The Speed of the Feed_Generative Realities
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In this episode of the dentsu Wisdom Series, Patricia McDonald, Chief Strategy Officer at dentsu Creative, unpacks Generative Realities: Trends for 2026, a fast-moving, deeply human look at how culture is shifting through prompts, feeds and emotional friction. From fandoms and rituals to AI intimacy and analogue resistance, this is essential listening for marketers who want to turn global currents into meaningful, future-ready market connections.
The Five Key Trends:
• Escape Velocity – Fantasies, fandoms, and collectibles as comfort in uncertain times.
• Electric Dreams – Emotional entanglements with AI, slow content, and synthetic influencers.
• Trad Lives – A return to nature, rituals, and hyperlocal community.
• Alone Together – New forms of socialising, natural highs, and influencers as cultural glue.
• Analog Futures – Nostalgia, tactile aesthetics, and resistance to algorithmic sameness.
For Africa’s marketers and creators, these aren’t borrowed trends they are raw material. The challenge now is to shape them into stories that don’t just follow global culture but lead it.
The Five Key Trends:
• Escape Velocity – Fantasies, fandoms, and collectibles as comfort in uncertain times.
• Electric Dreams – Emotional entanglements with AI, slow content, and synthetic influencers.
• Trad Lives – A return to nature, rituals, and hyperlocal community.
• Alone Together – New forms of socialising, natural highs, and influencers as cultural glue.
• Analog Futures – Nostalgia, tactile aesthetics, and resistance to algorithmic sameness.
For Africa’s marketers and creators, these aren’t borrowed trends they are raw material. The challenge now is to shape them into stories that don’t just follow global culture but lead it.
