tml Market Wrap: Key insights and market trends from the marketing headhunters

Welcome to the latest edition of the tml Market Wrap. As we progress through the second half of the year, we’re seeing significant momentum and positive shifts in the marketing and commercial landscape. With renewed growth across various sectors, marketing budgets are up, new opportunities are emerging, and companies are investing more in customer-centric strategies. In this blog post, we’ll introduce some key insights, highlighting trends, current mandates, and recent events hosted by tml Partners.

Market Trends

The market is entering a phase of positive growth, driven by a marked increase in marketing budgets. According to the latest S&P Bellwether report, marketing spend has jumped nearly 40%, representing the strongest upward revision since Q1 2014. This is a clear sign that after a few challenging years, the focus is shifting back to growth, with marketing playing a pivotal role in driving business success.

What stands out in this report is the increase in offline, experiential marketing spend. Events have seen a resurgence, capturing nearly 20% of allocated budgets for FY 2024/25. This trend indicates that full-funnel, experiential marketing is here to stay, with businesses recognising the importance of creating impactful, real-world customer interactions.

We’re also witnessing a significant shift in B2B marketing strategies toward “dark funnel” approaches. These brand-led efforts focus on building awareness and engagement outside of traditional marketing funnels, acknowledging that most purchase decisions and brand perceptions are formed before a customer even enters the sales cycle. Large brands are increasingly investing in this area, competing for mindshare and influence in this uncharted territory. It will be interesting to see how mid-market businesses adapt to this trend as it gains traction.

Current Mandates

The current market momentum has resulted in a variety of exciting opportunities across the marketing and commercial sectors. tml Partners is working on several key mandates that reflect the industry’s positive outlook:

• Chief Marketing Officer – A leading consumer technology business in the DACH region is seeking a dynamic CMO to drive growth across Europe, with a focus on Germany, Switzerland, and France. This role is a testament to the rapid expansion happening across the continent.
• Head of Product – A growing PE-backed circular technology business is looking for a Head of Product to help steer the company’s next phase of growth. This role highlights the increasing prominence of product leadership roles, with a focus on the entire customer lifecycle.
• Chief Marketing Officer – A board-level role with a global consulting firm specializing in cloud transformation, this position demonstrates the rising importance of marketing in driving business growth, a shift from the traditional reliance on sales leadership.
• Global Brand – One of the world’s leading bodies in technical standards, certification, and testing is investing heavily in brand and reputation. This shows that even in traditionally technical sectors, brand-building is becoming a crucial component of business strategy.
• Head of Marketing Opportunities – We have four exciting Head of Marketing or equivalent opportunities in the wealth and asset management sector. This space has seen significant investment recently, particularly in digital experiences and content as companies look to enhance their customer acquisition and retention strategies.

These mandates reflect the broader market’s renewed focus on growth, innovation, and customer-centricity, with companies across industries investing heavily in marketing leadership roles to drive their success.

Visit our opportunities page to learn more about our current mandates.

Events

At tml Partners, we’ve recently hosted several insightful roundtable discussions with industry leaders. These events have fostered valuable conversations around trust, authenticity, and the evolving role of marketing and commercial leadership in today’s market. Here’s a look at some of our recent events:

• Joining the Dots Between Brand & Demand: We hosted a roundtable and webinar, spanning Europe and North America, in partnership with Edelman Delta, to understand how leading CMOs can utilise brand strength to underpin pricing power and prove its worth to the C-Suite.
• Corporate Affairs & Reputation Leaders: We hosted a roundtable focused on the increasing importance of trust and authenticity in B2B brand-building. With more brands aiming to establish genuine, long-term relationships with their customers, these qualities are becoming central to successful marketing strategies.
• CMOs in the Legal Sector: Our roundtable with leading legal CMOs featured discussions around diversity and inclusion, with insights from our market-leading EDI survey—the largest of its kind in the UK marketing community. We’re using this data to help our partners drive meaningful change across their organisations.
• Commercial Leaders in Sport: We also hosted a roundtable exploring the digitisation of fan engagement, focusing on how sports organisations can leverage technology to create deeper connections with their audiences. An upcoming report will delve further into these findings, offering valuable insights for marketers in the sports industry.

Keep an eye out over the coming months for event reports highlighting the key takeaways from these conversations.

tml Partners

tml Partners source senior commercial, marketing and communications hires for the world’s most ambitious companies.

To learn more about how tml Partners can help you find the right commercial talent, please get in touch: