The State of CPG Communications in 2026
Here’s the hard truth: 2026 is a challenging year to own a business. But with every challenge comes a whole boatload of opportunity, right?
Over the past 5(ish!) years, the media and PR/communications industries have gone through some pretty wild changes, and 2026 is the year when it seems to all have come to a head.
Why? PR and communications now not only sit at the top of the funnel, brand awareness-driving, storytelling-building spot, but also at the bottom of the funnel, click and convert and sales-delivering tier.
They’re colliding to become the hybrid PR-marketing-communications departments (that, by the way, now have a seat at the table).
And you know what, they’re both important, and brands, especially those in CPG, food and beverage, and hospitality, should not lose sight of this.
The first is long-term brand building--and yes, this still takes a minimum of six months to really start. All brands should be investing in this now for both 6 months and 6 years from now. Build your boat.
But while you’re doing that, we also live in the reality of boards and investors and stakeholders and, well, payroll. So we now have performance PR tools--affiliate media and influencer relationships, brand collaborations, third-party content whitelisting in digital ads--that can drive direct clicks and support conversions.
Both of these things can be combined to simultaneously feed the new brand and product discovery machine - AI LLMs, or as we’re now calling it, GEO.
What does this mean for the state of your brand’s communications and PR in 2026? It means that it’s changing so rapidly that if you haven’t started yet, you’re not behind. But do get on it. And more positively, it means that your short term sales can support -- rather than suffer for -- your long term success.
And at the end of the day, aren’t we all just looking to build something that we want to be a part of?
If you want to learn more about this, how you can build today for both today and tomorrow, reach out to us here.