By: Sonia Kapoor: Head of Omnichannel, GSK

2026 MARKETING TRENDS & PREDICTIONS

Marketing in 2026 is not short of technology. What it is short of is patience, attention, and emotional headroom. Two forces are shaping the year ahead: consumers quietly opting out of digital overload, and AI compressing the journey from curiosity to decision into fewer visible moments. Together, they are forcing marketers to rethink not just what we do, but why it works.

The return of experience in a digital-first world

After years of platform growth, content acceleration, and algorithmic optimisation, consumers are tired in a deeper, more structural way. The fatigue isn’t only about screen time; it’s about emotional depletion. Constant news cycles, performative social feeds, and increasingly synthetic content have made many digital spaces feel extractive rather than rewarding.

The response isn’t outright rejection of digital channels, but a recalibration of what people value from them. Consumers are gravitating toward brands and moments that feel grounding, comforting, or quietly joyful, experiences that ask less and give more. Nostalgia, escapism, and playful formats are resurfacing not as trends, but as signals of a broader desire for emotional relief.

This is where experience regains strategic relevance. Growth is increasingly coming from reducing psychological friction rather than adding stimulation. The most meaningful brand-building is happening beyond classic advertising: in experiential formats, physical and hybrid events, product design, packaging, community spaces, and service interactions. These touchpoints create memory and meaning in a landscape where digital impressions are abundant but increasingly forgettable.

Crucially, this is not a reversal of digital-first thinking. It’s an evolution of it. The brands that are winning are those designing experiences that flow seamlessly between digital and real-world contexts.

Zero-click journeys and the new rules of influence.

Running in parallel to emotional fatigue is a structural shift in how consumers discover and decide. AI-driven search, summaries, and assistants are turning many journeys into zero-click experiences, where answers are delivered instantly and the traditional path through websites fades into the background.

This doesn’t signal the end of search or performance marketing, but it does change the rules. Visibility is moving from ranking pages to being referenced, trusted, and surfaced by AI systems.

What remains constant is the role of brand. Even as AI intermediates choice, both people and machines rely on mental shortcuts, familiarity, credibility, and perceived leadership.

What this means for senior marketers?

The irony of 2026 is that as technology accelerates efficiency, differentiation shifts back to fundamentals that cannot be automated easily: meaning, trust, and emotional relevance.In a year defined by speed and compression, the advantage may belong to the brands that slow things down thoughtfully.