As the calendar turns to 2026, it’s a good time to take stock of all the marketing industry has learned about the tools at our disposal — both those that emerged in the last decade (i.e., influencer marketing, artificial intelligence) and those that have existed much longer (i.e., live event marketing) — in light of today’s technology. Knowing what we know today, how can we leverage that expertise to better interact with clients and customers? How will the most effective and efficient strategies for 2026 differ from those of 2025?
The top trends in the new year will revolve around balancing a variety of approaches to traditional problems.
Integration among paid, earned, and owned media
The landscape of paid, earned, shared and owned media (the PESO model) has noticeably shifted in the past decade. Companies can’t buy attention the way they used to. They must earn it by creating ideas that move through culture, not just media.
Today’s model is more integrated, digital-first, influencer-driven, and data-powered. Paid reach is more expensive but precise. Earned media has expanded beyond traditional PR into everyday conversations. Owned media has become central to long-term brand equity.
Those who are able to meet potential customers and clients where they’re at, via social media, increasingly, will continue to lead the field in 2026. That might require a little more work than it has in years past, namely by connecting the expertise and data from specialists across the paid/earned/owned spectrums.
Only by integrating activities into more cohesive, actionable information across paid, earned, shared and owned placements, brands can maximize their ROI in the new year. Focus more on outcomes (authority, trust, engagement and community) than classifying your messaging into strict channels. Invest in both owned and shared media as long-term strategic assets, not just as “free channels.” Use real-time metrics to pivot between channels. Stay alert to how AI tools and algorithms change and adjust your strategy within each leg of the PESO model accordingly.
AI as an accelerator
Marketers know which AI tools are the best, and what they can do. The market advantage lies with those who are swifter to optimize, and thoughtfully act on, those tools. In essence, that means using AI to harness reliable data, then using that data to form a proactive (rather than reactive) strategy.
The obvious danger with using AI as an accelerator in this way is that it can accelerate a campaign in the wrong direction if the data is unreliable, or the user inputs/prompts are even slightly off. Avoiding catastrophic failures that occur simply because your inputs weren’t optimized is especially important as AI enables teams to harness more data, faster.
The technology to harness existing information into an actionable strategy is more robust than ever. AI can sharpen a marketer’s instincts, acting as the ship’s first officer to you, the captain, to make what people and companies already do well even better. Those who can use it wisely will see their market advantage expand.
Immersive/experiential marketing
Consumers have come to expect brand engagement at music festivals, sporting events, and other public gatherings. As the available technological options advance, the goal remains the same: to create engaging, interactive experiences, in a way that doesn’t make people feel as if they’re being marketed to.
Marketers must hone in on how to create a brand experience, as opposed to a retail experience. Experiential marketing will have to look and feel different than it has in years past to grab and retain attention. With consumers bombarded by ads, immersive experiences can break through by being interactive and emotional.
Tech leapfrogs, AR/VR, haptics, spatial computing, and mixed reality (Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, etc.), can make those experiences accessible at scale. Younger generations value experiences over possessions; brands that deliver them can win deeper loyalty. Immersive activations provide behavioral data (dwell time, gaze tracking, engagement patterns) that go beyond traditional digital analytics.
Over the next five years, expect immersive marketing to consist more of:
- Phygital-first content, blurring physical and digital. Think retail stores where AR layers enrich product storytelling, or hybrid concerts blending live and holographic artists.
- Always-on, not one-off experiences. Not “stunts,” but ecosystems, via persistent branded spaces in virtual platforms (Roblox, Decentraland, Epic’s ecosystem).
- Hyper-personalized content, with AI adapting immersive experiences in real time to your profile, mood, or behavior.
- Multi-sensory experiences. Going beyond visuals, immersive experiences will incorporate touch, scent, and soundscapes to deepen memory encoding.
Acquisition/retention
Clients are spending more money on new leads, and not enough to retain their existing conversions. Ad spend inflation, data privacy restrictions, and auction-based platforms are making customer acquisition (CAC) increasingly expensive. In saturated markets, growth comes less from “net new” and more from maximizing your share of wallet with existing customers.
Research consistently shows that increasing retention rates by just 5 percent can boost profits by 25 to 95 percent. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is now a core board-level metric. A lot of advertising has been built around acquisition, not retention. That’s not a bad thing, but this trend raises an important question: once you do the work to win a customer or client, what are you going to do to keep them?
Keep an eye on these evolving tactics for customer/client retention:
- Personalization at scale: AI-driven predictive models identify churn risk and trigger interventions
- Membership and subscription models: Lock in loyalty with ongoing value (think Amazon Prime, Nike apps, luxury “clubs”)
- Community-building: Beyond transactional loyalty programs, brands are cultivating communities (both digital and real-life) that create emotional stickiness
- Customer success as marketing: Especially in B2B settings, retention and upsell are achieved through education, enablement, and customer success touchpoints — an increasing pillar of marketing strategy
Creator economy
The creator economy has become big business as the role of social media outlets has broadened and evolved. Some influencers are able to do influencer work as their sole profession. Picture the stereotypical YouTube host driving a van across the country, “reppin’ stuff.” Jobs like these are more common than ever.
Creators are no longer just a media channel; they’re culture itself. Their content consistently outperforms brand-owned content because audiences trust them more. When these creators break into a brand endorsement, you can tell when they are endorsing a product they use, and one they do not. Therein lies the challenge for marketers: brands must suss out who’s an influencer, and who’s a poor actor or advertiser.
More than just spending on influencers, businesses must be selective about using their marketing budget only on influencers who align with their goals. Influencer marketing has existed long enough for partnerships to form on more than a whim. Savvy brands will do their homework before forming these partnerships in 2026.
Stakeholder economy
Consumer sentiment can shift the direction of a company more rapidly than ever before (see the examples of Cracker Barrel, Astronomer, etc.). Legacy CEOs who are accustomed to more lag time must evolve to make their companies relevant. That’s not inherently bad, but gauging the pace of change is essential.
This isn’t traditional “corporate comms” anymore. It’s about helping leaders navigate fluid, high-stakes situations where business strategy and cultural fluency must merge. Modern corporations can now engage in predictive issue forecasting and real-time stakeholder intelligence, but only if they have the right partners.
The tools for monitoring consumer sentiment in real time exist; as highlighted earlier, the market advantage goes to brands that are the quickest to optimize, and act on, those tools.
