Why 2026 will reward connected, credible, and customer-centric brands

Without sharper targeting, better integration, and stronger measurement, ROI continues to erode. In 2026, brands must prioritize profit, not just presence, using integrated planning and advanced measurement to reallocate spend toward channels and tactics that deliver true incremental impact.

AI infrastructure

AI is no longer a layer brands can test at the edges. It’s becoming core infrastructure, reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate, and choose brands. AEO, prompt visibility, and generative search are already influencing outcomes, with gen AI-driven discovery accounting for around 15% of search interactions, accelerating the shift away from traditional keyword-led journeys.

In beauty and fashion, AI-powered diagnostics, styling, and fit tools are moving from experimentation to commercial necessity. Beauty return rates currently sit at around 17%, while fashion online returns, driven by poor fit and unmet expectations, are projected to fall by up to 24% as AI-led fit, sizing, and expectation-setting becomes standard. In automotive and financial services, AI supports digital-first research, qualification, and servicing at scale, critical when 95% of car buyers now research online before visiting a dealership.

The opportunity is not automation for its own sake. Brands must integrate AI across data, media, and experience, ensuring personalization is useful, compliant, and measurable – and drives scalable performance improvement, not novelty.

Trust drives growth

Trust is under unprecedented strain. Counterfeits, fake reviews, data misuse, and unsubstantiated sustainability claims are eroding confidence across categories. In response, regulation is tightening, from beauty compliance such as the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) in the US, to the incoming Digital Product Passports that will impact the fashion industry, to stricter data governance across all sectors.

Even the most heavily regulated industries are not immune. Financial services, long held to the highest standards of credibility and compliance, are being forced to rethink how they show up in social and emerging channels, adapting to new content formats without compromising the transparency and trust the sector is built on.

Consumers are responding to this loss of trust by becoming more selective. In the luxury sector, 72% of consumers say they only engage with messaging that directly addresses their needs. At the same time, higher-income households are returning more, 5.3% of purchases versus 3.7% for lower-income households are sent back, raising both costs and scrutiny for premium brands.

Trust is no longer something brands can claim. It must be designed, governed, and proven.

Retail media, social, and creators

Retail media is now pivotal, offering first-party data, point-of-purchase intent, and closed-loop attribution. But concentration is a growing risk. Heavy reliance on a small number of dominant retail networks inflates costs, reduces ROAS, and limits access to insight.

In beauty markets, retailer-owned private-label brands are gaining traction, growing 10.4% to $3.9bn, supported by control of first-party data and retail media. This concentration restricts access to insight for competitor brands, as retailers retain ownership of shopper data, attribution models, and performance signals.

In fashion, ultra-fast-fashion players continue to retrain consumers on discount-led expectations, while creator-driven micro-trends trigger sharp demand spikes followed by rapid drop-offs. In sports, value is shifting away from traditional structures: 72% of social engagement in women’s sports now centers on athletes rather than teams or leagues, making brands rethink sponsorship ownership and impact.

Winning brands are diversifying their commerce media ecosystem, combining retail media, streaming video, creators, premium publishers, and owned channels, aligned by shared measurement and governance.

Modern measurement

Fragmented journeys, walled gardens, and zero-click experiences have made traditional attribution unreliable. This is most visible in sport, where investment is rising faster than accountability. Brands are increasing spend not because measurement is clear, but because sport delivers scale, cultural relevance, and emotionally engaged audiences that are increasingly hard to reach elsewhere.

As a result, while 40% of CMOs plan to increase sports investment, 76% of marketers admit they still can’t clearly prove sponsorship ROI.

In retail and automotive, last-touch metrics routinely overstate impact and hide inefficiency, while siloed data slows decision-making and obscures customer behavior. Brands need modern measurement frameworks that combine retail media data, experimentation, econometrics, and advanced attribution, providing the confidence to invest, optimize, and plan long-term.

Experience beats exposure

As attention fragments and competition intensifies, simply reaching people is no longer enough. Every brand can buy impressions; very few earn attention.

Experience is now the differentiator. How a brand shows up, helps, and connects determines whether it is ignored, tolerated, or actively chosen. In algorithm-driven environments, the brands that win aren’t the loudest, but the most useful and credible in the moment that matters.

Fashion and luxury brands are investing in richer storytelling and ‘phygital’ experiences that blend content, commerce, and community. Automotive brands are replacing hard-sell tactics with consultative, value-led journeys. Sports organisations are prioritizing immersive, community-driven engagement to retain younger fans.

Across all industries, the brands that win in 2026 will share a common profile. They’ll embed AI as infrastructure, not experimentation. They’ll treat trust as a growth driver, not a compliance task. They’ll balance platform power with data independence. They’ll measure what matters, not what’s easiest. And they’ll design experiences for real people, not linear funnels.

This year, the most connected, credible, and customer-centric brands will win.