2026 Q1 Talent Report

Marketing Teams and Talent Renewal:
Building High-Performing, ROI-Driven Teams After the Storm

By Dianne Hummal
Talent Strategy Director, MASH

After years of layoffs, AI pressure, budget scrutiny, and burnout, most marketing teams aren’t struggling because they lack talent — they’re struggling because the way work flows through the organisation no longer works.

This quarter’s MASH Talent Report looks at what high-performing organisations are doing differently in 2026: shifting from talent as headcount to talent as infrastructure. It unpacks why hiring freezes, agency churn, and “doing more with less” are failing — and how leading teams are quietly redesigning capability, decision-making, and resourcing to protect judgment, reduce burnout, and deliver ROI at speed.

Written for CMOs, HR leaders, and procurement teams responsible for building sustainable marketing engines, the report offers a clear, practical lens on team architecture, augmented capability, and why the next competitive advantage won’t come from more tools or more people — but from designing the system that connects them.