What’s Changing in Social & Influencer Marketing: Q2 2026 Trends Brands Need to Act On

You’re out of the intensity of Q1, not quite into summer, and it’s easy to think of it as a bit of a holding period. But in reality, this is where a lot of the bigger shifts in social and influencer marketing start to become visible.

March gave a pretty clear signal of where things are heading. Not in a dramatic, everything’s-changing-overnight way, but in a more subtle shift in how people are consuming content, who they’re paying attention to, and what actually cuts through.

And when you step back, a few patterns start to connect.

Social is becoming something you actually watch

One of the more interesting shifts is how platforms are starting to treat content less like something you scroll past and more like something you sit with.

Instagram pushing further into connected TV is a good example of that. Reels aren’t just living on phones anymore. They’re being watched on bigger screens, often with sound on, in a more relaxed, lean-back way.

It doesn’t mean short-form is going anywhere. But it does change what “good” looks like.

Content that works now needs to hold attention for longer. It needs to be clear enough to watch from a distance. It needs some kind of structure or narrative, even if it’s subtle.

You can see why creators who already lean into longer-form, story-led content are benefiting from this. Vlogs, episodic formats, even slightly more considered TikToks are starting to feel more at home.

For brands, it’s a small mindset shift, but an important one. It’s not just about stopping someone mid-scroll anymore. It’s about whether they’d actually keep watching.

The way brands and creators work together has changed

At the same time, the relationship between brands and creators has shifted quite a bit.

The old approach of writing a tight brief, handing it over, and expecting a finished post back is starting to feel outdated. Not because it doesn’t work at all, but because it rarely produces the kind of content that stands out now.

There’s just too much in-feed for that.

So what’s happening instead is much more collaborative. Brands are involving creators earlier, shaping ideas together, and giving them more room to interpret.

It’s less about control and more about getting to something that feels right for both sides.

And when you look at the campaigns that are performing best, that’s usually what’s sitting behind them. Not a perfectly executed brief, but a shared idea that’s been built with the platform in mind from the start.

Smaller, more connected audiences are starting to matter more

Another shift that keeps coming up is around who actually drives results.

For a long time, the focus was on scale. Bigger audiences, bigger reach, bigger names. That still has a place, but it’s not the only thing that matters anymore.

Smaller creators with more defined communities are often delivering stronger engagement and, more importantly, stronger action.

Partly because their content feels more specific. Partly because their audience trusts them more. And partly because they’re often operating in spaces that feel a bit more private.

Things like close friends stories, smaller group chats, private channels. Those environments don’t look like traditional marketing spaces, but they’re where a lot of decisions are actually being influenced.

So while reach is still important, it’s not the whole picture.

Connection is starting to matter more than visibility.

The UK market is leaning into this shift

You can see all of this reflected in how brands are approaching influencer marketing more broadly.

Budgets are going up, but so is the level of thought behind how that budget is used.

There’s more focus on:

• building longer-term relationships with creators
• working with a mix of different audience sizes
• creating content that can live beyond a single post

And less focus on quick wins or one-off activations.

Some of the strongest campaigns recently have felt less like ads and more like moments. Something that fits into culture, that people want to engage with, and that feels like it belongs on the platform.

The campaigns setting the tone don’t feel like campaigns

When you look at what’s actually cutting through right now, it’s rarely the most polished or most heavily branded work.

It’s the content that feels like it could have existed anyway.

Creator-led series, “shop with me” formats, collaborations that feel rooted in culture rather than just product. Things that unfold over time rather than appearing as a single post and disappearing again.

There’s a sense of continuity to them.

And that’s important, because attention doesn’t really work in one-off moments anymore. It builds over time.

What this means for how brands show up next

All of this feeds into how brands should be thinking about the next few months.

Content needs to do a bit more than it used to. It still needs to grab attention, but it also needs to hold it. It needs to feel natural in-feed, but also strong enough to work in longer formats or different environments.

Creator partnerships need to go deeper as well. The best work is coming from ongoing relationships, shared ideas and formats that can evolve, rather than isolated posts.

And scale needs to be looked at slightly differently.

It’s not just about how many people see something. It’s about how many people actually care about it.

What brands should take from this

None of these shifts are dramatic on their own, but together, they point in a clear direction.

Social is becoming more watchable, more community-driven, and more dependent on creators who understand how to navigate both.

For brands, that means letting go of some of the older ways of thinking. Less focus on control, more focus on collaboration. Less emphasis on reach for the sake of it, more on relevance.

Because the brands that stand out now aren’t the ones doing the most.

They’re the ones creating things that people actually want to spend time with.