CIM Lecture 1 - How Has Marketing Changed

Open Ended

In your opinion, what is one major factor that has influenced the transformation of marketing strategies in recent years?

Core Marketing Trends for 2026 (Kantar Insights)

1. AI Agents at Scale

24% of AI users already rely on AI-powered shopping assistants—these agents are becoming primary interfaces between consumers and brands. Brands must optimize product data for AI environments to serve both non-human and human audiences seamlessly.

2. Human Connection through Machine Selection (Generative Engine Optimization)

If AI models don't recognize your brand, they won't recommend it. CMOs must ensure brand content is structured, machine-readable, and incorporated into datasets that train AI models.

3. Synthetic Data & Augmented Audiences

Synthetic datasets and digital twins are gaining in accuracy (94–95% of ground truth) and enable enhanced personalization across text, voice, image, and VR channels. High-quality data and rigorous governance are essential.

Strategic Priorities for 2026 Execution

Terminology Explained

• Retail Media Networks (RMNs) are advertising platforms run by retailers (like Amazon, Walmart, Target) that let third-party brands buy ad space on the retailer's digital (websites, apps) and physical (in-store screens) properties, using the retailer's valuable first-party customer data for precise targeting, creating new revenue for retailers and effective point-of-purchase advertising for brands. 

Terminology Explained

• Synthetic data sets are artificial data, created by algorithms, that mimic the statistical patterns and characteristics of real-world data without containing any actual information about real people, making them ideal for training AI models, testing software, and developing applications while preserving privacy and overcoming data scarcity for rare events or sensitive information. They maintain the structure and relationships of original data but are generated randomly, allowing for safe use in development and analysis. 
  

Terminology Explained

• A digital twin is a dynamic, virtual replica of a physical object, system, or process, connected to its real-world counterpart through real-time data from sensors, allowing for continuous monitoring, simulation, and analysis. These "living" models enable businesses to test scenarios, predict performance, optimize operations, and make better decisions throughout an asset's lifecycle, from design to decommissioning, without affecting the physical entity. 

Open Ended

Over to you

In groups of 2-3s
research one of the key focus areas e.g. co-creation, Big Data analytics, IoT applications in real life and write your example here or shout out.

Open Ended

Over to you

In groups of 2-3s
Discuss and answer, how do the identified characteristics and increasing civic engagement of Generation Z (e.g., tenacity, care, diversity) challenge or reshape the traditional market approaches focused solely on profitability?

Open Ended

Over to you

In groups of 2-3s
Research a local timebanking initiative or a highly successful crowdfunding project. Analyse the motives, logics of organisation, and primary form of exchange (e.g., monetary vs. non-monetary). Debate whether these initiatives should be viewed nostalgically or as genuine resistance to the mainstream market

Open Ended

Over to you

In groups of 2-3s
find a recent brand campaign that aligns itself with a social justice issue (e.g., climate change, feminism, or racial equality). Critically assess whether the campaign provides substantive evidence of action or merely operates as "value signalling" or "woke-washing," arguing whether the campaign promotes individual consumption over structural change. Post here your example and views.

Attendance Code: 73496491