Media companies are cutting their own marketing

Tim Burrowes

September 9, 2025 10:35

(Dall-e)

Most of Australia’s biggest media companies are retreating from marketing themselves, research by Unmade suggests.

Despite the media world regularly telling their clients that the best way to get through a downturn stronger is to continue to invest in marketing, most have done the opposite.

Analysis of the latest results announcements on the ASX suggests that all of the big listed media companies have drastically reduced their marketing spend as they prioritise short term results for shareholders over long term brand building.

From treatises like The Long and Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field, to How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp, to the central arguments in Mark Ritson’s MiniMBA in Marketing, all warn that long term health relies on ongoing brand investment.

Received wisdom is that a healthy amount for B2B companies to spend on marketing themselves is 2-5% of their revenue, while consumer-facing businesses should spend 5-10%.

But financial numbers disclosed to the ASX draw a picture of most large media companies ignoring that advice.

This article is a stub. For the full piece, please see Mumbrella’s sister publication Unmade.

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.