‘A new frontier’: 5 trends that will impact social media and influencer marketing in 2026

The social media landscape is 2025 has been dominated by AI conversations, a potential TikTok ban and the creator economy boom. Heading into 2026, Marketing Week has identified the key trends that will define social and influencer marketing.

1. Consumer push back against AI content will cause brands to be more ‘human’

The AI conversation has been hard to escape this year, and in 2026 things will only accelerate.

But as brands continue to embrace AI there will likely be a shift in how content is presented in order to emphasise it is authentic and avoid the sea of sameness.

Pollyanna Ward, brand strategy director at Flight Story, sees social media content moving towards a “mid-fi” format and becoming more “distinctive” to prove humans made the work as people are flooded with AI content.

Though she says the fundamentals won’t change, she feels social media content will move away from high-production value and instead show more behind-the-scenes content, like that used promote the release of Wicked: For Good, which she says shows “real people grafting”.

As part of this, she says there is a need for brands to “get more creative” with distinctive brand assets and brand codes. She suggests there will be a rise in “distinctive brand behaviours” that “stretch across different media types”, such as Charli XCX’s apple dance TikTok trend, Apple’s yearly iPhone launch or Oreo’s ‘twist, lick, dunk’, a “ritual that is very intrinsically linked to the product”. These are all moments the brands’ own, she says, and should be elevated.

Ward also sees a rise of “fringe” content or experts used in content to differentiate it from AI.

Like Ward, Paul Greenwood, global head of research and insights at We Are Social, also sees brands leaning into content signalling “humanness” and “nature”, instead of highly “sanitised” content.

Consumers are already getting jaded by the influx of AI generated content, so highlighting it is from a “real brand”, as well as the use of “human stories” will be critical.

I think there’s going to be a new role for always on, which is less about just being ready to jump on trends and more around this idea of digital availability.

Simon Harwood, Billion Dollar Boy

A move away from a “tease, launch, sustain” ecosystem for a campaign and towards a “continuous cycling of content” is another pivot Ward sees, due to media becoming fragmented.

Part of this involves social ads moving back to being “six second, out-of-home style ads”, with social becoming a “doorway” for people into a brand, with its “world building” qualities that Chat GPT can’t offer.

Greenwood agrees that brands need to curate an online world in order to cut through, and predicts more will do this in 2026. He says social content which can be “amplified” by other means, such as creators or real-life events, will pick up.

He also says time spent on social is “plateauing”, so brands need to “work a little bit harder” in terms of creativity. Indeed, time spent on social media globally peaked in 2022 and has since started to decline, according to an analysis of the online habits of 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries carried out for the Financial Times by GWI.

Likewise, Scott Guthrie, director general of the Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB), believes the rise of AI provides “a great opportunity for influencer marketing to shine” as people will go to “credible voices” and those who “share the same values” in times of uncertainty.

Overall, he feels “there’ll be more of advertising as a whole, considering influencer marketing”, and it will no longer be seen as an “add-on”.

Another reason for the push back against the overuse of AI is the rise of virtual influencers. McKinsey’s research shows digital twin technology is projected to rise by 60% annually over the next five years, reaching an estimated $73.5bn by 2027.

Guthrie agrees the use of AI creators is on the rise, with “Meta and TikTok pushing it”. He says the practice is “working” in areas such as China, however, where influencers run constant livestreams and switch to their “digital doppelganger” at night to create more money.

2. Brands will explore a more diverse selection of platforms

The shift in time spent on social is, for Greenwood, partly attributed to Gen Z and Gen Alpha moving to closed platforms and communities, such as Discord or Substack.

“It’s a space where people can, if you’re a creator or if you’re a brand, own that space,” he says, adding that Substack’s longer-form content offers users “quality time” with a brand.

Greenwood says brands will still “prioritise” short-form content and double down on video, but those with influencer marketing in mind will consider Twitch, Discord, Patreon and Substack.

Ward agrees with Greenwood that brands need to “own” their audiences through closed platforms, and sees brands increasing marketing teams to have a greater focus on the likes YouTube Shorts, Substack and Snapchat.

Talk of a TikTok ban this year was also an instigator for brands to think about diversifying their platform use and own their content, with Ward claiming that what goes out on social will now be “more considered”.

“Social won’t just be the end point. It’s another path to own our audience,” she adds.

The rise in brands activating on long-form platforms, such as M&S with its ‘Love That’ YouTube series, has also been key this year in the wake of TikTok uncertainty, with Greenwood seeing “brands reappraising YouTube” in 2026 due to its ability to “increase mental availability” to move a consumer “through the funnel”.

3. Brands will spend more time crafting ‘intentional’ creator content

Data from Kolsquare highlights that 81% of UK brands plan to increase their influencer budgets in 2026, with 32% spending between £100,000 to £499,000 per year on influencer activity.

Simon Harwood, global effectiveness director at Billion Dollar Boy, says that next year will see “a shift towards more intentional, more crafted and slower content”, in relation to influencers, such as Argos’ ‘Arghaüs’ series to create work that is more “intentional”.

“There’s a bit of rejection in social of the speed and the shift towards quiet spaces, longer-form content, and events that are happening in real life,” says Harwood.

He adds that “consumers want different flavours of social, not always the trend-led content”, and episodic content can help to achieve this, as well as using “out of category” creators to reach a different audience.

In addition to this, longer-term partnerships with creators are likely to be taken into account in 2026. According to Kolsquare’s data, 61% of UK brands are increasing investment in longer-term influencer partnerships, which can help content be more readily available.

Social won’t just be the end point. It’s another path to own our audience.

Pollyanna Ward, Flight Story

“I think there’s going to be a new role for always-on, which is less about just being ready to jump on trends and more around this idea of digital availability. So, when people are searching for common category-related terms, then the creative content is ready to guide people towards your brand,” says Harwood.

He also sees social commerce within the influencer world growing, and brands taking a “slower” approach to this. Though TikTok Shop and its impulsive nature still remains, Harwood says “a lot of the sales effect of creator marketing happens in the longer term”, particularly for “high consideration categories”, and brands will need to balance the fast and slow aspects of social commerce.

Activations around the upcoming World Cup will also be key to watch, according to Harwood. He feels brands will use creators to connect even more than they did in 2022, using the “parasocial relationship” fans have with their favourite players to start discourse and “cut through” the busy space of activations.

4. The professionalisation of the influencer industry will gain pace

It’s no secret that 2025 has seen a boom in creator content, and creators being taken more seriously. After finding creators contributed £2.2bn to the UK economy and supported over 45,000 jobs, a dedicated cross-party All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was launched to represent UK creators. This also followed YouTube’s inaugural Creator Consultation in July.

And as part of the creator boom, brands and agencies this year have been doubling down on regulation, with a new wave of signatories to the Influencer Marketing Code of Conduct.

Going into next year, creator respect and better practices within the industry will undoubtedly be on the minds of brands, agencies and regulators – particularly as influencers aren’t shying away from calling out bad practices, as Marketing Week has highlighted.

Guthrie says influencers are professionalising “at speed” in the UK and Europe, which he in part puts down to self-regulation, and the IMTB’s conversations with HMRC and the CMA and its work behind the scenes to better creator treatment. He says creator welfare is also a big priority to continue next year, and feels it’s a “good sign” for influencer marketing that “the conversation has been opened” around the topic, both within the UK and with IMTB’s partners across Europe.

He adds that the UK is “ahead” of recommendations made by the European Council to form trade associations and unions, and is, overall, “just ahead of the zeitgeist in terms of the maturation of the influencer marketing industry”.

A lot of measurement around the influencer has been very much focused on the short term or immediate term, rather than thinking of it as a brand building channel.

Simon Harwood, Billion Dollar Boy

Additionally, Guthrie claims the ASA and CMA’s joint guidance on influencers is “consistently the most downloaded piece of guidance on the ASA’s website quarter after quarter after quarter”, demonstrating that “influencers want to do the right thing, they just need to know the rules”.

Guthrie adds that the UK is third only to China and US in terms of revenue generated from influencer marketing, and that cross-country collaborations will help to define its future.

The UK is already part of the European Influencer Marketing Alliance, which now represents seven countries, 300 agencies and 8,000 influencers, and, last month, the IMTB announced a partnership with AIMCO, the Australian Influencer Marketing Council, allowing both to “learn from each other”.

In terms of regulation, Guthrie sees the UK, in the future, also following in Europe’s footsteps around influencer certification.

The European Advertising Standards Alliance has rolled influencer certification out, in a number of European countries, including France, the Netherlands and Germany to name a few, which is an online tutorial and an exam for influencers, and then a year of monitoring to make sure they’re upholding ethical principles.

Guthrie adds that some brands in some countries will only use influencers with the certification, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the UK experiments with this method.

5. More focus will be put on the effective measurement of social content and influencer marketing

Given the rise of social-first content and the creator boom, more emphasis is being put on the effective measurement of content.

This year, research from the IPA found influencer marketing ROI outperforms linear TV and paid social, delivering “strong returns, particularly over the long term”. Kolsquare’s data also highlights that 34% of UK bands now track ROI, although it remains a challenge. The IMTB also set up a measurement and evaluation committee this year.

Harwood sees measurement moving towards a longer-term lens, particularly after the IPA research, which he says shows that “most of the brand and sales effects are actually taking place in the longer term”, as in “more than three months to two years”.

“We need to take a little bit of a step back because a lot of measurement around the influencer industry has been very much focused on the short term or immediate term, rather than thinking of it as a brand building channel, because it’s capable of driving those kind of lasting effects,” he claims.

According to Harwood, he also sees people going “further up the chain” from looking at consideration, purchase intent and brand favourability, and looking at emotion. This is because creators can be deployed as “brand entertainment” to lock in “memorable associations for the long term”.

“If you feel something, you’re much more likely to remember that brand the next time you come to the category,” says Harwood.

He also feels there will be “a new frontier in 2026” of “understanding how the creator channel works in combination with other channels”.

I think you’ll find more brands doing that [pre-testing] and then putting their content behind, and their paid media budgets behind, content that actually works and sings.

Paul Greenwood, We Are Social

For social media marketing, Ward feels there will be “less reliance” on follower counts and vanity metrics, and a move towards pushing subscriptions for platforms.

Greenwood similarly hopes that measurement, effectiveness and data will have “more of a prominence within brands”, and that brands realise you “probably have to pay” for proper expertise and data scientists who can correlate that information and give it back to the brand.

He hopes that brands will focus more on conversion lift studies, looking at how social is “impacting the bottom line”, and feels that “synthetic data” will be used even more to understand the impact of social within the wider marketing mix, as brands look to see “how it impacts throughout the funnel”.

He defines synthetic data as models which “infer data when you don’t have it” and “actually give you a good read on what social is doing for you”. He also sees more brands putting an emphasis on creative pre-testing with synthetic audiences to clearly see the impact of work in an “agile and cost-effective model”.

“Because it’s so fast, and compared to traditional pre-testing relatively good value for money, I think you’ll find more brands doing that and then putting their content behind, and their paid media budgets behind, content that actually works and sings,” says Greenwood.

As part of The Year Ahead, Marketing Week will be identifying the key opportunities and challenges that will shape marketers’ roles in 2026. As well as flagging what we think marketers should be spending time and money on next year, it is also a commitment from us to focus on these topics.