For the past five years at least, I’ve found myself walking into businesses with great marketing functions and having to sell in the importance of brand. It’s always acknowledged, but very rarely prioritised.
Performance marketing, on the other hand, has always been an easy sell. Dashboards, attribution models, numbers that give the comforting illusion of certainty.
According to the State of Marketing 2026 report from McKinsey & Company, European CMOs are now ranking brand as their number one priority. And I love this, because it signals a move away from chasing the shiny, fashionable stuff and back towards what actually matters.
It suggests CMOs are rediscovering that brand isn’t the dull bit of marketing, it’s the thing that makes everything else work.
Why Brand Is Now a Boardroom Priority
Over the years marketers have been able to measure more and more, and unsurprisingly, the things that were easiest to measure and report to the board were the short term ones.
As the phrase goes
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked
AI is pushing people towards brands they recognise and trust, and in crowded, noisy markets, consistency matters more than novelty.
Brand is back because when everything else looks the same, it’s the only advantage left.
But for 2026, these are the things I think we need to be aware of…
Brand building is becoming interactive
We’re moving away from brand as monologue and towards two way experiences. Community, co-creation and feedback loops. The brands that win won’t just broadcast — they’ll engage, consistently.
Campaigns are finally going full-funnel
The split between the long and short is over, marketers are integrating brand building with direct response and we are going to see it finally applied.
AI is enhancing creativity, not replacing it
Gen AI is accelerating testing, ideation and execution. But without clear brand guardrails it just creates noise. The winners use AI to reinforce brand codes, not dilute them.
The McKinsey’s report shows:
- 72% of CMOs plan to increase budgets in 2026
- Only 3% can prove MROI on more than half their spend
- Board-level pressure to demonstrate value is higher than ever
Which is exactly why brand strategy has to be rigorous.
Clear positioning.
Codified distinctive assets.
Defined category entry points.
Full-funnel measurement.
If you’ve done the Mini MBA in Brand Management, none of this will be new.
So for 2026, tools will change, tech will evolve but we need to remember that
Brands that are distinctive, consistent and trusted will always outperform brands that are merely visible.