Large businesses up marketing budgets but half of small companies plan cuts

An overview of marketing budget plans over the next 12 months by country and size of the business.

Nearly one-half (47%) of small businesses plan to cut their marketing spend over the next 12 months, according to a global survey of CMOs by Dentsu.

Two-fifths (41%) of small businesses will cut their marketing spend by at least 5%, while just one-fifth (19%) plan to increase their investment over the next year.

Large businesses, those with over 1,000 employees, are now mostly ready to invest – 54% plan to increase their marketing spend over the next 12 months, a larger share than the 32% saying they will cut their spend.

Medium-sized businesses are caught in the middle,...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands