What Next? What Now? But How?

With Dom Dwight, former Marketing Director for Yorkshire Tea, now turned Strategy  Advisor to brands and agencies.

1. What Next?

What’s shifting in culture – and what should marketers see coming?
Share one key signal, trend or tension shaping consumer behaviour or cultural marketing in 2026 and beyond. What’s emerging that leaders can’t afford to ignore?

For me, the big issue is the collapse in trust. 

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we’re living through unprecedented volatility – it’s not just the scale of change, it’s the speed, the unpredictability, and the ubiquity of it. As a result, many people feel very uncertain. Throw in a massive decline in public trust, the fragmentation of our media, and a tsunami of misinformation, and that leaves a lot of people not knowing who to turn to. 

So far so dystopian. (Sorry.) Although I definitely don’t have a solution to all this up my sleeve, I do see something positive. 

I think there is an opportunity here for brands with strong values to stand out by doubling down on trustworthiness. All marketers know the value of a brand that is seen as reliable, dependable or a source of comfort.

In the current climate, being trusted goes from a standard aim to a potentially powerful source of advantage. And I’d go further than that – I think it’s an opportunity for brands not just to serve themselves, but to contribute to society by acting as a stabilising influence, bringing some coherence to a world that sometimes feels like it’s losing its mind. (And before anyone accuses me of disappearing down the purpose-marketing rabbit hole – if contributing to society seems too lofty to you, hopefully we can at least agree that an untrusting, unstable world is bad for business.)

2. What Now?

What does this mean for marketers today?
How should brands respond right now – strategically or creatively – to drive growth, relevance and effectiveness?

In many ways, what this turbulent context requires of marketers is simply to do what they should always be doing. There’s a lot to be said for being super clear on what your brand stands for, and what it offers your audience that’s relevant to their lives – and being really disciplined about your methods for getting their attention effectively. 

But that attention feels scarce right now, and the aforementioned fragmented media means it’s also scattered. So what to do?

My experience of Yorkshire Tea’s rise to number one over the last decade tells me three things that are important. 

Firstly, don’t write off the mainstream channels. The world is changing fast and new tech can be very interesting – but TV is still an incredibly powerful mass-reach tool. 

Secondly, social media is constantly evolving, but if you turn up with authenticity and respect your audience, you can build a community of advocates that will help you weather those changes. 

And thirdly, consistency is key. Not repeating your message robotically, but ensuring everything you do and everywhere you show up – while being contextually relevant – conveys that same sense of brand personality and values. 

3. But How?

How do you make it work – and prove it works?
How can you demonstrate the value of culture-led marketing to your CFO, board or wider business? What makes it measurable and effective?

For Yorkshire Tea, we found regular brand tracking and econometric studies were vital to understanding the impact of our marketing efforts, assessing the level of investment, and renewing commitment from the business. 

When we changed to our Where Everything’s Done Proper campaign, which has been running since 2016, our use of celebrity helped us achieve our goal of becoming ‘culturally famous’ – we could see from the tracking that awareness and perceptions were all increasing, and most importantly they were climbing fast among people who’d previously been fairly unaware of the brand. 

What was harder to separate out was that throughout this period, there was a lot of other activity helping to raise our profile in culture – from day to day social, to standout content like our music video Pack Yer Bags, to guerrilla PR around big events like the World Cup. 

While each activity was simply too small to assess individually, two things were measurable. One, we tracked how much Yorkshire Tea was talked about online – not responses to our posts but people mentioning their brand of their own volition. Two, we monitored for PR spikes – moments of coverage for things that were only possible because of our day to day social activity created the opportunity for such things to happen. My favourite example of this has to be the time Russell Crowe was passing through Yorkshire and we asked him to drop in for tea. Not only he did surprise us by saying yes, he brought his band and played an impromptu gig in the middle of our office. Not something you can plan for!

And that’s perhaps a good point to end on – planning is of course necessary but to thrive in culture you have to leave room for manoeuvre. You need enough flexibility in your plans, and enough agility in your capabilities, to spot the opportunities and react quickly to make the most of them.