Australia is experiencing a three-speed marketing economy as KPIs are upended and priorities exponentially diversify for marketing leaders in the midst of the dour economic climate and changing business needs.

That's just a quick sum up of key findings of the new FY25 Marketing & Customer Benchmarks report from Mi3, which launches today in partnership with the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI), Qualtrics and Tumbleturn.

In a survey of across 105 top marketers responsible for $3bn-plus of budgets, we found a three-way even split between those marketers increasing investment (31 per cent), those holding (34 per cent) and the companies that are cutting (34 per cent). In other words, 66 per cent of marketers in this study, conducted late May to late June, will either hold or increase budgets – or 64 per cent will hold or decrease. Take your pick.

According to the report, there are also big question marks in key sectors such as retail around the effectiveness of personalisation efforts: Just 15 per cent think their CX is performing, though telcos are confident they’re smashing it. There’s also a major swing to performance media as CMOs seek instant results.

The good news is 83 per cent of respondents believe boards and CEOs now perceive marketing as a critical growth driver – though B2B marketers are far less certain. Problem is, marketer remits are exploding and the FY25 Marketing & Customer Benchmarks report, polling top marketers across all B2C and B2B sectors, finds the majority feeling ill-equipped to tackle what’s rapidly coming at them.

Across the diverse mix of marketing KPIs in train right now, the top measure of success right and into the future is revenue - 84 per cent say it's the critical KPI now, 82 per cent say it's the top KPI in the future. This is followed by brand equity, customer retention and market share. A rising metric for the future is customer lifetime value: 4 in 10 marketers say it's important as KPI now, but 59 per cent believe it's key in future.

Mi3 takes a deep dive into unpacking the findings and implications of the results for marketers in this week's podcast, featuring AMI’s Bronwyn Heys, Tumbleturn’s Jen Davidson, Qualtrics’ Ivana Sekanic and Akcelo’s Aden Hepburn. Check it out here.