Investing in profitable growth With marketers anticipating increased marketing spending, investing these funds should be clearly linked to the goal of profitable growth. Indeed, the biggest investment priorities named in our survey either directly enable budget management and MROI measurement or strongly reflect the drive for efficiency gains and effective marketing activities. That is captured in our finding that gen AI-enabled marketing is the top category for increased investment. This may come as a surprise, as gen AI only ranks 17th among the most important marketing topics in our survey this year. The fact that respondents indicated that gen AI-enabled marketing is a high priority for greater investment may be partly attributable to the relatively low spend base for it today. This would imply a higher chance of increased spend in the future. Depending on the use case, the technology can drive greater efficiency (for example, through faster and more efficient content creation or reduced market research expenses), grow effectiveness of measures (such as the automated creation and deployment of personalized content) and directly enable MROI measurement and budget management (through the analysis of campaign performance and suggested changes toward greater ROI channels, for instance). The second most cited area for increased marketing spending was directly improving MROI measurement capabilities, which enables CMOs to demonstrate the value of marketing and to allocate resources accordingly. Consumer insights ranked third among priorities for greater investment, which supports effectiveness by deploying more targeted consumer-facing initiatives and increasing conversion rates (Exhibit 11). Exhibit 10 Web <2025> Exhibit <10> of <17> Relative marketing spend development for 2024 and 2025, % of responses Note: Figures may not sum to 100%, because of rounding. 1 Question: How has your company’s marketing spend as a percentage of net sales changed over the past year? 2 Question: How do you expect your company’s marketing spend as a percentage of net sales to develop in the next year? Source: State of Marketing Europe Report 2026, McKinsey, n = 500 senior marketing leaders across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom Some 99 percent of European CMOs surveyed expect relative marketing spend to remain steady or grow in 2025. McKinsey & Company Increase Constant Decrease Change in marketing spend as % of net sales from 2023 to 2024¹ Expected change in marketing spend as % of net sales from 2024 to 2025² 49 72 49 2 27 0 +23 Year-over-year change, percentage points –22 –2 28 Past forward: The modern rethinking of marketing’s core