Brands are spending more than ever on digital media, yet consumers are noticing less of it. Let's face it, most people can see an ad coming a mile away and skip right past it. The over-proliferation of irrelevant, boring, and overtly promotional content has trained consumers to simply ignore it. Then advertisers wonder why performance keeps getting harder to sustain.

Budgets are lean and marketing leaders are consistently asked to do more with less. And, when it comes to experiential campaigns some brands look internally first or turn to PR partners because, on the surface, events might feel like public relations.

You convinced your CMO to invest in a brand experience at a music festival. You built the booth, made the investment in the merch, and stocked the samples. Some people showed up, picked up a few samples, left the swag, and...walked away.

Most brands think they’re doing experiential marketing when they launch an Instagrammable pop-up or hand out free samples at a sporting event. But the truth is: tactics without strategy are just noise. They might create a quick spike in awareness, but it’s rarely anything that lasts.

In 2025, 16,000 videos were uploaded to TikTok every minute. That’s 23 MILLION videos created every day. With an unprecedented amount of content flooding our feed and vying for our attention, we have to ask the question: Are we at peak content?

We’re all feeling it at checkout. The grocery bill keeps creeping up. Instacart estimates a family of four is now spending between $1,100 and more than $1,600 each month on food. Even the most conservative number represents about a 10% jump from last year.

Experiential sampling is one of those wildly underrated tactics that everyone thinks they understand because they once grabbed a free cheese cube at a warehouse club. But that kind of mass sampling is the marketing equivalent of yelling into a megaphone at strangers. Sure, people will hear you…but they’re definitely not remembering your name.

Loneliness isn’t just a fleeting feeling; it’s a growing problem in the U.S. that’s shaping the way consumers engage with each other and with the world around them. According to The Cigna Group’s 2025 Loneliness in America Report, nearly 58% of U.S. adults report feeling lonely, with Gen Z (67%) and Millennials (65%) leading the way. As the holiday season approaches, expectations around what we’re supposed to be feeling and social media posts showing how much fun everyone else seems to be having can amplify those feelings even more. Surprisingly, beyond feeling disconnected, loneliness can have far-reaching impacts, including how they build trust and choose brands.

2026 is shaping up to be a year where food isn’t just what we eat. It represents who we are, how we feel, and how we connect online and in real life. From the flavors we crave to the experiences we seek, food is becoming a mirror of identity, intention, and imagination. What will replace this year’s protein hacks and fluffy Japanese pancakes? We’re starting to see some emerging trends that will shape CPG marketing in 2026: here are five hot takes.

We see it on client briefs every day: “We want to be part of culture. How can we tap into Gen Z and cultural moments?” Every brand wants to be part of the zeitgeist, the hot brand everyone’s talking about. They point to E.L.F., Liquid Death, and other breakout brands and say, “We want that energy. We want that connection.”