Our annual Contagious Radar report rounds up the key cultural and tech trends we believe marketers should keep front of mind in 2026.
The report features our analysis of the following six critical cultural tensions and their impact on consumers during a time of striking volatility and concern about the future:
- The Attention Sink / We explore how brands cut through and create an impression when surface-level engagement isn’t quite enough.
- The Nostalgia Industrial Complex / When the past feels more attractive than the present, the commercial power of nostalgia is appealing. But is it really a strategy?
- The Loneliness Disconnect / Outsourcing ‘connection’ to Big Tech has not gone well. The rise of AI companions is a symptom, not a solution. Find out how brands that bring people together are rebooting belonging.
- Social as a Vice / Social media is being reframed as a vice product: when platforms start looking more like a liability than an opportunity, what does that mean for your media budget?
- The Optimisation Obligation / When everything else in life feels relentlessly chaotic, your body becomes the one territory it’s possible to micromanage. But which brands are emerging as allies in our fascination for transformation?
- The Death of Aspiration / Nearly half of Gen Z say planning for the future feels pointless. For brands that were built on the idea of ‘progress, eventually’, what happens when your audience stops believing in tomorrow.
We also asked 100 of the best minds in advertising how they’re feeling about the state of the sector. From AI anxiety to content overload, the results of our industry health check are shared in the Radar report.
