Every year marketing trend roundups roll out the usual suspects: authenticity, video content, social commerce, et cetera et cetera. Yes, all of the above do matter, but suggesting that they are the keys to the marketing success in 2026 is like saying water is wet.
Marketing has experienced a seismic shift and as such, 2026 is bringing a very different approach. The real shifts that brands and businesses need to make are deeper and, frankly, more interesting. They’re approaches born from consumer fatigue, increased skepticism, rising expectations, fractured attention, and a digital world that’s starting to feel a bit beige.
Here are four marketing trends for 2026 that actually matter, plus how brands can harness them for real growth in the next 12 months.
Agentic AI: from thinking to doing
Agentic AI refers to the AI-based systems that can independently make decisions, plan, and take actions to achieve complex goals without constant human oversight. Don’t mistake this as AI negating the need for strategic and creative human thinking; it’s more about harnessing AI tools to take care of the more menial, time-consuming tasks to allow more space for that thinking.
In a marketing environment, that means letting agentic AI handle the constant churn: optimising bids, analysing campaign performance, or personalising content at scale, while humans focus on the higher-order challenges machines can’t crack. We’re talking things like strategy, storytelling, emotional intelligence, and brand differentiation. AI might identify what’s trending and suggest when to post, but only humans can interpret why it matters to a brand, how it connects to its audience, and what story it tells next. The opportunity isn’t in replacing creative and strategic thinking, it’s in freeing up more time and mental space to actually do it.
AI-assisted hyper-personalisation
One of the key areas an automated assistant can enhance your marketing strategy is through hyper-personalisation. Where traditional personalisation relied on past behaviour and segments, hyper-personalisation is all about adapting dynamically to deliver a unique and relevant experience on a very individual level, in real time. This could mean things such as personalised recommendations, dynamic website content that best reflects a user’s behaviour and intent, and tailored marketing messaging.
Hyper-personalisation is no longer a ‘nice to have’: 71% of consumersexpect personalised interactions from companies. And the ROI is evident: businesses that personalise their experiences generate 40% more revenue compared to counterparts.
Slow marketing
The digital media landscape is in a state of constant urgency with always-on news cycles and sales messages like ‘limited-time only’, ‘flash sale’, ‘last chance’ and ‘the countdown is on!’. It’s exhausting. Brand trust is now built in the quiet moments; a report from Accenture states that 75% of customers feel bombarded by ads and struggle with purchasing decisions.
The key to cutting through the noise is by slowing the scroll. Think about creating richer long-form content that prioritises education over conversion. Or revise your EDM strategy to send out regular EDMs with the purpose of fostering community rather than selling. Have a look at your nurture sequences and find the opportunities to cut down, delivering consistent high-value comms rather than more frequent and consequently more rushed messaging. Slow marketing isn’t about doing less, it’s about doing fewer things better.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
We know, we’ve spoken about this a lot (here, here and here, in fact).
Over the next 12 months, Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) will shift from an experimental tactic to a core marketing pillar. As consumers increasingly discover brands through AI assistants, chat-based search, and Gen AI-powered answer engines, traditional SEO alone can’t guarantee visibility. GEO is the evolution: optimising your content so it’s easily understood, trusted, and surfaced by generative models.
With 60 to 70% of younger audiences already turning to AI tools before Google, brands can no longer afford to ignore how these models read, reason about and summarise their information. GEO focuses on structured, authoritative, semantically rich content, featuring citations that models can verify and published across high-authority sources. In short, the brands that win in 2026 will optimise not just for search engines, but for the AI engines rewriting how people find and trust information. Need help optimising your content for GEO? We’ve got you.
As we step into 2026, the brands that will grow aren’t the ones chasing trends, they’re the ones rethinking how they work, how they communicate, and how they show up in a world that’s evolving faster than ever. Agentic AI, hyper-personalisation, slow marketing, and GEO aren’t buzzwords; they’re shifts in how people discover, engage with, and trust brands. The challenge now is not to do more, but to do the right things better – with clarity, strategy and intention.
