Kantar’s Marketing Trends 2026 cuts through the noise so that CMOs can plan for brand growth with confidence.

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2025 has proved that Generative AI is about more than speed and efficiency. Used wisely, it can help brands to understand people better and to make smarter decisions. And ultimately, any digital transformation will need to be harnessed to drive value - and not ignore the fundamentals of brand growth.

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Our Kantar experts have identified ten trends - some emerging and others more established - and mapped out a point of view for the year ahead, including topics like purchasing agents, synthetic data, AI-native decision making, brand building in the age of algorithms and the rise of micro-communities.

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So, how are brands building, training and tuning models they can trust? High quality and responsible data is the bedrock foundation for each of these trends.

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Use these insights to focus your marketing strategy, prioritise what matters, and shape your brand growth in 2026.

1. Agents of change: from attention to intention
2. Brand building with AI: human connection through machine selection
3. Synthetic data, augmented audiences
4. Transform creative optimisation into creative intelligence with AI
5. Treatonomics: enjoying every day
6. Experiment to accelerate: innovation as an engine for growth
7. Brands at the crossroads: authentic inclusion drives growth
8. Unlocking retail's media potential: growth through collaboration
9. Creator need to earn their place at the marketing effectiveness table
10. Micro-communities become a major force in social media marketing

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