Forrester has released its 2026 predictions on the B2C marketing, media, advertising and consumer landscape, highlighting changes for brands, marketers and agencies.
Advertisers are expected to reduce their display advertising budgets significantly, with Forrester forecasting a 30% cut as audiences migrate from the open web to entertainment-first platforms and AI-driven search environments.
Shifting budgets
Display advertising, according to Forrester's analysis, will see declining audience exposure and click-through rates as consumers spend less time browsing open web environments. Instead, attention is set to move to Connected TV (CTV), streaming audio, and social video services. The rise of AI-powered search, which delivers answers through summaries and chat interfaces, plays a key role in this trend.
Forrester states: "Advertisers will cut display ad budgets by 30% as consumers leave the open web. Despite consumers' scepticism about genAI, they will continue to turn to AI-generated summaries and chat interfaces designed to return answers. This will shrink addressable audiences on the open web and click-through rates will decline. As a result, leading advertisers will cut display ad budgets by 30% and redirect spending to more entertainment-driven content platforms, such as Connected TV (CTV), streaming audio, and social video."
Offline's renewed role
Another prediction points to a resurgence of offline brand engagement. Forrester indicates that in 2026, a third of consumers will deliberately opt for in-person interactions over digital experiences, seeking richer and more tactile brand experiences that online channels cannot deliver.
Forrester's 2025 data shows that 52% of US online adults actively pursue in-person, tactile experiences - driven by a desire for richer, more sensory interactions that digital channels can't replicate. Digital experiences aren't going away, but consumers in 2026 will more intentionally choose to disconnect online to connect offline.
The report suggests that while digital engagement remains relevant, marketers must now strike a balance and innovate across both physical and virtual experiences to meet shifting consumer behaviour.
Price increases and customer retention
The cost-of-living squeeze and rising prices are expected to have a significant impact on customer loyalty to 'transactional' brands. Forrester warns that as companies leverage AI to optimise pricing and increase profit margins, they risk losing up to a third of their customer base.
According to Forrester, "Continued price pressure will break the backs of consumers as companies, feeling the tariff heat and margin squeeze, get smarter about using AI to extract higher prices. As increased prices test the limits of consumers' willingness to pay, up to a third of customers of transactional brands will walk away."
This shift highlights the need for brands to reconsider pricing strategies and improve customer value in order to reduce churn.
AI-native technology arrives
The rise of artificial intelligence is also expected to bring new marketing technology platforms to market. Forrester predicts the introduction of three AI-native B2C marketing technology solutions by 2026, including products from one major vendor and two startups. These platforms are anticipated to assist marketers in customer insight identification, campaign creation, and ongoing optimisation.
"Marketers are eager to use AI for customer insights, campaign creation, and optimisation. In 2026, the race to launch AI-native marketing technology is on, with one major vendor and two startups expected to debut next-generation, AI-native solutions," Forrester notes in its outlook.
Agency evolution
Forrester also anticipates significant changes for marketing agencies amid continued industry upheaval. Agencies are projected to shift away from traditional client-representative models towards broader solution provision, including execution services, managed solutions, proprietary products, and the formation of strategic partnerships.
The organisation attributes this development to a range of pressures: "By 2026, marketing agencies will abandon their traditional role as client representatives and transform into diversified marketing solution providers offering execution services, managed solutions, proprietary products, and strategic partnerships. This shift is driven by a decade of structural pressures including project-based work replacing retainers, marketing insourcing, procurement pressures, consolidation, and AI disruption that will force agencies to seek new revenue streams and accept greater business risk."
Forrester's predictions suggest a period of considerable transformation for marketers, advertisers, agencies and brands over the next two years, with technology shaping customer engagement and media strategy decisions.
