No surprise that 2026 is shaping up to be another ‘more with less’ year.
December 9, 2025
By David Tiltman – Chief Content Officer, WARC; SVP Content, LIONS Intelligence
No surprise that 2026 is shaping up to be another ‘more with less’ year. But the eye-opening stat from the WARC team’s latest Voice of the Marketer report is that Marketing budgets are lagging business sentiment.
In short, expectations of improved commercial performance in 2026 are not translating into higher budgets.
That’s a change. Advertising investment used to be a leading indicator – cut at the first signs of trouble, raised at the early signs of recovery. So what’s going on here? Lack of confidence in marketing’s outcomes? Prioritisation of investment in tech by organisations over other functions? Low expectations of improved consumer confidence in 2026 (and if that’s the case, what’s the basis for improved commercial performance)?
