Five Trends Shaping Marketing in 2026 (Deloitte Digital)

Summary:

The report says marketing is being reshaped by three forces: a weak economy, changing customer behaviour, and rapid AI growth. It argues the old playbook is failing and marketers must prove ROI, adapt to new discovery paths, and rethink how teams operate.

It’s from Deloitte Digital, so it also supports Deloitte’s consulting agenda. The aim is to brief CMOs and business leaders on the trends Deloitte expects and the actions it recommends.

Evidence is mixed and only partly explained. It draws on Deloitte analysis, Deloitte’s CMO Survey 2025, a cited survey of 1,854 EMEA executives, and other stats — but there’s no clear end-to-end methods section, and it’s often unclear which numbers come from which dataset.

Key points:

• Budget pressure is rising: shorter horizons, tighter spend, more CFO scrutiny, and tougher ROI demands.
• Consumers are more selective and cut non-essentials, but will still pay more when value feels clear.
• Customer experience is a bigger differentiator, and discovery is shifting beyond search to social, creators, communities, and recommendations.
• AI can lower content costs, speed production, and improve personalisation, but trust is shaky and many consumers doubt ethical use.
• Most firms are investing more in AI, yet big returns from agentic AI are still rare; value often takes years and depends on systems, governance, and operating model — not tools alone.

Deloitte’s five trend calls: AI becomes marketing’s operating system; spend gets finance-style accountability; trust/brand become economic assets; discovery fragments across channels; and teams reorganise around speed, skills, and cross-functional delivery.