The IPA’s Q1 2025 Bellwether survey of 300 UK marketers was carried out before US President Donald Trump announced his plans to tariff the world on 2 April, which might make it even more useful as a document of the industry’s mood just before the macroeconomic mayhem began.
Turns out, it wasn’t euphoric.
In the survey, 24.2% of respondents said that their companies had slashed their marketing budgets for the quarter, while 19.4% had increased them. The net balance of -4.8% is the first overall decrease in marketing budgets recorded by the IPA in four years.
In particular, the respondents said they were spending less on main media (comprising video, audio, published brands, OOH and any other online advertising), as well as market research and ‘other’ advertising, a catch-all for miscellaneous paid media not included in any other category.
Within the main media category, spending was down for video, audio, OOH and published brands. The only channel that was up within the category was ‘other online advertising’, at +0.7%.
Elsewhere, budgets for direct marketing, PR, events and sales promotions increased overall, just not enough to offset the declines in the aforementioned categories.
Among those categories where marketers are diverting budgets, direct marketing enjoyed the biggest vote of confidence, with a net +9% of respondents saying they were going to spend more, up from +5.6% in Q4 2024.
Marketers were generally more optimistic for the full financial year. Just over 36% of marketers expected to increase their total marketing budgets for 2025/26 — with events and direct marketing seeing the most gains — versus 17.8% that predicted a decline.
At this point, it’s worth reiterating that the survey was completed before Trump’s proposed tariff spree. But who knows what difference it would have made if it had come after? At the moment, organisations for the most part appear to be hovering their fingers over the panic button, rather than mashing it frenetically. Perhaps successive crises have steadied their hands.
Main image by Ethan Sykes on Unsplash
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