CM Marketing Minute: 2026 Marketing Trends, Consumer Behavior, & Programmatic Performance
2026 Marketing Trends
Kantar’s 2026 Marketing Trends report signals a shift away from chasing tools and toward earning attention through clarity, trust, and differentiation. Growth next year favors brands that connect creative consistency with smarter media allocation across paid search, paid social, programmatic, and CTV. Signal quality, not channel quantity, becomes the advantage, especially for education, retail, and home services brands competing in crowded markets.
Privacy-first consumer behavior is reshaping media strategy
New consumer insights from Experian show that 2026 audiences expect personalization without intrusion and convenience without complexity. Purchase decisions are more intentional, trust is earned slowly, and privacy expectations influence where and how people engage with ads. For marketers, success means aligning data strategy with omnichannel experience so paid media feels useful, not invasive, while still driving measurable demand.
Programmatic performance evolving beyond impressions
Programmatic advertising continues evolving into a performance engine rather than a reach tool. Retail media networks, CTV, and commerce-driven placements behave more like lower-funnel channels, while measurement shifts toward incrementality, media mix modeling, and attention quality. Marketers who adapt budgets and reporting frameworks early will outperform those still optimizing for impressions alone.
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