The Year Ahead for Brand Activation: What adm Indicia’s Thought Leaders Predict for 2026

"Physical retail is experiencing a strong revival, driven by consumer demand for in-person experiences, community connection, and the need for tangible interactions. In 2025, we have seen retail environments evolving into cultural spaces that unite fandoms, respond to cultural moments, and offer tangible value to consumers. In 2026 we will see more brands moving away from marketing stunts and towards curating cultural moments that consumers feel they belong to."

"In 2026, the traditional creative-first agency model is finally on its way out. For decades above-the-line agencies-built stories, media amplified them, and sales followed. A formula created for an old media model – 30 second spot, amplified on TV to a wide audience with a lot of waste.  But performance marketing has taken charge – as the moment of decision now falls in conversion environments, not creative ones. Retailers now control the consumer relationship, data, shelf, measurement - and increasingly, the creative execution itself. It’s not that creative isn’t important, but it is the type of creative that matters now.  It must be designed specifically for unique customer experiences and meet them whatever channel they are on, with a mix of IRL and digital. Brands and agencies that fail to speak the creative language of retail performance will struggle to stay relevant in converting new and existing business."

Looking forward, clients will no longer tolerate siloed thinking - brand, performance, retail, and activation must work as one connected system. Winning solutions will integrate insight, creative, media, and execution across every touchpoint where decisions are made. Agencies that can prove how ideas translate into conversion, not just attention, will dominate pitches. The question is no longer “Did people like it?” or even just ‘Did it sell?’ – its ‘How can we scale it, and continue to measure it – in order to maintain it?’

Winning in retail media is no longer solely about implementing dynamic creative alone - it’s about the data ecosystem behind it. In 2026, success will be defined by how well brands connect their retail media activation to data, insight, and measurable outcomes across the full shopper journey, which can allow them to deliver hyper-personalization at scale.  With it, it becomes a scalable growth engine. The brands that lead will be those that treat retail media as a system, not a tactic.

In 2026, AI will not threaten creativity inside marketing organizations, as it can not replace the humanity which sparks ideas behind it, but it will open up doors for it - by removing the barriers that have historically constrained it. As AI automates, streamlines workflows, and translates data across systems, creative teams will gain back time to innovate. But most crucially, AI will increase interconnectedness, as it facilitaties creative, technology, and operational teams to work more cohesively, removing barriers and ironing out barriers of communication. 

Below-the-Line (BTL) activation sits closest to the point of purchase, yet it’s often disconnected from procurement, resulting in POSM and activation spend optimised for cost rather than impact. The real opportunity lies in integrating BTL and procurement strategies, anchored in shopper, consumer and retail insight, so decisions reflect how people actually choose by channel, mission and touchpoint. This shifts the conversation from “How much does this cost?” to “What value does this deliver?”, enabling brands to focus investment on the touchpoints that truly influence choice, cut low-impact or duplicative POSM, strengthen in-store brand equity and drive incremental sales growth with higher ROI. In this model, procurement evolves from cost control to a growth enabler — because the future of BTL isn’t about spending less, but spending smarter, together.