medialabel

Black Friday 2024: Trends and Survey Insights

New data from the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) shows that Black Friday 2024 remains predominantly online in Germany: 36% plan to use discount events, and 66.5% prefer digital shopping. Only 7.9% intend to shop mostly in-store, while 20.9% will shop both online and in-store. Consumers favor familiar brands (44.7%), and just 1.6% search for unknown brands. More than half (55.6%) have experienced fake ‘discounts’ that weren’t real. Tim Lomborg, Managing Director of affiliate platform Awin, identifies 10 trends for the Golden Quarter 2024, including rate-cut driven consumer confidence, BNPL relevance, personalized discounts via tech, AI-enabled marketing, influencer momentum, and growing Retail Media and partnerships. The report notes continued online dominance, rising influencer spend, and the emergence of options like Green Saturday as alternatives to BF, while brands emphasize transparent offers and cross-channel strategies.

The Creator Economy: Can Influencer Marketing Be Authentic?

The article examines whether influencer content can be truly authentic when creators rely on paid partnerships. It argues that all advertising aims to sell a product or service, but authenticity in influencer marketing hinges on how creators select brands and disclose sponsorships. Jenni Kuzu, who runs the Instagram account @mehralsgruenzeug, states she remains authentic by carefully choosing partners and typically backing collaborations fully. The piece highlights the Deinfluencing trend, where creators publicly advise against brands they wouldn’t personally buy, aiming to curb greenwashing and overhyped endorsements. It stresses influencer responsibility to test products, ask questions, and be transparent about paid content, while noting that brands should seek authentic customers and be open to flexible creator sourcing, including micro- and nano-influencers. The article also calls for broader media literacy, reminding readers that online content is financed by advertising and that critical evaluation is essential.