A Reality Check for the "Wishful Thinking" Marketer
Let’s be honest—2025 flew by. One minute we were arguing about AI regulation, and the next, we were busy trying to figure out why our CPMs were skyrocketing while our attention spans hit rock bottom.
Now that we’re staring down the barrel of 2026, it’s time to cut through the fluff. I’ve looked at the data, read the reports (so you don’t have to), and filtered it all through the reality of the German market. Here is what is actually going to happen next year—and what is probably just us marketers lying to ourselves again.
1. AI & Creative: The "Fast Food" vs. "Fine Dining" Divide
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. In 2026, AI automation is going to turn the production of creative assets into a high-speed assembly line. We are talking about testing thousands of variations of a product shot before you’ve even finished your morning espresso.
- The Prediction: For short-term performance marketing, this is a goldmine. If you need a product shot to stop the endless doomscrolling at 8:00 AM, AI produced assets wins.
- The Catch: For building a “Story Brand”? Forget it. AI is great at hallucinations, but terrible at heart. The smart brands in 2026 will use AI to handle the “grunt work” of resizing and iterating, but they will pay a premium for human creative directors to handle the storytelling. If you want a brand that people actually love (and not just click on by accident), you can’t automate the crap out of it.
2. CTV and Linear TV: The German "Odd Couple"
Germany is finally catching up, and it’s doing it in its own unique way. While the rest of the world has been screaming “Linear is Dead!” for five years, the German market said, “Nein, danke.”
- The Prediction: In 2026, the bond between Connected TV (CTV) and Linear TV will tighten. We are seeing a “Unified TV” approach where broadcasters are successfully merging their massive linear reach with programmatic digital targeting. Seriously, the screen is big enough for both.
- The Reality: We aren’t dumping TV; we are just making it smarter. With streaming finally overtaking linear viewership in many DACH households, the money is following the eyeballs. If you aren’t buying CTV inventory programmatically in 2026, are you even running a video campaign?
3. B2B UGC: The "Clubhouse" Effect
Remember Clubhouse? Yeah, me neither. User-Generated Content (UGC) for B2B has been the darling of 2025. “Real people! Real talk!” (SO REAL!) It was refreshing until every LinkedIn feed became a sea of shaky selfie-shots in home offices holding a card, drink, or electronic device with bad lighting or clean-up filter.
- The Prediction: The bubble is going to burst in 2026. Not because UGC is bad, but because bad UGC is bad. With the speed of impatience, we are reaching a saturation point.
- The Pivot: We will move from “random UGC” to “Professional Authenticity.” The smart B2B players will stop relying on random creators or founders and start training their own employees to be “Corporate Influencers.” It’s cleaner, it’s legally safer, and frankly, it’s less cringe.
4. The "Holy Matrimony" of Brand & Performance (A Man Can Dream...)
Every year I sit down with early-stage clients, and every year we have the same fight. “We need immediate sales!” vs. “We need a brand people trust!” They treat them like divorced parents who can’t be in the same room.
- The Wish: The “bridge” disappears entirely. Brand and Performance finally tie the knot, becoming a blended machine where every brand dollar drives data, and every performance dollar builds a story.
- The Reality: Who am I kidding? Clients will still want the moon on a stick for five euros (or much less). But the successful ones in 2026 will realize that this marriage isn’t a luxury—it’s a long-term survival strategy. With Customer Acquisition Costs (CACs) eating margins alive, pure performance is too expensive to run solo. Money makes the world go round, but a strong brand ensures you don’t have to pay for every single spin.
5. The "Trust Premium" of Traditional Media
Is it just me, or does looking at a screen feel like a burden these days? (Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the blue light, maybe it’s the air I breathe). But the data backs me up: Digital Ad Spend is hitting a point of diminishing returns in terms of trust.
- The Prediction: We are going to see a “Flight to Quality.” Investments will flow back into traditional, credible media. I’m talking about high-quality print and Out-of-Home (OOH) installations that you can actually touch and smell (no, I do not promote the act of smelling glue).
- The Why: In an era of AI sludge and deepfakes, “Real World” media is the ultimate luxury signal. If you can afford to print it on paper, it must be true, right? “Physical” is the new “Viral.”
6. The "Self-Care" KPI
Speaking of Physical, here is a personal one. 2025 was a blur of burnout, “urgent” Slack messages, and eating lunch at our desks. At least from what I can see looking at close friends and former colleagues; the hustle in 2025 is real, and really scary.
- The Prediction: In 2026, “Marketer Wellness” moves from a nice HR slide to a personal KPI.
The Vibe: We are going to treat ourselves to better nutrition, maybe some of those expensive supplements, and actual adventures that don’t involve a VR headset or IG Reel repost. Because honestly, if we burn out, who is going to explain to the client why their ROAS dropped 0.5%?
Final Thought
2026 is going to be the year we stop chasing every shiny new toy and start asking, “Does this actually work?” Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself. Let’s see what the Q1 reports say.
