Marketing leaders
Know what deserves budget – and why.
We provide independent analysis to help you allocate marketing investment, test the assumptions behind your plans and build a recommendation you can defend.
The allocation decision
You have to recommend the allocation, not just report the results.
Your team may have detailed reporting without a complete answer to where the next budget should go.
Last year’s performance is part of the case. So are changing business priorities, customer demand and the resources available to deliver.
Finding time to examine those connections can be difficult alongside the work already in motion.
We take on the agreed analysis, so your recommendation can set out both the priorities and the reasons for choosing them.
When we are useful
Bring us in before the allocation is fixed.
You’re setting or reallocating the marketing budget.
We assess competing uses of spend against current objectives, existing commitments and the evidence supporting each option.
You’re preparing the case for a major project.
We test the proposed approach and its dependencies before you recommend committing budget to a website, campaign or repositioning.
Your reporting doesn’t explain what should change.
We examine performance alongside customer and commercial evidence to distinguish a channel problem from a wider constraint.
You need to defend the proposed allocation.
We make the rationale, trade-offs and uncertainties explicit, so you can explain the recommendation to leadership and finance.
The business’s priorities have changed.
We assess whether the current allocation still supports the offer, audiences and objectives the business now needs to pursue.
Why an external view matters
We support your judgement. We don’t replace it.
Your business knowledge guides the brief. Our analysis tests the assumptions behind the proposed allocation and identifies where the evidence supports it or calls for a change.
Recommendations are not tied to commissioning delivery from us. Delivery and any coordination or oversight are optional and agreed separately.
What we examine
We look beyond channel performance.
We examine how the proposed spend connects to business objectives, customer demand and delivery constraints. The agreed decision determines the scope and depth.
A strong channel result is not, on its own, a case for more budget.
Business
Commercial targets, planning horizons and resource constraints — and what marketing is expected to contribute.
Offer
Which products, services and propositions need support, and whether their commercial potential justifies greater emphasis.
Market
Demand, competitive pressure and category changes that could strengthen or weaken the case for investment.
Customers
Customer needs, buying decisions and what the available evidence shows about acquisition, conversion and retention.
Marketing
Spend, channel roles, campaign and creative performance — and how reliably the reporting supports an allocation decision.
What you leave with
A written report to support your budget recommendation.
Findings
What the evidence supports, where the reporting is limited and which assumptions need further testing.
Priorities
Which initiatives deserve funding first, what must happen before spend increases and what can wait.
Recommendations
Where to increase, maintain or reduce investment, with an implementation brief translating the agreed priorities into delivery requirements.
Rationale
The reasoning and trade-offs you can use to explain the allocation to leadership, finance and the teams delivering it.
Strategy engagement fit
Most useful when the decision needs more than another opinion.
Usually a strong fit
- An established business with internal marketing leadership.
- Significant budget or resources at stake.
- Competing priorities or unresolved questions in the evidence.
- Access to relevant data and the people needed to interpret it.
- Willingness to revise the recommendation if the evidence warrants it.
A full strategy engagement may not be needed
- The work is defined and you only need delivery.
- You already have enough evidence and expertise to decide.
- The commitment is small and easy to reverse.
- The information needed for the agreed analysis cannot be made available.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Can you help us decide where to allocate next year's marketing budget?
Yes. We can examine the business objectives, current allocation, performance and the assumptions behind competing proposals. The aim is to show where there is a credible case for investment, where evidence is too weak to commit more, and what could be deferred. The recommendations include the reasoning you can take into an internal budget discussion.
Can you work alongside our marketing team and existing agencies?
Yes. The engagement gives your team an independent view of the decision it is facing. We can use the knowledge and data they already hold, question assumptions where the evidence calls for it and give them recommendations they can put into practice. The aim is to make their next decision clearer, not create unnecessary disruption.
We already have a marketing strategy. Is an independent review still useful?
It can be, especially when the business has changed, results are difficult to explain or several investment options now compete for the same budget. We would examine whether the strategy's assumptions still hold and where execution or measurement has changed the picture. If the question is already clear and you only need delivery capacity, a deeper strategic review may be unnecessary. In that case, we can discuss implementation instead.
Start with a 30-minute conversation.
Bring us the decision you're working through. We'll use the session to understand where the uncertainty is and establish whether we can help.
Book a 30-minute call