From the radically transforming search space to AI-generated audience panels, Dentsu has issued a new report highlighting what the company sees as the major media trends that brands should embrace in 2026.  

Google has dominated the search landscape for decades, but the report notes that the platform has a lot of new and robust competition, from players like TikTok, Amazon and Gen AI-driven engines like ChatGPT. 

“Marketers must now look beyond traditional paid search and search engine optimization to adapt to these new, growing search behaviors,” states the report, and embrace what it calls “search experience optimization.” 

“This approach requires a holistic view of the user journey. It involves bringing together traditional search engine optimization with LLM optimization, social search optimization, retail search optimization and mobile app optimization.” 

Those disciplines form the foundation of search experience optimization, which the report asserts “is becoming the new gold standard for enhancing discoverability across search touchpoints.” 

Meanwhile, agentic AI has emerged as a 2025 buzzword and “new darling of boardrooms, fueling rapid agent inflation with no signs of slowing down in 2026.” 

But the report notes that many companies are rushing into the agentic AI space without a viable gameplan and “risk not only building inefficient solutions but [also] eroding consumer trust in their brand.” 

Dentsu’s advice: “Build Agents that drive strategic value. Most AI agents lack memory and strategic design, making them ineffective for optimizing consumer journeys. True value comes from context-aware systems that can support multi-step tasks without disconnection and can adapt to shifting customer data.”  

On the commerce front, the report asserts that marketers need to “understand how to navigate the paradox of friction, using it strategically to build consumer desire for products without creating frustration with brands.” 

In order to accomplish that, brands need to “identify the technologies and platforms that simplify shopping when ease is essential but also recognize which audiences and which moments benefit from a touch of intentional friction.” 

Communities and word of mouth have helped brands grow long before the emergence of social media. Now, content creators and communities are taking a leading role in shaping media strategies and brands “must find their place within the right communities to remain culturally relevant in 2026.” More sophisticated measurement capabilities will emerge, per the report, “to evaluate the full extent of their contributions to business growth allowing brands more creative planning and more accountability.” 

AI-generated audience profiles will help. From providing feedback on creative ideas/messaging to new product features, such profiles will be embraced widely by the industry next year and beyond.  

“AI-generated audiences are poised to unlock a new era of media planning and buying powered by smart audience intelligence and AI,” the report surmises. “As cross-platform interoperability advances, brands will be able to seamlessly match and activate audiences across scaled ecosystems, making the most of walled gardens without the need for personal identifiers.” 

New opportunities are opening up in the branded entertainment space that brands must also embrace to stay culturally relevant. “Producers are becoming more open to brands getting deeply involved from early stages, not just placing products, but influencing storylines, characters, and scenes, as brands look for credits, IP shares, and co-branded opportunities.” 

The full trends report can be downloaded here.