Chasing tomorrow with today’s budget

As marketers enter 2026, the landscape continues to shift at a breakneck pace. Technology is fragmenting the ways consumers engage with brands, while generative AI and new devices are reshaping what a “presence” means in the market. The real question for brands and marketing leaders today isn’t just what’s new, but what’s worth investing in as technology evolves.

Nick Seckold, regional vice president at Microsoft Advertising APAC, sees a balance emerging between the old and the new.

“The audience is still the most important part of any marketing strategy because brands want to connect with consumers,” he said.

However, he is cognizant that technology is enabling far greater fragmentation, making it harder for brands to remain relevant across multiple touchpoints. Seckold points to a key tension that has been engulfing the marketing industry in recent years: the tilt towards performance over brand.

“In many cases, brand marketing has taken a backward seat to performance marketing – which I’m not sure is always a good thing,” he said.

CMOs are under pressure to show measurable ROI, yet an over-reliance on short-term performance can often undermine long-term brand equity, he further explained.

Meanwhile, search and content are evolving as entry points for consumers. “Five years ago, there were a couple of major search engines where people would typically start their journey, and then navigate to wherever they needed to go. Now, there are a lot more avenues consumers use to access the information for the content they are looking for.”

The growing importance of platforms beyond traditional search, including AI-driven tools, is forcing marketers to rethink where they invest for maximum reach and influence. Generative AI is another force driving change.

Seckold highlights how automation is now embedded across workflows in marketing: “We’ve been doing this for 18 months to two years. A lot of automation in workflows, whether at work or in advertising, is happening and will continue, including copy creation, content creation, optimisation, building campaigns, reporting, and insights.”

For marketers, this means considering which technologies are essential for scaling productivity and which are “nice to have”.

Taken together, these shifts make 2026 a year for careful decision making. With technology evolving rapidly and new channels constantly emerging, Seckold suggests marketers focus on understanding their audiences, investing in measurement, and diversifying their partners to avoid over-concentration.

In an interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Seckold delves further into the key trends, strategies and tools marketers should prioritise – and where budgets should be allocated – as they plan for the year ahead.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: With marketing being skewed heavily towards performance for so long, what do you think will ultimately prompt the shift back to brand building?

Seckold: Well, the performance will probably start to decay over time. It will get more and more difficult to drive new consumers into the funnel and expose the brand or product to a new set of audiences.

Where we see our customers and advertisers doing the best on our platform is when they have a mix of both mid-funnel or upper-funnel brand activity. We can directly see search lift, for example, when you’re interacting with a display or video ad on our network and then we see that user come in on search, and they typically perform or convert better.

Marketers sometimes choose one or the other when it should be a mix of both, and it’s up to the marketers to decide what that right mix looks like.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: With search no longer a predictable starting point for consumers, how do you see search evolving in the future, especially from Microsoft’s perspective?

Seckold: Search is a big part of what we do. There’s no doubt that it is changing. Five years ago, there were a couple of major search engines where people would typically start their journey, and then navigate to wherever they needed to go.

Now, there are a lot more avenues consumers use to access the information or content they are looking for. Search capabilities have expanded across many digital platforms, and new AI-powered tools such as Copilot now offer alternative ways for people to look up information. With consumers able to find answers from so many different entry points, the landscape has become far more complex.

The 10 blue links on a search page are still really relevant. Our search volume has actually increased since the rise of Copilot, as more people come into our ecosystem.

Search is not dead or dying, it’s evolving.

As the Gen AI search experience improves and gets more intelligent, we’ll likely see more transactions happening through it. Search will continue to evolve over the next three to five years, and we see a really exciting future for search.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: With so much technology out there, how can marketers decide what is a nice to have versus what’s a must have? And, of course, which vendors to trust?

Seckold: Brands have to decide which partners and technologies they feel comfortable with and that follow the same business ethos as themselves. Valuing trusted brands is important if you’re giving away data to an LLM. You want organisations that are trustworthy, reputable, audited and follow responsible AI principles.

Brand marketers must know what the problem is that they are trying to solve. Really understand that, and have a view of where AI might play a role. That will help direct the conversation, as opposed to saying, “come and tell me what you can do for me”.

I’d always have a very clear view of the problem you’re trying to solve.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Which countries in the region are seeing the fastest adoption of Microsoft’s solutions and which ones are leading the way?

Seckold: Our business is growing quite a lot. We are benefiting from the growth of Microsoft Windows, Copilot, and our solutions over time. For example, the Edge browser is the second largest globally, and it’s gained share in the past 15 or 16 quarters. People are migrating away less, and our products are improving and creating value, helping our business grow.

Copilot is playing a huge role in growth, though we still have work to do to make sure all customers understand it. Some competitors such OpenAI and ChatGPT captured the trend early, and we’re catching up. We’re seeing traction through the Windows ecosystem and standalone apps on phones.

In terms of markets, all are important, but some are at different stages. Windows is the dominant PC operating system globally, which helps us serve brands and agencies in PC marketing. We’ll continue to do that as we look for more opportunities to grow our mobile footprint.

This article was done in collaboration with Microsoft Advertising APAC.

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