Our annual wrap-up of six trends that shaped conversations in The Responsible Marketing Hub with Google in 2025 – and how marketers can turn them into growth in 2026.
2025 was the year marketing stopped circling the issues and started confronting them head-on
After years of media fragmentation, shifting signals, siloed measurement and pressure to do more with less, many marketers saw 2025 as a genuine turning point; 2025 was the year marketing stopped circling the issues and started confronting them head-on, in a collective reset for marketing effectiveness.
Across The Responsible Marketing Hub with Google, one narrative was prominent: 2025 not only reframed how marketing proves value, it reshaped how teams communicate that internally and externally. Below, we break down the biggest trends shaping the year and the actions every senior marketer should take forward into 2026.
A stark data point set the tone this year: while 63% of marketing leaders believe they drive long-term business growth, only 35% of finance leaders agree. The gap is real and 2025 pushed many leaders to rethink how they frame marketing’s financial contribution.
Kicking off The Drum Predictions 2025, leaders from Channel 4, Omnicom Media Group and Google aligned on one key message: if marketing wants more investment, it must link activity to commercial impact, not channel-level outputs. That was precisely what Waitrose did, as its digital marketing lead Matt Darbon shared some of the key lessons from the retailer’s journey.
What to carry forward into 2026:
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2025 was defined by leaders moving from fragmented analytics to cohesive, durable measurement systems [catch the recap from Google’s Think Measurement 2025 tentpole summit here]. Rather than fighting siloed insights and retroactive analysis, top performers built unified, privacy-ready measurement infrastructures grounded in consented first-party data, improved tagging, server-side solutions and holistic modeling.
What distinguished leading measurement teams in 2025 was not the adoption of individual tools, but the way they connected previously fragmented capabilities into a single, decision-ready system. The most effective organizations focused on three priorities:
Platforms like Google’s Meridian and GA4 illustrate how these capabilities are increasingly being brought together. But the bigger shift was cultural: measurement became shared infrastructure for finance, marketing and analytics teams, not a retrospective reporting layer.
What to carry forward into 2026:
2025 was the first year marketers truly moved from ‘wow’ to ‘how’ with AI. AI alone isn’t the differentiator; data quality, governance and literacy increasingly are. Standout campaigns were those powered by strong data foundations, continuous learning and responsible adoption.
Examples showcased across The Responsible Marketing Hub included:
What to carry forward into 2026:
In a privacy-first landscape, the industry finally converged around causality. Rather than debating attribution models, brands focused on what marketing actually causes, not merely what it touches.
Deliveroo’s journey stood out, as its data scientist Annie Baldwin shared: validating Google’s Conversion Lift against internal geo-tests gave the business a scalable, repeatable framework to understand the genuine incremental impact of spend – and use that insight to steer investment. This allowed the business to reallocate spend with greater confidence and clarity.
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Brands who embraced incrementality became more confident, more effective and more future-ready.
What to carry forward into 2026:
With better measurement and stronger foundations, creativity regained its role as a driver of effectiveness in 2025. Brands approached creative with greater discipline, using AI to learn what worked and scale ideas across formats rather than relying on one-off executions.
This more disciplined approach carried through into video strategy. At The Drum Live, leaders from Nestlé, Brainlabs, and Google shared how integrating CTV into a single video strategy, rather than treating it as a separate channel, led to more consistent reach and a clearer understanding of which creative was effective. Short-form and creator-led formats made it easier to test ideas quickly, while faster feedback enabled teams to refine creative based on performance rather than opinion.
The result was not simply more content, but better learning. Creative decisions became easier to justify, easier to scale, and easier to improve over time.
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What to carry forward into 2026:
Google’s first Agency Measurement Awards highlighted a step change in how agencies and brands approach effectiveness. The strongest entries showed that success isn’t driven by tools alone, but by a deep understanding of data and a culture that prioritizes measurement.
Across the winning work, four consistent characteristics stood out:
The opportunity for marketing effectiveness in 2026 is clear. Adopt the behaviors, build the systems and lead with clarity. That’s what will create growth.
Visit The Responsible Marketing Hub with Google for more essential tips, insights and perspectives from 2025, to help your business get ahead in 2026.
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