At A Glance
Marketing in 2026 will hinge on connection: between AI and data accuracy, commerce media and category expansion, and curation and programmatic efficiency. These shifts mark marketing’s “6–7 moment,” when once-fragmented parts finally snap together. Experian’s 2026 Digital trends and predictions report outlines the forces shaping this more unified era.Remember when “6-7” was all over your feed and no one really knew why, but somehow everyone got it? In 2025, the internet proved that connection doesn’t always make sense — at least not at first. The “6-7” meme was random, ridiculous, and everywhere. It spread because it felt connected; an inside joke everyone could share.
Marketing in 2026 will have its own 6-7 moment. Experian’s 2026 Digital trends and predictions report explores how 2026 will be defined by connection: between activation and measurement, data and AI, platforms and outcomes. After years of fragmentation, the industry is finally unifying around shared foundations: data accuracy, identity resilience, and measurable performance.
Here are three connections to watch for in 2026.
1. AI is only as good as its data foundation
AI’s performance depends on the quality, recency, and integrity of its inputs. In 2026, marketers will recognize that the differentiator is not the algorithm itself but the data that informs it. As AI becomes embedded into workflows (from audience discovery to media optimization) accurate identity and privacy-safe data become essential.
Why it matters
Good data fuels responsible automation, predictive insight, and personalization that feels human. Without it, even the most advanced models will simply automate bad decisions faster.
What actions should marketers take to strengthen their data foundation?
To make AI adaptive, ethical, and aligned with real-world context, marketers need to strengthen the data foundation beneath it. In 2026, that means taking four core actions:
1. Prioritize accuracy
Verify data and anchor it in real human identity, rather than inferred or fragmented signals.
2. Keep data fresh
Ensure inputs stay current through continuous updates that reflect real-time consumer behavior and conditions.
3. Maintain consent standards
Source data responsibly and stay compliant with privacy regulations emerging across 20+ U.S. states.
4. Enable interoperability
Connect data securely across platforms through a signal-agnostic identity framework that supports consistency and scale.
When these elements come together, AI becomes more than just automation: it becomes adaptive, ethical, and responsive to real-world context.
2. Commerce media expands beyond retail
Commerce media is no longer just a retail play. What began as retailers monetizing their data and media has evolved into a multi-sector movement uniting data, media, and transaction insights. Auto, travel, CPG, and even financial brands are launching their own media networks or partnering with existing ones to close the loop between exposure and conversion.
More than half (58%) of advertisers are interested in advertising on non-retail media networks.
eMarketer
Why it matters
In 2026, commerce media becomes a strategy for any brand with first-party data, measurable outcomes, and the need for closed-loop insight.
What should marketers do with this expansion?
Activate beyond owned channels
Extend audiences beyond owned inventory into addressable connected TV (CTV) and open-web environments where identity links every impression to real outcomes.
Make identity the growth engine
Privacy-first identity resolution increases data addressability and keeps media measurable across every channel.
Collaborate for scale and consistency
Partner with providers that deliver transparency, interoperability, and shared measurement – not just data volume.
3. Curation becomes the programmatic standard
Curation is reshaping programmatic advertising into something more focused, efficient, and accountable. In an era shaped by privacy regulation and signal loss, curation brings identity, quality, and control together, allowing marketers to target confidently across CTV, audio, and the open web.
More than 66% of open-exchange ad spend (over $100 billion annually) now runs through curated private marketplaces (PMPs).
eMarketer
Why it matters
Curation aligns with the industry’s need foraccurateidentity, transparent supply, and stable outcomes, especially as traditional signals fluctuate.
How can marketers use curation more effectively?
Utilize supply-side innovation
Use supply-side platform (SSP) curation tools from partners like Index Exchange and Magnite to optimize in real time and keep your supply paths transparent.
Adopt curated marketplaces
Work with agency-built marketplaces from groups like GroupM and Butler/Till to control data costs, maintain transparency, and improve performance.
Activate with Experian Curated Deals
Tap high-performing audience segments, including PurpleLab’s HIPAA-compliant health audiences, through curated PMPs in leading demand-side platforms (DSPs) such as Amazon DSP.
Optimize and prove performance
Combine Experian data with Audigent supply-path intelligence to adjust campaigns mid-flight using metrics like CPM, CTR, and video completion rate.
2026 will be the 6-7 era for marketing
The “6-7” meme didn’t need to make sense to go viral. But your marketing does.
2026 will be the year marketers move from fragmentation to connection. Download Experian’s 2026 Digital trends and predictions report to explore all five digital marketing trends shaping 2026.
Ready to get started? Connect with a member of our team
About the author
Fred Cheung
Director, Partnership Sales, Audigent, a part of Experian
Fred Cheung has spent over a decade in the programmatic advertising space, with roles at Mindshare, Jounce Media, Twitter, and The Trade Desk. His deep experience in trading and product management helps in his current function on the Experian Marketing Services’ Sales team where he focuses on data growth and adoption across the industries’ leading buy-side platforms.
FAQs
Experian uses this phrase to describe the inflection point where AI, identity, commerce media, and programmatic curation finally connect in practical, scalable ways. It reflects the shift from fragmentation toward unified activation and measurement. Experian covers five digital marketing trends to watch for in 2026 in our 2026 Digital marketing trends and predictions report.
Experian provides verified consumer data, identity resolution, and privacy-first frameworks that strengthen AI accuracy. AI tools require reliable inputs, and Experian’s data foundation helps marketers apply AI in predictive modeling, audience insight, and media optimization.
Identity allows brands and media networks to connect exposure to conversion across sites, screens, and environments. Experian supports this through resilient identity frameworks that maintain recognition even as signals shift.
Experian provides high-performing audience segments and outcome-based signals that improve curated PMP performance. These capabilities give buyers more control, more stability, and clearer pathways to measurable results.
Experian’s 2026 Digital trends and predictions report outlines the five forces shaping the year ahead, including AI’s dependence on data quality, commerce media expansion, and the rise of curation.
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Originally appeared on MarTech Series Marketing’s understanding of identity has evolved rapidly over the past decade, much like the shifting media landscape itself. From the early days of basic direct mail targeting to today's complex omnichannel environment, identity has become both more powerful and more fragmented. Each era has brought new tools, challenges, and opportunities, shaping how brands interact with their customers. We’ve moved from traditional media like mail, newspapers, and linear/network TV, to cable TV, the internet, mobile devices, and apps. Now, multiple streaming platforms dominate, creating a far more complex media landscape. As a result, understanding the customer journey and reaching consumers across these various touchpoints has become increasingly difficult. Managing frequency and ensuring effective communication across channels is now more challenging than ever. This development has led to a fragmented view of the consumer, making it harder for marketers to ensure that they are reaching the right audience at the right time while also avoiding oversaturation. Marketers must now navigate a fragmented customer journey across multiple channels, each with its own identity signals, to stitch together a cohesive view of the customer. Let’s break down this evolution, era by era, to understand how identity has progressed—and where it’s headed. 2010-2015: The rise of digital identity – Cookies and MAIDs Between 2010 and 2015, the digital era fundamentally changed how marketers approached identity. Mobile usage surged during this time, and programmatic advertising emerged as the dominant method for reaching consumers across the internet. The introduction of cookies and mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) became the foundation for tracking users across the web and mobile apps. With these identifiers, marketers gained new capabilities to deliver targeted, personalized messages and drive efficiency through programmatic advertising. This era gave birth to powerful tools for targeting. Marketers could now follow users’ digital footprints, regardless of whether they were browsing on desktop or mobile. This leap in precision allowed brands to optimize spend and performance at scale, but it came with its limitations. Identity was still tied to specific browsers or devices, leaving gaps when users switched platforms. The fragmentation across different devices and the reliance on cookies and MAIDs meant that a seamless, unified view of the customer was still out of reach. 2015-2020: The age of walled gardens From 2015 to 2020, the identity landscape grew more complex with the rise of walled gardens. Platforms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon created closed ecosystems of first-party data, offering rich, self-declared insights about consumers. These platforms built massive advertising businesses on the strength of their user data, giving marketers unprecedented targeting precision within their environments. However, the rise of walled gardens also marked the start of new challenges. While these platforms provided detailed identity solutions within their walls, they didn’t communicate with one another. Marketers could target users with pinpoint accuracy inside Facebook or Google, but they couldn’t connect those identities across different ecosystems. This siloed approach to identity left marketers with an incomplete picture of the customer journey, and brands struggled to piece together a cohesive understanding of their audience across platforms. The promise of detailed targeting was tempered by the fragmentation of the landscape. Marketers were dealing with disparate identity solutions, making it difficult to track users as they moved between these closed environments and the open web. 2020-2025: The multi-ID landscape – CTV, retail media, signal loss, and privacy By 2020, the identity landscape had splintered further, with the rise of connected TV (CTV) and retail media adding even more complexity to the mix. Consumers now engaged with brands across an increasing number of channels—CTV, mobile, desktop, and even in-store—and each of these channels had its own identifiers and systems for tracking. Simultaneously, privacy regulations are tightening the rules around data collection and usage. This, coupled with the planned deprecation of third-party cookies and MAIDs has thrown marketers into a state of flux. The tools they had relied on for years were disappearing, and new solutions had yet to fully emerge. The multi-ID landscape was born, where brands had to navigate multiple identity systems across different platforms, devices, and environments. Retail media networks became another significant player in the identity game. As large retailers like Amazon and Walmart built their own advertising ecosystems, they added yet another layer of first-party data to the mix. While these platforms offer robust insights into consumer behavior, they also operate within their own walled gardens, further fragmenting the identity landscape. With cookies and MAIDs being phased out, the industry began to experiment with alternatives like first-party data, contextual targeting, and new universal identity solutions. The challenge and opportunity for marketers lies in unifying these fragmented identity signals to create a consistent and actionable view of the customer. 2025: The omnichannel imperative Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, the identity landscape will continue to evolve, but the focus remains the same: activating and measuring across an increasingly fragmented and complex media environment. Consumers now expect seamless, personalized experiences across every channel—from CTV to digital to mobile—and marketers need to keep up. The future of identity lies in interoperability, scale, and availability. Marketers need solutions that can connect the dots across different platforms and devices, allowing them to follow their customers through every stage of the journey. Identity must be actionable in real-time, allowing for personalization and relevance across every touchpoint, so that media can be measurable and attributable. Brands that succeed in 2025 and beyond will be those that invest in scalable, omnichannel identity solutions. They’ll need to embrace privacy-friendly approaches like first-party data, while also ensuring their systems can adapt to an ever-changing landscape. Adapting to the future of identity The evolution of identity has been marked by increasing complexity, but also by growing opportunity. As marketers adapt to a world without third-party cookies and MAIDs, the need for unified identity solutions has never been more urgent. Brands that can navigate the multi-ID landscape will unlock new levels of efficiency and personalization, while those that fail to adapt risk falling behind. The path forward is clear: invest in identity solutions that bridge the gaps between devices, platforms, and channels, providing a full view of the customer. The future of marketing belongs to those who can manage identity in a fragmented world—and those who can’t will struggle to stay relevant. 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We spoke with experts from Audigent, Choreograph, Goodway Group, MiQ, Snowflake about the future of data and identity.