The old playbooks still exist, but they no longer deliver the same returns. Brands are being forced to rethink how they define people, how they show up in their lives and, ultimately, how they create value.
I think that four shifts are set to define the competitive agenda over the next 12 months.
Traditional segmentation models built around age, income or social class are rapidly losing relevance. Nearly six in 10 marketers already consider demographic-led targeting obsolete, a clear signal that the industry is outgrowing blunt proxies for behaviour.
Household structures are fragmenting, lifestyles are becoming more fluid and retirement no longer follows a single script.
As a result, the triggers that drive consumption are shifting in ways that static segments simply cannot capture.
The opportunity for brands lies in challenging entrenched assumptions, building more flexible brand platforms and identifying new moments of entry through behavioural insight rather than demographic stereotyping.
This, however, requires new internal capabilities: teams that are willing to question the research model itself, detect emerging patterns and turn them into credible growth hypotheses.
For organisations still anchored in legacy audience definitions, 2026 is not an optimisation year; it is a reset year.
Investment continues to rise, with over 60% of advertisers planning to increase spend on influencers and content creators. Yet enthusiasm is masking structural inefficiencies.
Around 45% of spend on Meta is estimated to be wasted due to weak creative practices, and Kantar data shows that only 27% of creator content meaningfully connects with the brand.
The next stage of the creator economy will be defined less by hype and more by discipline. Brands will need to align KPIs that capture both attention and brand uplift, standardise measurement frameworks to allow fair comparison across creators, and share audience intelligence to stabilise performance and reduce volatility.
Influencer marketing will struggle to deliver consistent ROI until it behaves more like a professionalised media channel and less like an enthusiasm-driven experiment.
This shift reflects a deeper emotional undercurrent. In a context of post-crisis fatigue, consumers are increasingly prioritising experiences over exposure.
Brands are responding accordingly: close to 80% of marketers expect to increase digital experience budgets, and nearly three-quarters plan to invest more in live events.
This aligns with the rapid expansion of the so-called “Escape Economy,” forecast to reach almost $14tr by 2028.
Guidance from Warc is clear: brands should lean into immersive, community-led experiences and design rituals of consumption that support wellbeing and create lasting memory structures.
Growth opportunities are emerging across music, gaming, sport and cultural partnerships, from branded music platforms and fintech-led communities to the expanding ecosystems around Formula 1, women’s football and the NBA.
Experiences are no longer a tactical add-on to media plans; they are becoming a strategic growth platform in their own right.
Only a small minority of marketers say they are unconcerned by this shift. Most are already exploring GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation, a new discipline focused on improving brand visibility within AI-powered search environments.
The risk, as with every technological disruption, is overreaction. The smarter approach is to balance experimentation with proven fundamentals, rigorously measure impact across the customer journey and apply lessons learned from previous digital transformations.
GEO will reward brands that understand how AI synthesises information, how queries are evolving and how to influence generative answers without undermining trust.
Taken together, these four shifts point to a single underlying mandate for 2026: relearn the consumer map.
Emotional connection, not raw exposure, remains the primary driver of memory and long-term growth.
Performance will continue to matter, but experience, coherence and authenticity will matter more.
Brands that thrive will be those capable of redefining their purpose, reconnecting with a public that feels exhausted yet still receptive, and rebuilding relevance around what consumers genuinely value: clarity, empathy and meaning.
The task ahead is not to do more, but to do fewer things better, with sharper insight and greater human relevance.
