🔮 MARKETING TRENDS 2026 - FRICTION RELOADED

My filtered view on trends, cutting through noise to surface 4 shifts that actually change marketing strategy in 2026, with case studies, data points, and practical recommendations for brands.

Hi 👋 I’m Florian Schleicher. This is the FutureStrategies newsletter. Thank you so much for reading along 💚

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Honestly, I did not want to write another trend report.

Not because trends are boring or don’t matter.

But because marketing teams already have enough inputs, reports, crises, charts, dashboards, hot takes - pressure.

The thing about trend reports is: Most are easy to agree with, easy to present, and similarly easy to forget the moment the meeting ends.

And yet, here we are.

Because many marketing teams enter 2026 with the same question in the room:

Are we focusing on the shifts that actually matter in 2026,
or just repeating last year with new slides?

And on top of that, the big picture looks like this:

• Geopolitical turmoil

• Budgets are tighter

• Expectations are higher

• Clarity feels rarer than ever

• And there is less room for trial and error

You cannot afford to chase everything anymore.
But ignoring signals feels risky too.

This trend report exists to guide you.

To reduce the noise and surface the shifts that will shape strategic marketing decisions in 2026. That is the reason my second PULSE: FRICTION RELOADED exists. It’s 90 slides.

✴️ My 4 Marketing Trends for 2026

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: AI.

It’s everywhere, which is why this report doesn’t focus on it.

The bigger - and less obvious - shifts are happening underneath, in trust, behaviour, and what people tune out. AI accelerates these changes. It doesn’t explain them.

Why is the overarching theme FRICTION RELOADED?

People stop caring when things feel disposable. If something is easy, instant, and asks nothing from you, you forget it just as fast.

• That’s why they scroll away from feeds.

• That’s why they look for things that feel meaningful.

• That’s why they show up in real life.

• And that’s why sustainability only works when it’s not the main act.

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If an experience doesn’t cost time, effort, or a trade-off, it doesn’t stick.

Friction works because it adds that cost.
And once something costs something, you remember it.

The 4 marketing trends underneath the essence of Friction Reloaded are:

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1. ALGORITHMIC BOREDOM ESCAPE

Digital media promised discovery and connection.
What it delivered was optimisation, repetition, and feeds that all feel the same.

People are not disengaging, they are escaping.

You see it in cringe as a reaction, in comments becoming content, and in the rise of Substack and small, personality-driven formats.

Attention moves to places where friction, voice, and unpredictability still exist.

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2. SEARCH FOR MEANING

Uncertain times do not make people more rational.
They make them search for meaning and stability.

When the world feels hard to read, people look for belief, comfort, and physical grounding.

That shows up in astrology, religion, tradwife narratives, being held, mushroom nutrition, and a renewed focus on the body.

Meaning becomes a coping strategy.

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3. IRL IS THE NEW GOLD

Digital made everything available. And therefore forgettable.
When everything is everywhere, effort becomes the filter.

Queuing, spontaneous meet-ups with thousands of people, city-wide scavenger hunts, and real-life conferences gain value because you had to be there.

Belonging becomes something you earn, not something you follow.

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4. GREEN INSIDE

Sustainability has lost momentum.
Under pressure, price, speed, and simplicity win, even for people who care.

Green struggles because it lives in reports and language, not in daily decisions.

In this last chapter I make the case for designing sustainability into how work actually happens, where speed is traded for recovery and optimisation stops before systems break.

When people experience this logic internally, sustainability becomes durable instead of fragile.

👨‍💻 How did I write this Marketing Trend Report?

Full disclosure: It was a lot of fun, but it also was exhausting.

Because I wanted to level up my game and chose a different approach compared to my first PULSE: RETURN TO REAL.

1️⃣ First, and this was the real highlight for me, I interviewed 9 amazing strategic thinkers. People whose work I deeply admire - thank you for your time Zoe Scaman, Bianca Wimmer, Alex Morris, Baiba Matisone, Bénédicte Ibert-Clarençon, Rob Estreitinho, Chloé de Ruffray, Amy Daroukakis, Jenny Chang.

They all were gracious to give me 30 minutes of their time to share what they think about marketing in 2026.

2️⃣ Then I went wide and read 60 trend reports across culture, technology, economics, marketing, sustainability. This brought perspective and contradictions.

3️⃣ Lastly the really hard task started: Bringing it all together, finding common themes, threads and links. I arrived at 1 synthesis. I quickly understood, that not everything deserves attention. I decided I will go for the 1 theme of FRICTION RELOADED with 4 sub-trends.

This report is the result of extensive interviews, synthesis, and filtering.

So if you like this work, please quote me whenever you use any of it. This way I know the sweat, tears and grey hair that this experiment brought, were worth it ❤️

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🔮 My offer for you and your team

You now have the signals. So does everyone else.
The difference for your brand is what happens next.

So I have created a special offer to help you choose your strategic path:

• After the session, your team feels relief because everyone is aligned around a small set of clear priorities.

• The lab combines inspiration with guided, interactive exercises, grounded in real marketing team realities.

• Your team leaves knowing what to focus on in 2026, what to test and has concrete ideas on how to bring it to life.

If this feels like something you want and need,
reach out to me and let’s have a chat.
florian@ftrs-studio.com

🎬 Final thoughts

We’re already well into 2026 now.

I hope my observations, data points, insights, analyses, case studies and recommendations have provided you with some initial starting points and helped you enter 2026 with more clarity and fewer distractions.

Decide what you care about.

Do less.

Do it deliberately.

Thank you for reading along!

Florian