2026 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference: Where Marketing Stops Chasing Growth and Starts Catalyzing It
The 2026 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference is not built around the usual marketing conference promise of more ideas, more sessions, and more inspiration. Its central theme is ‘Catalyzing Growth,’ and the program is aimed at marketers dealing with a more complicated reality where AI, fragmented media, changing consumer behavior, creativity, measurement, and brand trust all collide. ANA describes the event as a gathering of CMOs, brand leaders, and executives focused on the ideas and strategies accelerating growth across leading organizations.
Taking place from October 20-23, 2026 at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida, the conference combines main-stage keynotes, breakout sessions, networking, leadership council activity, and a virtual participation option powered by Grip and the ANA Events app.
Where Marketing Conversations Get Real
Marketing has spent years talking about transformation.
Now the problem is proving it.
The 2026 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference is built around that tension. The agenda looks at how marketers can use AI without sidelining creativity, how attention can become a stronger signal of advertising impact, how brands can earn trust during periods of disruption, and how marketing organizations need to evolve their capabilities alongside technology.
That makes the event less about isolated marketing tactics and more about the decisions behind growth.
The question is no longer simply what should marketers do next.
It is what actually creates growth when the old boundaries between brand, performance, technology, media, data, and culture keep disappearing.
Also Read: Self-Regulation vs. Regulatory Compliance: How Should CMOs Approach AI Ethics in Marketing?
What to Expect at the 2026 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference
Main-stage sessions built around growth
The main program brings senior marketing leaders together for sessions covering creative transformation, brand building, trust, purpose, consumer understanding, and the changing role of technology in marketing. The opening keynote, ‘Robots Can’t Build Brands: The New S-Curve of Creative Transformation,’ explores how marketers can use technology and AI to transform creativity rather than replace it.
AI and marketing’s new operating reality
The conference goes well beyond generic AI discussions. Sessions examine AI-generated talent, AI-powered audience discovery, answer engines, marketing technology, workforce capabilities, and the operational foundations required to make AI useful at scale.
Measurement and attention
Measurement gets a major seat at the table. One session examines why attention may be a stronger signal than simple ad delivery, while the ANA’s 2026 State of Marketing Measurement report looks at ROI, media fragmentation, privacy and signal loss, MMM, incrementality, AI in measurement, and changing consumer discovery behavior.
Leadership, talent, and capability building
The conference also looks inward at the marketing organization itself. Sessions examine future-ready talent, the changing capabilities marketers need in an AI-enabled environment, and how brands can use new frameworks to rethink roles, development investments, and hiring profiles.
Purposeful networking and collaboration
The experience is not limited to the stage. ANA has dedicated power-networking sessions using AI-powered matchmaking through its event app, along with receptions, dinners, leadership council meetings, and other opportunities to build relationships with marketing leaders.
Key Themes Driving the 2026 Program
AI should serve creativity, not erase it
The conference is taking a clear look at what AI changes and what it does not. The opening keynote argues that new technology can transform creativity, but the strategic advantage still comes from how marketers use that technology in service of brand building.
Brand trust is becoming a business issue
The ‘Trust Is the Strategy’ keynote focuses on how brands can use periods of disruption to rebuild confidence, redefine value, and strengthen their position. That makes trust less of a communications exercise and more of a business consideration.
AI search is changing brand discovery
The agenda also goes directly after answer engines and AI visibility. ANA’s session on the search imperative connects citations and AI visibility to structured content, trusted data, clear ownership, and a content supply chain that can operate at scale.
Marketing measurement is being rebuilt
The 2026 measurement program looks at how marketers can connect activity to business results while dealing with fragmented media, privacy constraints, signal loss, AI, MMM, and incrementality. The conversation is moving firmly toward actionable measurement rather than reporting for reporting’s sake.
Buyer understanding is becoming more sophisticated
The B2B programming looks at hidden influencers inside buying groups and the role of data in identifying who actually shapes purchasing decisions. Another session focuses on combining intent, engagement, behavioral, brand, and trust signals to decide when and where marketing should act.
Featured Speakers and Industry Voices
The 2026 speaker lineup brings together senior marketers, brand leaders, agency executives, technology voices, and specialists from major organizations. Some of the featured speakers include:
- Manolo Arroyo - Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Customer Commercial Officer, Coca-Cola
- Leslie Berland - Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Verizon
- Tim Castree - Chief Marketing Officer, DoorDash
- Julia Goldin - Chief Product & Marketing Officer, The LEGO Group
- Marc S. Pritchard - Chief Brand Officer, The Procter & Gamble Company
View the full speaker list here.
The ANA Masters of Marketing Experience
This is designed as more than four days of presentations.
The agenda mixes keynote sessions with breakout programming, networking receptions, dinners, leadership council meetings, fitness activities, and AI-powered matchmaking through the ANA Events App. Attendees can also participate remotely through Grip, with access to live sessions, on-demand replays, questions, networking, and business opportunities.
The event also gives marketers access to the ANA’s latest thinking on areas such as AI search, marketing measurement, B2B buying groups, talent capabilities, and marketing technology through dedicated Amplify sessions and labs.
That matters because the strongest takeaway from a conference is rarely a single keynote.
It is the combination of ideas, peer context, and the conversations that change how you look at your own business.
Why the 2026 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference Matters
Marketing is being pulled in opposite directions.
AI is accelerating execution while making differentiation harder. Media is fragmenting while measurement is under pressure. Buyers have more information while attention is getting harder to earn. And brands still have to build trust while delivering growth.
The ANA Masters of Marketing Conference puts those tensions in the same room.
Its 2026 program connects creativity with technology, brand with business impact, AI with organizational capability, and audience understanding with measurable outcomes.
Attendees walk away with new perspectives on AI, brand building, measurement, audience strategy, talent, and growth, along with opportunities to connect with senior marketers working through the same changes from very different angles.
That is the point.
Not another conference telling marketers that the future is coming.
A room focused on what marketing needs to do now.
Discover more at www.ana.net/content/show/id/ms-anc-oct26
