Do more with less and still win an Effie🏆

3 ways to maximise marketing budgets in FY26

This month, we’re bringing a fresh voice to The CMO Office, meet Jo-Ann Foo, Senior Director at Analytic Partners in Sydney. She’s the brains behind strategic insights for McDonald’s and some of Australia’s biggest retail names. With 20+ years of experience in analytics, research, and insights, Jo-Ann knows what it takes to turn marketing pressure into performance. In this edition, she reveals three proven ways to get more out of your budget next year without cutting corners.

Let’s dive in. Take it away, Jo.

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Originally published on 01/07/2025 by Advertising Council Australia.

Thanks Nikki!

So, marketers across Australia are stepping into FY26 facing the same familiar refrain: ‘Do more with less’. But this time, the pressure feels different.

Budgets are being set in the wake of a high-profile federal election, sweeping job cuts across sectors from banking to media and ongoing global instability that refuses to settle.

The result? Consumer confidence remains stubbornly low – still sitting under 90 – and that uncertainty is hitting marketing departments right where it hurts. Demand is soft. Resources are lean. And yet the expectations keep climbing.

In times like these, and as an unfortunate necessity, businesses are likely to cut budgets to shrink creative, tighten media plans or shift spend to the most easily measured tactics. But that kind of short-term thinking can end up costing marketers more in the long run.

But here’s the catch: not all cuts are created equal. And the wrong cuts today could double your bill tomorrow.

I’ve seen what happens when businesses over-rotate to short-term tactics or strip back brand-building investment in times of pressure. It may feel fiscally responsible in the moment, but in reality, it sets marketers up for longer recovery periods, higher media costs and missed opportunities in high-growth channels.

If marketing effectiveness is the goal – and if winning an Effie is still on your list – then it’s time to rethink what “efficiency” really looks like.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Short-termism is more expensive than it looks.

It’s easy to lean on lower-funnel performance marketing when budgets tighten. The metrics are immediate. The ROI feels tangible. But what’s often overlooked is that performance tactics without brand support don’t build demand – they just harvest what’s already there.

And that well dries up quickly.

We’ve seen clients go dark on upper-funnel media, only to pay the price later. On average, brands that pull back on brand investment require twice the time or twice the spend to regain lost share. Meanwhile, over-investment in paid search can drive up CPCs and CPMs unnecessarily, because you’re bidding on a smaller pool to convert an already saturated audience.

Our ROI Genome also found that half of brands would benefit from decreasing their paid search budgets, not increasing them – because they’re overspending in areas that deliver diminishing returns and therefore inflating CPCs and CPMs.

Arnott’s, for example, used a masterbrand approach to ride out the post-COVID pricing storm. It used its brand advertising to reduce price sensitivity, proving how emotional and top-of-funnel activity helped play a crucial defensive role when the brand had to raise its prices in a difficult market.

This is one of the clearest examples of how upper funnel activity can be used to build demand when sales may be threatened.

Short-term wins may feel good on paper. But when you zoom out, they’re often hiding longer-term losses.

Why media diversity still matters

In a budget-constrained environment, it can be tempting to double down on digital, or even lean entirely into owned and first-party channels. But the data tells a different story.

According to our ROI Genome, the reality is that adding each extra media channel increases ROI by an average of 35%. That’s the power of media synergy – where the impact of one channel amplifies the effectiveness of another.

Marketers who put all their eggs in one basket – even if that basket is highly targeted – risk missing broader demand.

From experience, I’d say most marketers only have 3% of potential buyers in-market at any given time. That means 97% of your future revenue comes from people who aren’t actively searching for your product today.

Before shifting funds, brands need to understand what’s truly incremental – and that requires measurement frameworks that account for media mix, product availability, competitive activity and macro trends.

Invest in creative that lasts (and performs)

When budgets are under pressure, creativity often becomes a casualty. Campaigns are shortened, assets are reused without optimisation and media spend gets prioritised over production quality.

But this is a mistake – because the creative itself is one of the biggest drivers of ROI.

In Analytic Partners’ measurement of more than 51,000 ads, only 14 showed signs of true wear-out. The rest were either prematurely retired or didn’t get enough time in market to build momentum.

Marketers are too quick to kill campaigns when consistency is actually the secret weapon.

Our data shows that brands with consistent campaigns in market for 31+ weeks can see a 65% lift in ROI. And two-thirds of the impact of a video impression is driven by the quality of the creative itself – not just the targeting or timing.

That’s not to say that brands should never refresh their creative – but it’s about when, how often and why. An example of when a company has done it well is Budget Direct, which strategically moved on from its popular anti-ambassador ‘Captain Risky’ in order to appeal to category buyers beyond “deal hunters”. It developed a new brand platform, ‘Insurance Solved’, and invested heavily in it over six years.

Ultimately, Budget Direct was able to double its salience and shifted its brand equity to build greater confidence – winning two Gold Effies in the process.

The bottom line

In the race to do more with less, the marketers who win won’t be the ones who trade off strategy for sales – they’ll be the ones who invest wisely, think long-term and focus on what truly drives growth.

Effectiveness isn’t about pulling back. It’s about spending smarter, investing in longevity and measuring what truly moves the needle. That’s what wins Effies. And more importantly, that’s what drives real commercial growth.

Analytic Partners are proud supporters of 2025’s Australian Effie Awards.