Analysing 50 actual marketing budgets
The marketing budgets of the world’s biggest brands are frequently inaccurately reported or not reported at all. This can become a concern for marketers who subsequently use outdated heuristics when deciding upon budget allocations.
We set out to change this by researching the actual marketing budgets of global brands. The analysis followed an extremely thorough process, which included accumulating the marketing budgets of 50 global brands in 21 industries from the annual financial reports of hundreds of global brands.
We focused only on those that reported ‘Marketing expenses’ in some form. This meant discounting any that would require an estimation based on ‘Sales, General & Administrative expenses’. We then used this data to consider the knowledge gap that exists within businesses and how it can be overcome.
Key takeaways
The largest brands control the marketing ecosystem
Global brands often allocate higher marketing budgets than reported
Challenger brands allocate proportionally higher budgets to marketing
PR generating companies can dramatically reduce marketing costs
Marketing budgets regularly outstrip revenue when driven by investment
This research includes
18 pages of analysis (4,500 words).
In-depth literature review.
Revenue and marketing spend for 50 global brands.
Data and graphical analysis.
References for additional reading.
Released April 2020.