Our Monthly Round-up of the key marketing pieces for March includes: – five articles, a webinar, an AI & media section, the Work, & our Back to Henley chapter. The marketing landscape is entering the Review Wave of 2026 driven by four triggers: rise in consumer spending whilst the middle east crisis remains influx, the fatigue & re-badging of the holding company, efficiency dividends brought on by AI, ongoing media transparency issues. You may have missed some of the articles – they are picked here in one place with links to provide you with the latest view on a key areas.
Our March highlights:
1. Our top pick for this month is a webinar – the Cure for Dull. We attended online, System1 brings you The Cure for Dull, a most practical and actionable guide to pushing back on neutrality and unlocking more distinctive, effective creative work. Built on proven effectiveness evidence and building on the work of Orlando Wood, this report equips brands and agencies with a clear, evidence-based framework to eliminate dull, move beyond safe neutrality, and create work that drives sustained growth.
Here is the link to the webinar: https://system1group.com/the-cure-for-dull
2. Secondly, we pick this piece from Mckinsey on organisations. The State of Organizations 2026 report highlights sharper focus on performance at a time of tech innovation, economic disruption, and changing workforce structures. These are challenging times for organizations everywhere. Forces ranging from artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical fragmentation to evolving workforce expectations, increasing customer demands, and tougher competitive dynamics are redefining how leaders create value and sustain performance. An excellent read, there is a lot in here.
Here is the link: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-state-of-organizations?
3. Thirdly, with a bit of a retail focus this month, we came across this post by Paul Martin, – a really good up to date retail perspective of what’s changing. Retail is not moving in a straight line. It is adjusting in real time, often across multiple dimensions at once.
Here is the link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ukpaulmartin_retail-has-gone-through-a-meaningful-shift-share-7445107489324371968-btZE/?
4. Fourthly, there has been quite some debate on the agency model structures, David Patton the incoming CEO of D&AD gives his view ‘When the creative shield finally breaks – where network agencies sometimes fail.’
Here is the link: https://www.moreaboutadvertising.com/2026/03/david-patton-when-the-creative-shield-finally-breaks-why-network-agencies-often-fail/
5. Fifthly, we pick this piece for the Harvard Business Review March-April edition, titled Preparing Your Brand for Agentic AI’ LLMs and agents are reshaping how consumers research and buy. Most companies aren’t ready. AI agents are transforming brand-consumer relationships. The authors explore how brands must adapt to a new retail environment in which consumers increasingly rely on generative AI for product research, recommendations, and purchases. Three modes of agentic interaction exist today: Consumers (1) engage with brand agents, (2) search for products using third-party agents they’ve personalized over time, and (3) empower AI to interact with other AI on their behalf. Brands must develop a hybrid strategy that balances automation with human shopping preferences.
Here is the link: https://hbr.org/2026/03/preparing-your-brand-for-agentic-ai
6. Sixthly, we pick this piece by Conor Nichols on the IPA website titled ‘How is AI impacting search and how can adland help brands navigate this?’ For consumers, search has seemingly never been easier. For brands, it’s never been harder. The IPA website is literally brimming with great content on AI these days. As Conor states: Change has arrived. I’m no longer using a search engine to search for supplies for the end of the world when AI becomes sentient – I’m using generative AI itself. At every stage of the purchasing journey – whether via ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overview – AI is now shaping how discovery, consideration and decision-making happen.
Here is the link: https://the-ipa.shorthandstories.com/ipai-forum-april-2026/ai-trends/how-ai-is-impacting-search/index.html
AI: Can you believe Apple turns 50 amid the AI shift – this week. Will Apple hold its dominance or will they go to something else. https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/apple-turns-50-amid-ai-shift-7139380/
Media: As platforms tighten their grip on the ad ecosystem, Nick Manning argues that agencies risk undermining their own value by chasing platform logic and opaque revenue models that erode the trust they were built on. https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/nick-manning-will-the-ad-industry-continue-to-poison-itself-with-principal-media
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Time for the Work: It is congrats to Nestle with Kit-Kat this month for turning a negative into a positive. A heist that nabbed Kit-Kat bars also gave the company an unexpected viral marketing moment. On March 28, a truck carrying 12 metric tons of KitKat chocolate bars was intercepted somewhere between Poland and Italy. The thieves made off with the truck and the chocolate. But have a break – quick thinking, a formula one tracker, and the spontaneous ads that followed were great. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/25-hilarious-tweets-2026-kit-173329474.html
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Back to Henley: Our fortnightly feature in the Henley Standard continues where we interview local entrepreneurs. It’s called Let’s Get Down to Business. We were delighted this month to interview Ollie Phillips, who runs Optimist Performance, a team performance consultancy. He is an adventurer, entrepreneur, speaker and four-time Guinness World record holder and a former England International Sevens player. This one is special – he has just completed the “World’s Toughest Row” crossing the Atlantic in 38 days and he made time for us. https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/henley-standard/704709/optimistic-entrepreneur-who-leads-from-front.html
And finally: It was April Fool this week, so here is a bit of humour from Richard Phelps, the Chairman of Henley Royal Regatta – Beach-sprints https://fb.watch/GcQma4pJ04/
According to one intermediary, 73% of UK marketing directors and CMOs stated they will “definitely” be holding a pitch for some, or all, of their marketing within the next 12 months. If that’s you – we should be talking – not all our reviews – go to a pitch, we always advise on the best way forward. If you’d like to discuss how these insights can apply to your organisation, we’d be delighted to set a meeting in the diary, or have a call online.
Kind regards,
Will