Written by James Harris, CEO & Founder at Seraph Science

“Fail to invest, fail to grow”

Marketing budgets have dropped a further 15% year-on-year in 2024, down from a pre-pandemic high of 11% to an ‘anaemic’ 7.7% of company revenues in 2024 according to Gartner.

It’s no secret marketing leaders are being expected to do more with less, but what is interesting is seeing which investments they are cutting and which ones they are doubling down on:

TECH // Investment in tech has reached its lowest ebb in a decade, however, Marketers are looking at AI to resolve their budgetary constraints.

DIGITAL // Protecting the digital footprint is a priority, with a whopping 57.1% of budgets continuing to be focused here.

F2F // In the offline area, sponsorship and event marketing are still viewed as key levers for engaging audiences and building demand.

There is more detail in the report, but the headline is clearly the downward trend in marketing spend, driven by leaner teams and AI taking up the slack. Is this sustainable in the long term? Or will there be a point at which customer demands will force brands to reconsider this outlook?

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