IPA Bellwether Q1 2025: Industry reactions

The IPA Bellwether Q1 2025 survey showed a decline in budgets for the first quarter of the year.

However, the mood among marketing budget holders remained positive, despite the ongoing global market turmoil around US trade tariffs.

As always, we’ve garnered comments on the state of things from key leaders across the media spectrum…

Suzanna Chaplin, CEO, esbconnect

“The latest IPA Bellwether Report shows a decline in marketing budgets for the first time in four years, driven by reduced financial confidence, accompanied by a pivot toward short-term sales promotion.

“This may deliver short-term results, but it chips away at long-term profitability. The brands that have scaled sustainably over the last few years – think Vuori, Alo, and others – have built their success on community, perceived value, and smart stock control to drive demand.

They’ve sold at full price by building full-funnel engagement.

“And yet, in the face of economic uncertainty and boardroom pressure for immediate ROI, we’re seeing a continued drift towards bottom-of-the-funnel marketing, which only captures just a sliver of your total potential customer base.

“That’s not growth, that’s maintenance.

“Sales promotions may be up this quarter (+8%), but main media spend – the stuff that builds long-term brand equity – is down (-6.7%).

“That’s a signal worth paying attention to. Because if you aren’t consistently investing in awareness and value creation, your brand will simply be forgotten in a crowded market.

“Don’t let the macro environment — or a single quarterly report — derail your long-term vision. Stay committed to brand-building, even when it’s hard to measure in the short term.

“The brands that hold their nerve and invest through uncertainty will be the ones that outperform when confidence returns.”

Sara Vincent, MD UK, Utiq

“In uncertain times, marketers need to be more certain than ever that they are eking every last ounce of value out of their marketing budgets.

“One guaranteed way to do this is to walk away from discredited tools and tactics such as third-party cookies and instead focus on building trust with consumers by giving them absolute control over how their personal data is used in advertising campaigns – if they agree to it.

“By being open and transparent with consumers, brands build trust, loyalty and lasting relationships that benefit both sides.”

Pierre Orlac’h, Chief Supply Officer, Sparteo

“The decline in UK marketing budgets reported in the IPA Bellwether Q1 2025 report reflects the uncertainty some markets are facing — but this trend isn’t uniform.

“In areas like video, investment is holding steady or even growing, particularly around CTV, where publishers and content creators now need to rethink how they structure and scale profitable video strategies across platforms, including FAST channels.

“In display, maintaining the value of inventory is becoming more complex. Publishers are under pressure to regain control over pricing dynamics, reduce reliance on intermediaries, and ensure that more value flows back to the content creators themselves — which requires partnering with players who control their infrastructure costs and have full command of their data to redistribute more value.

“For those with internal sales houses, the challenge is finding viable alternatives to curated marketplaces — solutions that enable smarter prediction of viewability and completion rates through AI, as made possible by predictive technologies like Sparteo’s Sonar algorithm, without sacrificing autonomy or margin.

“Ultimately, the industry needs more than resilience; it needs smarter, more efficient tech solutions that support sustainable revenue across formats and markets.

“Navigating today’s volatility demands that publishers stay agile, data-driven, and focused on long-term value creation.”

Also published in: Mediashotz