023 Highlights
We rebranded as Bolster Group, merging with arts and entertainment PR agency Common State to form a new agency group. As part of the rebrand, we also brought experiential and sponsorship specialists Aeroplane Agency and Indigenous-owned creative collective Going North into the fold. A big 'In' for us next year is to spotlight more of the incredible work produced across our now four-agency-strong team team.
We launched Blare, a new music publication with Warner Music Australia. This platform has enabled us to foster relationships with some of Australia's top creators - Millie Ford, Nat’s What I Reckon, Bridget Hustwaite - as well as the next wave of emerging talent.
We crafted a jingle for KFC ‘Fried Night Footy’, and watched Shannon Noel perform it live at State of Origin Game 2 (to mixed reactions).
We shot a music video using a Google Pixel for Amy Shark, earning an ARIA nomination.
We covered all bases for EA and The Sims, publishing a Simlish song with Becca Hatch (earning another ARIA nod), challenging Nats What I Reckon to a Simlish cook-off, and reuniting The Saddle Club. We also recently launched a global campaign around the ‘For Rent’ expansion with Angelo and Alexandra Marisigan.
We helped ALWAYS LIVE’s biggest program to date come to life, producing both the branding, managing the media and handling the press for the campaign.
We collaborated with Nike and NTS to program 10 hours of Nike Lab Radio.
We managed the partnerships and activations for Laneway Festival and RISING, among many others.
We partnered with Tixel for the second 'State of Play' ticketing report, and presented it at the inaugural SXSW Sydney, as well as standalone events in Melbourne and Sydney
We devised Patrón’s Masters of Craft series, working with actor Josh Heuston and bartender Alex Boon, as well as three Matildas stars — Mackenzie Arnold, Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord — in a well timed partnership ahead of the Women’s World Cup.
Mackenzie ‘The Wall’ Arnold for Patron. We rolled out our first ever campaign in Indonesia (and in Bahasa!), working with one of the region’s biggest DJs Dipha Barus on a campaign to launch BACARDÍ Spiced. It’s a global extension of all the integrated campaign work we’ve been doing in the Australian market with Bacardi-Martini Australia.
We supported The Uluru Dialogue with a creator-led strategy for The Voice referendum. (Although the vote didn't pass, we take immense pride in our contribution.)
The list goes on and on. (You can see why we run out of time to platform them all.) Thank you to all our clients and project partners. We’re grateful to work on so many projects we're deeply passionate about.
2024 Predictions
Our team had a lot of fun pulling together these ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ — even though they’re always a bit contentious. (Feel free to take it up in the comments.) While some of these might lean closer towards manifestations than concrete realisations, we'll leave it up to you to decide which is which.
In:
2010s nostalgia
Bing
Bangers & mash
Cabbage
Celeb ambassador ads without a product in it
Concert docos
Creed
Custom webpage cursors
Earplugs
Electro pop (mason exceeder radio)
Fan/artist communities
Fish tanks
Frutiger aero
Full cream milk
Genderless fashion labels
Gen X soft club
Google fonts
Interactive cinema / theatre
Longform video
Marriage
Magazines
Mustard (all types)
Nu metal
Orange Peel Theory
Palomas, Cynar
Pomodoro Method
Purposeful AI, AR or VR
Silent breakups
TV, billboard, and print advertising
Unilever Cinematic Universe
Under-the-sea themed decor
Out:
Adidas Sambas
Activation assets that can’t be reused
AI, AR or VR gimmicks
Band T-Shirts as merchandise
Beige
Being an empath
Being a ‘rock dog’ or ‘club rat’ (it’s the dawn of rat-dog)
Billionaires
Bows
Brand books with no execution plan
Burrata
Canva templates
Chess
Custom brand fonts
American deli sandwiches, incl. bagels (*note: we’re divided here)
Garlic aioli
Gen Z
Liquid chrome 3D font
Meta-only advertising
NFTs
Saying you thrifted something when you bought it from a consignment store
US/UK-centric billboard charts
Waking up early (it’s night owl season)
Links
Read
André 3000 on his surprise flute album - The Guardian
The economics of Christmas music – Monday Morning Economist
How anxiety became content – The Atlantic
Watch
MTV’s cultural influence – MTV (Youtube)
The wonderful world of Devo - Blare (Tiktok)
Listen
A 4-track mind – Radiolab
Google’s epic loss – Hardfork
Who should be in charge of AI – Search Engine
Play
The chat-bot trained on 2024 trend reports – Trend God
To Close
As we wrap up, we hope our mix of predictions and media recommendations provide some enjoyable reading to tide you over until the new year. The Bolster office will be taking a break for the holiday season, closing on Friday, December 22, and reopening on Wednesday, January 3.
During this period, our digital skeleton crew will be on deck, ensuring that all runs smoothly. They'll focus on essential digital tasks, like pausing or adjusting ads as needed, and making critical amendments to ongoing campaigns. For anything else, we’ll pick up comms on the 3rd.
A heartfelt thanks to all our clients for a fantastic year. Wishing everyone a safe and joyous holiday break. See you in 2023.