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 reshaping media strategy New consumer insights from

Apple teases Maps ads Apple’s move toward Maps ads signals a shift in how intent and location intersect. Marketers are watching closely as Apple positions navigation as a new high-intent environment, backed by consumer comfort with location data and a massive CarPlay footprint. Marketers should expect search budgets to fragment further as mobility-based discovery gains traction. Meta spotlights the power of Reels Meta’s new research on Reels lays out clear creative rules for outperforming on

Record online Black Friday spending Online Black Friday spending reached 11.8 billion dollars as shoppers stretched decision windows and used Black Friday as just one reference point in a longer value hunt. RetailNext highlighted how consumers are firmly in control of the shopping experience, treating Black Friday promotions as one data point in the purchase. Marketing promotional strategies must run deeper than a single-day spike and follow intent across a longer comparison cycle. Google Business

4 Best Marketing Insights of 2025 As 2025 wraps, marketing teams are reflecting on the best marketing insights 2025 delivered, the strategies that drove measurable ROI, and the trends that will influence planning for 2026. To support CMOs and marketing directors looking ahead, we reviewed performance data across Colling Media’s content library to identify which insights leaders relied on most. Four articles consistently stood out. These were the pieces marketing executives bookmarked, shared with their

TikTok launches a podcast network with iHeartMedia TikTok’s new partnership with iHeartMedia creates a podcast network built from TikTok creators and music culture. The move signals a push to extend TikTok influence into audio ecosystems that still command loyal listeners. Marketers can watch for new inventory, cross-platform placements, and culture-driven audio formats that reach younger audiences outside short-form video. Holiday shoppers plan to tighten spending US consumers are expected to spend an average of $990