From Bold Moves to Smart Moves: Strategic Marketing in 2026
2025 paved the way for bold strategic marketing. 2026 is going to be about acting smart. We look ahead to next year and present the opportunities as well as the risks – and reveal five practical smart moves.
Bold is here to stay, but smart will set the pace
“Be bold. Move forward.” This was the motto for DMEXCO 2025 for good reason: The year has been dominated by new formats, channels, and technologies, all of them driven by marketers’ courageous decisions. But bravery and speed won’t be enough on their own in 2026. Now focus is needed! We’ll bet you’ve tried lots of things out. This is the time to implement your chosen measures systematically.
That might sound simple, but focus defines the subtle difference between mere busyness and real effectiveness. Setting clear goals, measuring results precisely, and ditching anything that isn’t working – this is what it comes down to. Remember one thing: Acting smart doesn’t necessarily mean being cautious. When you’re planning your strategic marketing for 2026, you’ll need to take conscious and intelligent decisions – for your brand, your business, and your customers.
“Courage is the engine that drives any change. 2026 is going to be about focus, expanding models, and using data. Given the speed at which technology is evolving at the moment, implementing ideas quickly and intelligently and making adjustments on the fly is crucial. That is how innovation emerges.”
5 smart moves for your strategic marketing in 2026
But what does that mean in practice? Based on conversations, masterclasses, and our Insight Out series, we’ve identified five smart marketing moves that will take your brand forward in 2026.
#1 Brand and performance are one
In August 2025, we spoke with Lars-Eric Mann. He’s the chief marketing officer and creative lead at RTL Ad Alliance. With his remarkable crossmedia background, he’s responsible for brand management, marketing and extraordinary special productions.
We asked him how he can tell whether marketing transformation is really making a difference. His answer: “From my perspective, there are essentially three factors: greater simplicity, greater precision and greater collaboration.” We live in a complex media environment. Marketing automation should ultimately produce faster and clearer results.
What does this mean for your strategic marketing in 2026?
“Of course, when all is said and done, performance is what counts. But a narrow focus on short-term sales is a road to nowhere for a brand.”
– Lars-Eric Mann, CMO of Ad Alliance
If you prioritize short-term sales without building a stronger brand, you’ll lose out in the long term. In 2026, seeing brand and performance as two sides of the same coin is going to be crucial: a powerful, memorable message supported by the right strategies.
#2 Deploy AI from the pitch stage
A few weeks later, we spoke with Petra Czora, head of marketing at ROSSMANN. When we asked her about the big strategic marketing questions for 2026, she said: “In a world that is getting faster, louder, and increasingly digitalized, how will we not only maintain our human connection to our customers, but also deepen it and strengthen it on an emotional level? How can we create relevance among a highly fragmented and overstimulated target group? And how can we do this using all the opportunities that AI offers us without losing our humanity?”
What does this mean for your strategic marketing in 2026?
“It’s about using technology to strengthen humanity, not to replace it.”
– Petra Czora, head of marketing at ROSSMANN
In practice, this can mean using AI as your personal assistant, for example. AI agents can create briefings for you and support you with both routine and creative processes. This gives you more space to add a human touch to more complex problems.
#3 Bring community to life before scaling it
When it came to the trending topic of community, we took a look around in our local neighborhood, namely the city of Cologne. We spoke with Dr. Nicolas Lutz, co-founder of Zappes Broi and Kölsche Koks, about creative marketing that polarizes and connects. What would he do with an unlimited budget? “We’d probably start by creating our own neighborhood: a place for restaurants and cafés, events, culture, sport and more. A place that finally resolves the permanent conflict between residents and event organizers. In our neighborhood, we’d turn Zappes and Kölsche Koks into as big an experience as possible – not with brash marketing, but with real experiences that reflect our brand universes. We’d focus on creating a space that brings people together and makes our values tangible.”
What does this mean for your strategic marketing in 2026?
“Everybody talks about community, but we’re convinced that real community needs to be built offline first in order for it to really work online.”
– Dr. Nicolas Lutz, co-founder of Zappes Broi and Kölsche Koks
See your customers as active members of your community with real voices, not just as figures measuring your reach. Create ongoing opportunities for your community to actively contribute to your brand, whether that’s via regular conversations, user-generated content, or even a dedicated platform.
#4 Experiment with creative testing
Trial and error? That’s going to be the maxim for your strategic digital marketing in 2026. After all, trying out many different things is warmly encouraged. This is also how Anke Böwer (head of social media ads) and Simon Marqua (CEO) at trafficdesign see things. In their masterclass at DMEXCO 2025, they put forward the case for disruptive creative testing: “Be creative, be daring! We start broad, and we think outside the box.”
What does this mean for your strategic marketing in 2026?
“If you think like this, the possibilities are infinite. In our team, when I hear: ‘We’ve tried everything,” I know right away that simply isn’t true. You can change so many parameters, and you’ve got to think as creatively as possible.”
– Simon Marqua, CEO of trafficdesign
The important thing is to change several variables at once. This helps you avoid iteration paralysis – constantly revising minor details without making a decision or going live. If you take a broad and creative approach to testing, your channel tests will become learning opportunities – instead of costly learning expenses.
#5 Foster openness and inclusivity
The importance of diversity is a recurring theme that keeps on cropping up in the conversations that we had for our series Female Role Models. “In order to be economically successful in the long term, we’ve got to have different perspectives at the table, and they also need equal opportunities to express their ideas and views,” says Mirijam Trunk, chief crossmedia officer at RTL Deutschland and LinkedIn Top Voice for diversity – and she is just one of many who share this view.
What does this mean for your strategic marketing in 2026?
“Social change takes time, and sticking it out is easier when you have supporters on both sides.”
– Mirijam Trunk, chief crossmedia officer at RTL Deutschland
If you open yourself up to those around you, communicate honestly, and position your brand inclusively, doors will open. And it’ll be easier to find partners that want to work with your company.
The takeaway
What do all our smart moves have in common? Two words: courage and intelligence. This combination will drive successful strategic marketing in 2026. Focus on a few projects instead of spreading yourself too thin. Build genuine relationships with your community instead of aiming solely for wider reach. Get creative with your testing. Actively integrate AI into your daily work instead of using it merely as a buzzword. And be open and make your brand inclusive!
It’s not about starting a revolution. It’s about taking clearer decisions and having the courage to be creative. 2025 was the year for bold. 2026 will be the year for smart.
