10 marketing trends for 2026

For marketers, the message is clear: growth in 2026 will come from embracing technology responsibly while staying true to what makes brands distinctive.

The 10 trends that will shape 2026:

AI agents at scale

Some 24% of AI users already leverage an AI-powered shopping assistant. As people increasingly brief agents to sound out products and influence what they buy, brands will need to actively serve these non-human consumers while continuing to persuade and entertain humans through traditional channels.

How Kantar can help: Kantar’s Digital Analytics (Dx) helps you better understand the latest trends through a range of online and digital marketing data, such as AI search and social media data. We codify them into meaningful signals that brands can tap into to answer their business questions and drive brand growth.

Human connection through machine selection

If the model doesn’t know you, it won’t choose you. In 2026, the CMO’s job will be to make sure their brands are present in the content AI models learn from. That way, when people ask for a recommendation – be it a recipe, how-to guide or review, the right brand appears. This will require a focus on Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) as part of their marketing strategy: the strongest brands will be those that shape the story AI is telling.

How Kantar can help: Kantar’s Brand Solutions empower marketers to make smarter, agile decisions. Decode equity, track performance in real time and shape brand strategy with evidence. Access actionable insights, predictive metrics, and always-on signals to drive sustainable growth.

Synthetic data, augmented audiences

Augmenting audiences with AI will deepen marketers’ understanding so they can strategise more effectively, but this will strongly depend on data quality. 2026 will see technologies like digital twins evolve, as well as the rapid integration of text, voice, image and virtual reality (VR). To get ready, the organisations will need to develop robust capabilities, strong guardrails and work with trusted partners.

How Kantar can help: Kantar’s synthetic data boosting enables brands to scale insights faster and responsibly. Built on human and quality first-party data, it helps brands understand underrepresented audiences and benchmark in a broader context, without compromising quality or ethics.

Transform creative optimisation into creative intelligence

With 74% of marketers excited about GenAI, the next step is using it where it counts. CMOs need to test and learn to ensure their creative captures attention, stirs emotion, and affects purchase intent. That requires high quality, trained datasets for creative effectiveness and a human touch to bring authenticity.

How Kantar can help: LINK AI transforms creative optimisation with fast, AI-powered predictions in as few as 15 minutes. Quickly see which content will support your objectives and drive brand growth, all with trusted, transparent data.

Enjoy each day with a treat

Treatonomics (‘little treat culture’) is about injecting optimism and control through small pleasures. With major life milestones out of reach or undesirable, people mark ‘inchstones’ just to have something to celebrate. In fact, 36% of people would go into short-term debt to spend on things they enjoy. CMOs should ask if their brands are meeting consumers where they are, so they can create joy through everyday moments.

How Kantar can help: Culture provides valuable currency for meaningful brand connection. To shape culture, brands need to build cultural fluency and find the enduring constants they can springboard from authentically, strategically and long-term. Kantar helps brands connect to culture effectively, to drive growth by building Meaningful Difference.

Experiment to accelerate: Innovation as an engine for growth

Innovation is a proven multiplier, with disruptor brands creating $6.6tn in value in the past 20 years, yet businesses playing it safe in 2026 will find this comes at the expense of future growth. Brands will succeed when they make experimentation their default. Embed a culture of smart risk taking, where teams have permission to push boundaries, exploration is structured, and experimentation is rewarded. Crucially, innovation must be brand led, not tech led, rooted in what a brand stands for and in consumer motivations and tensions.

How Kantar can help: Accelerate your brand growth with meaningfully different innovation that is right for your brand. A suite of Kantar’s tech-enabled innovation solutions allows you to address real consumer tensions through an iterative, agile learn-test-learn approach.

Brands at the crossroads: Authentic inclusion drives growth

Inclusive marketing is expansive marketing: 65% of people value companies who promote diversity and inclusion, up from 59% in 2021. In 2026, future-forward brands will leave behind the performative messages of the past and double down on inclusive innovation, culturally fluent programmes and authentic representation internally and externally. In a climate of backlash, brands must lead with certainty and act clearly on the values they stand for.

How Kantar can help: Kantar’s award-winning Brand Inclusion Index is the most inclusive market research study ever launched. It shows how all consumers perceive your brand, identifies inclusion gaps, and highlights best-in-class practices – across strategy, access, representation, and belonging – to help brands grow through total inclusion.

The growth of Retail Media Networks (RMNs)

RMNs are becoming central to reaching shoppers; a net 38% of marketers plan to increase RMN investment in 2026. RMNs are high-performing, delivering 1.8x better results than digital ads, and nearly 3x better purchase intent. Brands and retailers will need to collaborate closely in 2026 to create consumer-focused advertising, with success hinging on data integration from different retail touchpoints.

How Kantar can help: Kantar helps you build your brand equity with powerful advertising. From identifying the optimal reach and frequency, to isolating the impact of each channel on brand success, LIFT provides you with real proof for sharper campaign optimisation and creates meaningful difference to grow strong brands.

Time for creators to earn their place at the effectiveness table

A net 61% of marketers plan to increase their investment in creator content in 2026, so the pressure to show ROI and brand-building impact grows. Coherent, cross-channel ideas are 2.5x more important to campaign success than a decade ago, but only 27% of creator content ties strongly to the brand. 2026 needs a shift from isolated creator executions to long-term creative platforms which align brand and creator-led content. For CMOs, that means setting clear guardrails and success metrics with creators so they can do their own thing in an authentic way.

How Kantar can help: LINK+ shows which creator assets truly build your brand and drive ROI, helping you align creator campaigns with a long-term brand platform for lasting value.

Micro-communities, a major force in social media marketing

Algorithmic feeds reward generic, sales-heavy content. Faced with crowded and impersonal spaces, people are moving towards micro-communities where they can belong in a more meaningful way. Authenticity and relevance will drive more engagement than reach, so brands will win by showing up with tangible value and consistently and authentically engaging with people’s interests.

How Kantar can help: Kantar Live brings together the richness of qual and the scale of quant in real time to help brands keep up with fast-evolving consumers shaped by shifting culture, emerging trends and live experiences, turning insights into actions grounded in real human perspectives.

Jane Ostler, chief insights officer at Kantar, commented: "2025 taught the industry new tech fundamentals, proving that technology like Generative AI can help marketers understand people better and make smarter decisions to drive growth and value for their brands. Now, AI agents, algorithm-driven recommendations and GenAI search are fundamentally changing how people interact with the world around them. When AI becomes the language that we all speak, ensuring that brands still create trusted and authentic human connection will be paramount.”

“Success must be built on a foundation of high-quality and responsible data, backed by innovation and experimentation,” continued Ostler. “The brands that thrive in 2026 will be those that use technology to drive creativity, inclusivity and growth but don’t lose sight of what makes them different.”

Download the full Marketing Trends 2026 report here and discover how Kantar can help you: https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/marketing-trends.

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