AI is transforming marketing at a rapid pace, yet senior leaders across Australia and New Zealand are placing renewed importance on what makes us human. While automation and AI driven content, targeting, and analytics continue to increase efficiency, the new iMedia Marketing Industry Pulse shows that human creativity, audience insight, and authentic leadership are emerging as critical drivers of marketing success.
Drawing on insights from CMOs and senior marketers who attended the 2025 iMedia Future of Marketing Summits in Australia and New Zealand, the Pulse captures real time sentiment on priorities, challenges, and ambitions. As marketers prepare for 2026, the message is clear. The brands most likely to thrive will be those that combine technology with empathy, foster genuine connection with peers and audiences, and build organisations that are truly human centred.
Authenticity: a defining leadership trait for modern CMOs
Authenticity surfaced strongly as an essential leadership quality, with 41 per cent of marketing leaders naming it the most important trait in a modern CMO, placing it ahead of strategic thinking and adaptability. Marketing leaders emphasised that confidence, clarity, relatability, and integrity are becoming increasingly important as teams navigate rapid digital change. They noted that authentic leadership supports team engagement, creative bravery, and better communication in periods of uncertainty.
On the closing panel at the iMedia Future of Marketing Summit Australia, Josh Faulks, CEO of AANA, was asked what mindset marketers need in order to move from surviving to thriving. He said, “Leaning into the uncertainty and owning it… this is the new normal. We have to learn to sail in the storm.”
Reflecting on several of the brands discussed during the panel, Faulks also noted that “authenticity and knowing your base” remain essential drivers of marketing success, a sentiment strongly echoed across the wider ANZ marketing community.
Audience understanding becomes mission critical in a fragmented landscape
With behaviours, platforms, channels, and cultural identifiers becoming increasingly diverse, marketers say deep audience understanding is now essential. Leaders pointed to the growing
importance of behavioural insight, cultural intelligence, and real time testing to inform strategy and strengthen relevance.
Leaders also shared that marketers can no longer rely on a single customer view. Audiences are too fluid, and modern approaches must be designed for mindsets, motivations, and context.
Colleen Ryan, partner at TRA, said: “Demographics miss the beliefs and motivations that actually drive behaviour. It is blindingly obvious that not all 30 year olds are the same. What surprises people more is that not all Gen Z are progressive minded. They only slightly under index compared to the general population on being traditionally minded.
Why that matters is that our mindset drives our decisions. It influences the type of messages we respond well to. It affects what we like and what we value. For marketers to really understand their audience they need to design for real human context, not just demographic boxes, tapping into something deeper. It means understanding the underlying orientations to life that shape every decision.”
Human connection powers marketing success
Senior marketers across ANZ increasingly recognise that capability building, both within teams and across the wider industry, is central to future success. Leaders emphasised the importance of peer learning, cross functional collaboration, and open conversations about challenges such as measurement, talent, and the role of AI.
Interest in connection is strong. Two in three marketers expressed a desire for stronger mentorship or cross industry support networks, and many highlighted that the conversations at summits are just as valuable as formal content.
PJ Morris, head of customer experience and marketing at Fletcher Building Heavy Building Materials Division, said: “I always come away from iMedia not feeling so alone, and knowing that there are similar challenges regardless of industry or team size. And that collectively we can find solutions. The openness and willingness of other marketers to share and support each other is one of the things I love about the marketing community.”
Why This Matters for 2026
As AI tools expand, budgets tighten, and customer behaviour becomes more fluid, marketing leaders say that the next phase of growth will rely on the ability to balance technology with deeper human understanding. The Pulse highlights several implications for teams as they plan for 2026.
First, emotional intelligence is becoming increasingly important for leadership. Marketers emphasised the need for clarity, confidence, and genuine communication as teams navigate constant change.
Second, audience strategies must evolve. Customers move between platforms and identities quickly, which means that context, values, and motivations now influence behaviour more than traditional demographic markers.
Third, connection is proving to be a strategic capability. Marketers are calling for more peer learning, cross functional collaboration, and honest discussions about capability gaps, measurement, and organisational structure. These relationships help leaders make sense of complexity and share practical solutions with each other.
Together, these insights point toward a more human centred era of marketing, where technology amplifies creativity rather than replaces it, and where teams build advantage by understanding people more deeply.
