From the Good Old Days to the Glorious

Just like Macklemore, I wish somebody once told me that these would be the good old days. Putting on my marketing hat and taking a retrospective view of marketing effectiveness — fair to say we've been blessed with a very fortunate recent history during those good old days.

Facebook and Instagram ads were ROAS machines. Google delivered qualified leads all day long. Consumers would open their wallets for anything a Kardashian put in front of their eyes. Side hustles were aplenty and Millennials could finish their 9-to-5 and sell their ecommerce initiatives en masse during after-hours efforts.

The new normal today

COVID is in the rear-view mirror and people everywhere are excited about returning to normal. But what on earth is the new normal? Based on content feeds and discussions across the industry, AI is the talk of the town — and recession is one word gaining more media mentions than we'd all like to see. Property prices are on the slip-and-slide, money is becoming more expensive, and the beloved tech industry has seen a brutal series of layoffs.

Doom and gloom stops here. Yes, business owners and marketers have had it easier in the past. It's a bit harder right now as consumers tighten their spending — but it is still very possible to build brand and bank in those precise moments. It just takes good strategy, the right people, smart tactics and commitment to your cause. The markets may have moved, but the fundamentals remain.

What excites me about 2026 and beyond

What excites me most about current marketing strategies is the need to be agile and adaptive. Rather than hit repeat on the same cookie-cutter media plan, agencies and marketers need to be effective and efficient in defining where the gold is and how to differentiate from the rest.

We can no longer just send merchandise to influencers, sit back in our ergonomic chairs and await the sales overnight. We have to be clever and embrace what makes our product or service genuinely different. Budgets across many industries are starting to tighten and CFOs are applying laser focus on the balance sheets. Cost effectiveness — ROAS, ROI, CPA — becomes the metric of choice, and accountability is paramount.

This is bad news for lazy marketers who just want to run cookie-cutter campaigns. It's exciting for talented marketers who understand it's our job to find the silver bullets, magic moments and profitable opportunities within the channel mix.

One thing that COVID should have taught all marketers is that disruption presents opportunity. Roll up your sleeves and have fun working hard to find profitable outcomes. Even Macklemore followed the good old days with "Glorious." There's an anthem for every era — you just have to find yours.