The Same Old Marketing Plan
Why Recycling 2025 Into 2026 Is Standing Still
It happens every fall.
The decks come out of hibernation.
Logos are swapped, dates are updated, and the tired “Q4 2024 Learnings” slide gets a new headline. Someone suggests adding an AI bullet because “we should probably mention it.”
And just like that, a brand-new 2026 marketing plan is born.
Except it’s not new at all. It’s the same old plan; recycled, reformatted, and repackaged as progress.
Everyone in the room knows it. The CFO knows it. The CMO knows it. Even the junior manager who updated the slide master knows it. But the ritual continues because recycling feels safe.
The problem is: in 2026, safe isn’t safe. Recycling isn’t planning. It’s standing still. And standing still in this market is falling behind.
Why Companies Recycle
Recycling plans happens for predictable reasons:
Comfort → It’s easier to tweak last year’s KPIs than rethink what growth really looks like.
Perception of discipline → Finance applauds “stability” even when it’s stagnation.
Fear of risk → Leaders convince themselves that repeating is protecting.
Time pressure → Budgets are due, the calendar is tight, so recycling feels efficient.
But let’s call it what it is: inertia.
A recycled plan is not a strategy. It’s an organizational shrug dressed up as continuity.
The Real Costs of Recycling
Recycling a plan isn’t free. It carries hidden costs that compound every year it continues.
Missed growth → McKinsey found that companies that dynamically reallocate at least 50% of spend each year achieve 2–3x returns compared to peers that don’t [1]. Most firms shift less than 10% [2]. Recycling locks dollars in the wrong places.
Frustrated leadership → CEOs and CFOs see the pattern: glossy decks, incremental tweaks, same results. They start questioning marketing’s credibility.
Demotivated teams → Talented marketers don’t sign up to copy-paste slides. They sign up to create impact. Recycling plans tells them their ideas don’t matter.
Money wasted → Consider the SaaS company that poured budget into sponsorships. Nice logos, no ROI. Or the retailer obsessed with lowering CPC … dashboards looked great, market share eroded. These aren’t strategies. They’re recycled habits with a price tag.
The Myth of Efficiency
Recycled plans often hide behind efficiency.
“Flat headcount shows discipline.”
“Trimming agency fees is smart management.”
“Standardizing the tech stack is progress.”
But efficiency without strategy is just cutting for the sake of optics.
That retailer that bragged about lower CPC? The boardroom loved the charts. Meanwhile, customers loved competitors’ launches, refreshed experiences, and bolder campaigns. Efficiency delivered neat metrics - and irrelevance.
Safe Isn’t Safe
Safe feels good in the room. A recycled plan won’t rock the boat. It won’t spook finance. It won’t demand change.
But markets don’t care about your comfort.
Buyer behavior shifts faster than budget cycles. AI is reshaping discovery, content, and attribution. Regulations reframe entire industries overnight. Competitors are reallocating, experimenting, and moving while you’re recycling.
PwC reports that 32% of customers will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience [3]. No recycled slide deck will fix that.
In a volatile market, safe isn’t safe. It’s a slow slide backward.
What Leaders Should Do Instead
Breaking the cycle doesn’t require magic. It requires courage. Leaders who refuse the “same old plan” ritual take five deliberate steps:
Interrogate the deck. If it looks like last year’s with new dates, stop the meeting.
Audit the waste. Cut the tools, vendors, and campaigns that don’t map to revenue or retention.
Reallocate with conviction. Shift real dollars. not token percentages - into what’s working.
Insist on outcomes. Vanity metrics and recycled KPIs don’t count. Demand proof tied to growth.
Reset the culture. Teams notice when leaders recycle. They notice when leaders reset. Choose the latter.
The Hard Close
Recycling last year’s plan isn’t protecting the business. It’s risking it.
It’s not strategy. It’s abdication.
If your 2026 marketing plan looks like your 2025 plan with a few tweaks, you’re not planning. You’re standing still. And in this market, standing still is falling behind.
Safe isn’t safe. Same isn’t strategy.
And recycling isn’t planning.
2026 isn’t the year to play it safe. It’s the year to break the cycle.
Want the bigger picture?
This blog is part of a broader series on resetting marketing for 2026.
Read our flagship Perspective: Own the Signal for the strategic manifesto behind this call to action.
Sources
[1] McKinsey & Company. The Granularity of Growth: Making Choices That Drive Enduring Value. McKinsey Insights, 2021. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights
[2] Harvard Business Review. “Why Organizations Don’t Reallocate Resources—Even Though They Should.” HBR, 2018. https://hbr.org/2018/07/why-organizations-dont-reallocate-resources
[3] PwC. Experience Is Everything: Here’s How to Get It Right. PwC Consumer Intelligence Series, 2018. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pdf
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