Most 2026 plans ignore marketing’s geopolitical exposure, the aggressive monetization of platforms, and the erosion of trust, requiring leaders to shift from chasing reach and automation to strategic discipline, internal alignment, and building direct customer relationships, says Paul Armstrong
Most 2026 marketing plans are already built on assumptions that no longer hold, not because the tactics are outdated, but because the world those tactics were designed for has been quietly disappearing while plans were agreed. The prevailing narrative still insists that more AI, more automation, more influencers and more spending across fewer platforms will somehow fix declining attention and trust, even as the evidence points in the opposite direction.
Marketing is about to become one of the most geopolitically exposed functions in the business, yet it continues to be treated as a performance channel rather than a strategic risk surface that reflects power, dependency and narrative control. The Magnificent Seven – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Nvidia – are no longer neutral infrastructure providers and have not been for some time, operating instead under regulatory pressure, national security scrutiny, supply chain constraint and intense shareholder expectations to keep growth moving even as the easy gains dry up. Switch out Tesla for X, add in TikTok and a few others, and you’ve got a recipe for a marketing migraine before you’ve checked which way the wind is blowing.
So what’s coming in 2026?
Forget better tools or cleaner experiences, expect far more aggressive monetisation disguised as innovation, with AI positioned as both the justification and the delivery mechanism. More ads are coming, not fewer, alongside a dramatic expansion of AI generated inventory that allows platforms to manufacture supply at scale while claiming improved efficiency. Automation will continue to reduce internal headcount inside organisations while deepening dependence on opaque systems that optimise relentlessly for platform outcomes rather than long term brand health.
Geopolitics is no longer background noise for marketers but an active force shaping distribution, visibility and viability. Fragmentation between the US, Europe and China is already reshaping data flows, content moderation standards and platform access in ways that make global campaigns increasingly brittle. Sanctions, trade tensions and election cycles now influence what platforms promote, throttle or quietly deprioritise, creating risk for brands that still behave as if the internet is a single, stable marketplace. For the next two years at least, it’s going to be an extra large nightmare for marketers of all levels and budgets.
Stop renting attention, and actually earn some
Reach, long treated as a proxy for success, is sliding back into vanity territory as synthetic content floods feeds and search results degrade. Paying to be seen does not guarantee being trusted, and overexposure increasingly signals automation rather than relevance or authority. Brands that continue to optimise purely for visibility risk dissolving into the same generative slurry as every other organisation chasing algorithmic favour.
Influencer marketing sits on similarly unstable ground, with stretchy economics, fatigued (and poorer!) audiences and authenticity that becomes harder to sustain at scale. Virtual influencers and AI augmented creators will expand supply even further, driving prices down while trust erodes in parallel. Leaders should ask whether pouring more money into this ecosystem builds durable value, or simply rents attention from increasingly volatile and synthetic market stalls that all feel the same.
What you need to change in 2026
Be less about new shiny tools and more about leadership posture. Marketing should be treated as a meaning-making function, not a perpetual experiment in optimisation. Fewer ideas expressed with confidence and consistency will outperform most frantic multi-channel activities. In environments engineered for overload, sense making matters more than signal chasing, and leaders who enforce discipline will pull ahead of those who crave activity for impact metrics. Getting directly to your customer has never felt more important as many scroll by. Look at every email, message, alert, DM you sent last year and ask yourself “Would you stay loyal to you?”.
Internal communication becomes a strategic asset rather than a soft concern, because confusion inside the organisation inevitably leaks into incoherent external signals. Teams need to understand why priorities are shifting, why certain channels are being deprioritised, and why not every new AI feature deserves adoption simply because competitors appear to be experimenting. Marketing without internal alignment produces fragmented narratives that erode trust long before customers tell you why they disengaged.
Leaders also need to resist the temptation to hollow out marketing in the name of efficiency, mistaking automation for strategy. Execution costs will fall, but judgment, cultural literacy and narrative coherence remain human advantages that cannot be optimised away without consequence. AI can generate content at scale, but it cannot decide what should exist, why it matters, or how it fits into a broader societal and economic context. By all means get the right team in place, but don’t see marketing automation as easy or a quick win. There’s plenty of rehiring right now, which means it’s hard for top talent to get snagged economically. With a slash and burn automation strategy you may cost yourself more.
Think big and use the right tools
Big thinking strategies are required because the environment is unstable and increasingly adversarial. Scenario planning should replace fixed roadmaps, with marketing leaders stress testing assumptions against regulatory shifts, platform policy changes and macroeconomic shocks. Preparedness becomes a competitive advantage when platforms change rules overnight and data access can no longer be assumed. The only thing to expect is more volatility thanks to old, male political figures clinging on to power. If your marketing department isn’t aware of the issues with the platforms, and focuses on image dimensions and narratives, you are right to see red flags.
Direct relationships matter more than at any point in the last decade. Owning audience access through first party channels, communities, partnerships and proprietary data reduces exposure to platform volatility and monetisation pressure. Email, membership models, events and controlled ecosystems are not retrograde tactics, but strategic insulation in an era where rented reach can disappear without notice. All core reasons why I set up TBD+ back in 2024.
Measurement needs to evolve as well, because short term performance metrics reward short term thinking that undermines long term resilience. Leaders should ask marketing teams to report on trust indicators, brand durability and customer retention alongside reach and conversion, even if those measures are harder to quantify. What you measure shapes behaviour, and behaviour determines whether marketing builds value or burns credibility.
The dominant story in 2026 marketing will undoubtedly be faster, cheaper and more automated, but most businesses will feel their marketing get more constrained, more politicised and more consequential. The organisations that succeed will not be the loudest or the most optimised, but those that communicate clearly, think structurally and refuse to outsource judgment to systems designed to monetise attention rather than build connections and meaning. Push back on Zuck and co with their money pits of despair and try working for your consumers’ money and attention. Do more with less, and bring the customer closer than you’ve thought previously necessary, and be sensible with the role you play in their lives.
Leaders who treat marketing as a strategic discipline rather than a spend line will navigate the two years with far fewer regrets, while those chasing reach at any cost will eventually discover that attention without trust is just noise, and noise remains one of the worst foundations to build a business on.