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Annual marketing technology investment is set to hit US$216bn within the next three years – up from US$131bn in 2023 – a growth curve twice as steep as general IT spending. Yet Forrester’s latest report also says most marketers are still looking to consolidate their tech infrastructure. So what gives? It turns out brands are more focused on functional consolidation rather than vendor consolidation. The problem however remains the integration challenge, an area traditional marketing cloud big guns like Adobe and Salesforce are increasingly investing in. Where all that money’s headed has not gone unnoticed by global comms holdcos like Havas, IPG, and WPP, all of whom have been busily restructuring during the last year in a bid to front-run the next big wave of investment.

Data breaches and cyberattacks, poor customer service, dire employee experience management, leadership gaffs and empty purpose guff are taking their toll on how brands are perceived, per the latest FutureBrand Index. This year's threats to success show Australian business leaders overindexing on concerns around the impact of leadership and workplace culture as well as meeting consumer expectations – more so than their global counterparts. Meanwhile, a looming purpose void, coupled with a desire for immediate payback and practical action driven by cost-of-living pressures and trust issues are increasingly impacting brand strength – or weakness – globally, as this year's brand winners attest.

Hipages Chief Customer Officer Stuart Tucker is swapping the tradie marketplace for the talent marketplace. The former Commbank, Aussie and Optus marketer is joining executive search firm Hourigan International and expects brisk trade at the top end of town as CMOs question the "grind" amid exploding remits while businesses eyeing growth shoots seek creative analytical problem solvers – skillsets increasingly prized. For marketers ultimately eyeing the C-suite, Tucker warns it's neither for the faint-hearted nor narrow specialists, and predicts radical change.

Fosters, Milo, IGA, QBE, RACV and Commbank face potential financial impacts due to falls in key brand health metrics including customer service, familiarity, recommendation, consideration, reputation and trust. These are some of the developments challenging blue chip brand managers over the past year, according to analysis for Mi3 from the 2024 Brand Finance Australia 100, which values and ranks the top 100 Australian brands on value and their reputational strength. Qantas faces further “significant” turbulence due to ongoing brand strength declines, according to Brand Finance MD Mark Crowe. He thinks the airline now faces increasing business costs as a result of sustained brand damage. Whether it can ever fully recover its brand peak is “probably in doubt”, per Crowe, though a category tailwind could deliver a bounce. Other airlines locally and globally are powering in the equity markets and that could help Qantas if it can stem bad news. Brand Finance’s methodology posits any declines in its brand strength index scores are a proxy for future brand value, and the ability of strong brands to both insulate from market challenges and create financial network effects. This year, 20 firms scoring the biggest brand strength declines in the firm’s Brand Strength Index (BSI) are early signals for more attention on brand management for company leadership and boards, Crowe says. Nine, Coles, NAB, Myer and Woolworths, per Brand Finance’s calculations, may also have cause for concern. On the flip side, Westpac and ANZ’s brand strength gains are outperforming the banking category, IAG and Suncorp scored huge insurance brand value gains, while in retail JB Hi-Fi and Carsales are pumping.