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Marketing must reclaim its strategic role in the C-suite and be recognised as a business growth driver.
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AI should augment, not replace, human marketers as competitive advantage will come from combining technology with human creativity, emotional intelligence, cultural insight and ethical judgement.
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MASA says marketers must lead growth, steward brands, build human connections, practice ethical marketing, and maintain verified professional credibility through continuous development.
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Professional standards are essential for marketing’s credibility.
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MASA aims to unify and professionalise South Africa’s marketing industry. *
As we head into the second half of 2026, marketing finds itself at a pivotal moment. Brands and marketing services remain the lifeblood of any organisation, fuelling growth, shaping perception and driving demand, competitiveness and long-term sustainability.
Yet, paradoxically, the discipline has seen its influence and perceived credibility diminish in many a boardroom. For an industry so central to business performance, this erosion of respect in the C-suite is not just surprising; it is unsustainable.
From the perspective of The Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA), this moment calls for both reflection and recalibration.
It is not that marketing has lost its value. However, what it has lost, in some cases, is its clarity of purpose, professional consistency and its seat at the strategic boardroom table. The challenge — and the opportunity — is for us to restore that respect, anchor marketing strategies firmly in business outcomes and ensure the profession evolves with intention rather than reaction.
Hyper-speed change
We are operating in an environment defined by fluidity, fragmentation and acceleration. Consumer behaviour shifts faster than planning cycles. Digital and social platforms rise and fall within months. Data multiplies exponentially. Artificial intelligence, technology and automation reconfigure workflows almost daily.
In this fast-changing and evolving climate, it is understandable that marketers feel pressure, possibly even anxiety, about their relevance and replacement within the workplace. But MASA believes it is time to relax the fear around AI and adopt a more mature, grounded perspective.
Yes, AI and digital enhancement will fundamentally change how marketing is executed. But they do not change why marketing exists. Technology can optimise, accelerate and scale. But what it cannot replace is the essence of what marketing is fundamentally about: human connection, incorporating emotional intelligence, cultural insights, ethical judgement, creativity rooted in lived experience, and the ability to connect and build trust and meaning with consumers.
The brands that will win in 2026 and beyond will not be those that use AI most aggressively, but those that use it most intelligently — through augmenting, and not replacing, the human touch.
The marketer who thrives will be the one who understands how to marry technology with humanity, not pit them against each other. The future marketer must be both analytically sharp and emotionally fluent.
Why marketing has lost ground
An uncomfortable truth must be addressed: marketing has sometimes undermined itself. One of the most pressing challenges facing the profession is structural. Marketing is too often positioned as a downstream function, tasked with execution rather than strategy. We have, over the years, allowed ourselves to be positioned that way.
If marketing is to reclaim its rightful place in the C-suite, marketers themselves must evolve. When marketing cannot clearly link its work to the organisation’s strategies of growth, margin, loyalty, reputation and enterprise value, it will get relegated down the organisational hierarchy.
To regain respect in the C-suite, marketers must re-anchor themselves not only in brand speak but in business literacy: understanding balance sheets and income statements, speaking the language of risk, return and resilience, demonstrating how brand equity translates into shareholder value, and proving that marketing is a long-term investment, not a cost.
Respect is not demanded. It is earned through demonstrable contribution to the bottom line, and the future CMO will not rise by being the best campaign manager.
The future marketer
The skills we prioritise now will determine whether marketing ascends as a strategic discipline or continues to be commoditised.
MASA believes the future marketer must be accountable for five core areas:
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Growth leadership: Marketing must own its role in driving demand, expansion and long-term value creation.
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Brand stewardship: In an age of AI-generated sameness, uniquely distinctive and trusted brands will be a company’s most defensible and powerful asset.
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Human connection: Technology may mediate interactions, but emotional resonance remains a human skill — and a fiercely competitive one at that.
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Ethical influence: As data and automation grow, the responsibility to market responsibly grows with it.
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Professional credibility: Expertise must be verified, current and continuously developed — never assumed.
Marketing can no longer afford to be regarded as an informal craft with uneven standards. It must stand alongside medicine, finance, engineering and law as a profession with recognised qualifications, governance and accountability.
The role of MASA
MASA’s mandate to set standards of excellence, uphold quality and formalise recognition within the industry is central to restoring trust in the discipline.
Qualifications and professional designations are not mere credentials; they are signals of skill, competence, experience and accountability.
They provide verified proof of skills and expertise, alignment with nationally recognised frameworks (including SAQA and NQF), and assurance to employers that capability matches claim. In an era where anyone can claim to be a “marketer”, verification becomes invaluable.
For organisations, this translates directly into both efficiencies and cost savings. By leveraging MASA’s rigorous vetting processes, employers can significantly reduce the time, risk and expense associated with recruitment, eliminating up to two-thirds of the costs typically incurred during the hiring process.
If marketing is to regain its stature, it must do so on three fronts:
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Credibility, through proven skills and measurable outcomes.
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Consistency, through industry standards and professionalisation.
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Connection, through our uniquely human ability to understand and move people.
It is MASA’s role to champion all three, over and above our work across policy, regulation and legislation that affects the marketing ecosystem as a whole.
However, our vision is not simply to drive certifications and designations, but to elevate the entire profession.
The association believes the marketers who will define the next decade are not those who resist change, nor those who blindly chase it. They are the ones who manage to balance both.
They will embrace technology without losing humanity, strive to build brands with purpose and precision, while anchoring creativity in commercial impact.
The moment is now
We sit at a crossroads. The tools are evolving. The rules are shifting. The skills curve is bending. Marketing can either fragment further under the pressure of speed and technology, or it can embrace it, professionalise, unify and rise.
MASA firmly believes the future belongs to marketers who can embrace innovation without losing humanity. It is these individuals who will demand standards without taking shortcuts, having built their credibility through qualification, skill, competence, professional certification and accountability, and who lead with purpose.
MASA should be recognised as the umbrella body — the one collective tent under which everyone on the brand owner/client-side of the sector gathers to converse and connect, share best practice, address industry issues, and protect and professionalise marketing, including the upholding of ethics, standards, and skill and capability building, while driving the broader marketing, advertising and communications industry forward.
We know that respect in the boardroom is not granted or guaranteed. It is earned, demonstrated and sustained.
Now is the time for us as marketers to claim our seat at the top table, not as a support function, but as a driver of business growth and success.
And MASA stands ready to lead that charge.
* Summary created by AI.
Brian Yuyi is CEO of The Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA)
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