South Africa, Dec. 4 -- Part of Warc's Evolution of Marketing programme, The Voice of the Marketer uncovers marketers' opinions on where the industry is headed in the coming year.

The report examines four different themes that have emerged from the annual survey of 1,000+ marketers worldwide fielded between September to October 2025.

4 themes

The four themes outlined in The Voice of the Marketer are:

Business optimism is failing to translate into budget optimism

Only 59% of brand marketers expect business in 2026 to be better than in 2025 but only 19% expect marketing budgets to be higher next year.

Marketers are still mostly optimistic about business expectations for 2026 but anticipate budget reductions.

The survey data shows tha...