Why 2026 Belongs to Everywhere But the West

For the fourth time since 2020, Puerto Rico’s favourite son Bad Bunny is Spotify’s top global artist in 2025 (Taylor who?). The highest-grossing film of the past year wasn’t a Marvel reboot or a Pixar tearjerker, but 'Ne Zha 2', a Chinese animated fantasy epic that – if you’re honest – wasn’t even on your radar. Meanwhile, the most-streamed shows on Earth come courtesy of Seoul ('Squid Game') and Brisbane ('Bluey'), suggesting that Western cultural dominance is looking increasingly less like the default setting.

This isn’t a blip. It’s part of a slow recalibration. We are living through a shift in the world’s soft-power centre of gravity, one where Western culture is no longer the automatic global trendsetter but one contender among many – often outpaced by countries that, a decade ago, were still considered “emerging”.

The West’s malaise - and the hunger for something new

In the West, the mood music has changed. Economic stagnation, political volatility, and a general sense of civic fatigue have created a population increasingly willing – eager, even – to look further afield for excitement. When trust in institutions declines and optimism shrinks, people compensate by consuming novelty. They want brands, entertainment, and experiences that feel alive, bold, unfiltered. And right now, that energy is disproportionately coming from outside the usual centres.

Look at luxury travel: Dubai has become the world’s top destination for high-net-worth individuals, overtaking the US and UK in new millionaire inflows. Low tax, high speed, hyper-modern infrastructure, concierge-everything… it’s a compelling contrast to headlines about crime, cost-of-living crises, tax rises and declining public services in major Western cities. It’s not just rich people voting with their feet; it’s the global imagination relocating.

Commerce follows culture and culture is moving East

Soft power isn’t just K-dramas and reggaeton. It’s commerce. It’s the brands that set the pace of aspiration.

BYD is now the world’s largest EV producer, outselling Tesla and redefining what automotive innovation looks like (#sorrynotsorry, Elon). K-beauty has shifted from niche to norm, dictating global skincare routines and spawning entire product categories (your Western moisturiser now wants to be a serum-essence-ampoule hybrid). Fast fashion? Shein is now one of the most downloaded shopping apps globally.

And, of course, all of this spreads via TikTok – another Eastern export – where cultural diffusion happens faster than regulation, and where the West increasingly consumes culture created everywhere else.

Outside the West, confidence is rising and tastes are localising

Meanwhile, in markets like China, the shift is even more pronounced. Local consumers – once enchanted by Americana – are now actively preferring homegrown brands. Partly this reflects geopolitical cooling. But partly it’s pride. Chinese premium brands in tech, fashion, automotive, and beauty now match or surpass US equivalents in quality and innovation. Consumers can buy local and feel cutting-edge.

The result: a soft-power inversion. For decades, the West exported culture and imported revenue. Now, the flow is reversing.

What does 2026 look like?

In a word: diffuse.

Western brands can no longer assume cultural primacy. Consumers have discovered a world of alternatives – many cheaper, many better, many more exciting.

But rather than seeing this as a threat, brands should see it as a provocation. The brands that will win in 2026 are the ones that stop treating culture and brand as a one-way-street, and start treating it more like Shibuya crossing. Those that embrace cultural plurality and draw inspiration not just from Brooklyn and Shoreditch, but from Seoul, Shenzhen, São Paulo, Lagos and Dubai, will have competitive advantage.

The soft-power centre of gravity isn’t disappearing. It’s multiplying. And that makes the world – and marketing strategy – a far more interesting place.

Matt Rebeiro executive strategy director at Iris