WHAT WE DO
OUR WORK
ABOUT US
GET IN TOUCH →
Procurement’s Influence in Marketing Is Changing, Not Disappearing
For years, the assumption across the industry was straightforward: procurement’s influence over marketing spend was steadily increasing.
And in many ways, it was.
As marketing budgets expanded, supplier ecosystems grew more complicated, and pressure on accountability intensified, procurement became more embedded within agency relationships, commercial structures and production oversight. The direction of travel felt clear.
But marketing itself has changed dramatically over the past few years, and procurement’s role is now changing with it.
The latest Spendshift Report, developed by Spring CC in partnership with WBR Insights, suggests the story is no longer about procurement simply gaining or losing influence. Instead, influence is shifting into new areas, operating in different ways, and becoming more interconnected with marketing operations, production systems and technology infrastructure.
That distinction matters.
Because many procurement leaders are still measuring influence through older models of control, approval authority and ownership. Meanwhile, the organisations moving fastest are redefining influence through integration, operational alignment and workflow connectivity.
The role is not disappearing. It is evolving alongside the complexity of modern marketing itself.
Marketing No Longer Operates in Straight Lines
Traditional marketing structures were relatively predictable.
Strategy came first. Creative development followed. Production executed the final output. Procurement often sat alongside this process as a commercial function responsible for supplier management, negotiation and governance.
That linear model has largely broken down.
Modern marketing organisations now operate inside continuous production environments. Campaigns no longer arrive in neatly defined waves. Content is always on. Channels move faster. Teams are spread across regions, agencies and platforms. Production cycles are compressed. Technology stacks are constantly expanding.
In this environment, decision-making becomes far more distributed.
Creative teams work alongside operations teams. Martech influences production. Performance marketing affects content requirements. Localisation changes workflow complexity. AI tools introduce entirely new production models. Internal and external capabilities blend together in ways that would have looked unfamiliar even a few years ago.
And as the ecosystem becomes more interconnected, procurement’s role becomes less about controlling isolated decisions and more about helping the system operate effectively as a whole.
That is a very different type of influence.
Why Procurement’s Centre of Gravity Has Shifted Towards Production
One of the clearest themes emerging from the Spendshift Report is the growing operational importance of production and executional marketing.
The report shows marketing spend continuing to move further towards Tier 3 production work, reflecting the growing demands of always-on marketing environments. Businesses are producing more assets, across more channels, at greater speed and with tighter operational pressure than ever before.
This shift naturally changes where procurement becomes most influential.
Production environments involve scale, workflow efficiency, supplier coordination, delivery consistency, automation, governance and operational resilience. Those are all areas where procurement has historically added value and where its role becomes increasingly critical as complexity grows.
It is also where AI and automation are currently having the most immediate impact.
As production workflows become more technology-enabled, procurement teams are becoming more involved in conversations around scalability, platform integration, resource allocation and operational efficiency. The discussion moves beyond simple supplier management and into broader operational transformation.
That explains why procurement influence appears strongest in executional and production-led environments. The operational stakes are simply higher.
At the same time, production is becoming less visible and more infrastructure-driven. Much of the modern marketing engine now depends on systems working together seamlessly behind the scenes. Procurement’s contribution increasingly sits inside that infrastructure layer.
In many organisations, that makes procurement more important operationally than ever before, even if the visibility of that influence looks different from traditional commercial oversight.
Strategic Marketing Influence Is Becoming More Collaborative
At the other end of the spectrum, procurement’s influence within strategy and creative development appears more nuanced.
That can easily be misinterpreted as a reduction in relevance.
In reality, strategic marketing decisions have become far more collaborative and interconnected than they once were. Creative direction, customer experience, brand positioning and innovation are now shaped across multiple disciplines simultaneously. Marketing leadership, specialist agencies, creative teams, operations functions and technology stakeholders all influence outcomes together.
In this context, procurement rarely operates through direct control alone.
Instead, its influence is often embedded through governance structures, supplier frameworks, operational models, pitch processes, commercial design and performance management systems. Procurement shapes the conditions around decision-making rather than owning every individual decision itself.
That distinction is important because it reflects a broader evolution in business operations generally.
Modern influence often comes through enabling better collaboration rather than controlling isolated points within a process.
For procurement leaders, that can sometimes create tension internally. Influence feels harder to quantify when it becomes distributed across systems and relationships instead of sitting inside direct authority.
But in many cases, the role has not weakened at all. It has simply become more embedded within the operational fabric of marketing organisations.
The Real Shift Is From Control to Connectivity
Perhaps the most important change happening inside marketing procurement today is the movement away from rigid control models and towards operational connectivity.
Historically, procurement influence was often associated with centralisation, ownership and commercial governance. Success was measured through negotiation leverage, cost reduction and supplier rationalisation.
Those priorities still matter. But modern marketing ecosystems now demand additional capabilities.
Businesses are managing increasingly fragmented combinations of agencies, production partners, in-house teams, AI tools, creator ecosystems and technology platforms. Marketing operations now rely heavily on workflows moving smoothly between these different environments.
That creates a new challenge.
Disconnected systems slow production. Fragmented supplier structures create inefficiency. Poor integration limits scalability. Lack of visibility introduces governance risks. Technology adoption becomes inconsistent.
In this environment, procurement leaders increasingly create value by improving operational alignment across the wider ecosystem.
That may involve standardising supplier processes, improving workflow consistency, helping integrate production technologies, creating clearer governance structures or reducing operational duplication across partner networks.
None of these responsibilities fit neatly inside older definitions of procurement influence.
Yet they are becoming increasingly central to how modern marketing organisations function.
The procurement teams creating the greatest impact are often the ones helping different parts of the business connect more effectively together.
AI Is Accelerating the Change Faster Than Expected
Artificial intelligence is adding another layer of complexity to this transformation.
Much of the wider conversation around AI in marketing still focuses heavily on content generation and automation. But the more profound impact may actually sit inside operations and production infrastructure.
AI is beginning to influence how marketing work is scoped, produced, adapted, reviewed and distributed. Workflow tools are changing production timelines. Automation platforms are reshaping supplier requirements. In-house capabilities are expanding. Traditional production economics are shifting.
For procurement leaders, this changes the conversation significantly.
The challenge is no longer just understanding supplier costs. It is understanding how technology changes operational value itself.
As AI becomes more integrated into production systems, procurement teams will increasingly need to navigate questions around governance, scalability, commercial structures, workflow efficiency, transparency and operational risk.
That responsibility places procurement much closer to business transformation than traditional sourcing functions alone.
The organisations adapting fastest are already starting to treat marketing procurement as part commercial discipline, part operational strategy and part systems integration function.
That hybrid role is likely to become far more common over the next few years.
Supplier Complexity Is Becoming Harder to Manage
Another major pressure emerging across the marketing landscape is the growing complexity of supplier ecosystems.
As channels diversify and marketing specialisms expand, businesses are relying on larger and more fragmented partner networks. Specialist expertise is increasingly valuable, particularly in areas like influencer marketing, platform optimisation, AI-enabled production and localisation.
But complexity creates operational strain.
Managing larger partner ecosystems introduces duplication, fragmented workflows, inconsistent governance and rising coordination costs. Procurement teams are often expected to support innovation and specialist capability while simultaneously simplifying operations and improving efficiency.
Balancing those competing pressures is becoming increasingly difficult.
This is one of the reasons operational integration has become such an important theme within the Spendshift Report. Businesses are no longer simply asking whether they have the right suppliers. They are asking whether the entire supplier ecosystem can operate cohesively at scale.
That question places procurement in a far more strategic operational position than many traditional procurement models anticipated.
The Future of Procurement Influence Will Look Different
One of the clearest conclusions emerging from the report is that marketing procurement is moving into a far more interconnected role inside organisations.
The future will likely involve less emphasis on isolated control and greater emphasis on integration, scalability and operational enablement.
The most effective procurement leaders will increasingly be the ones who understand how marketing systems connect together. They will need visibility across production operations, supplier ecosystems, AI-enabled workflows and technology infrastructure. They will need to work closely with marketing operations, creative leadership and transformation teams rather than operating separately from them.
In many ways, procurement’s influence is not shrinking at all.
It is simply moving closer to the centre of how modern marketing organisations actually function.
And that may ultimately prove far more valuable than the older models it is gradually replacing.
See How Marketing Procurement Is Evolving in 2026
The Spendshift Report 2026 explores how senior procurement leaders across Europe are responding to changing marketing spend, operational complexity, AI-driven production and supplier transformation.
Download the full report to explore:
- changing patterns of marketing spend
- the rise of production-led operations
- procurement influence across different marketing tiers
- in-housing and outsourcing trends
- AI and automation in marketing production
- the future shape of supplier ecosystems
WHAT WE DO
OUR WORK
ABOUT US
ABOUT US
GET IN TOUCH →
Procurement’s Influence in Marketing Is Changing, Not Disappearing
For years, the assumption across the industry was straightforward: procurement’s influence over marketing spend was steadily increasing.
And in many ways, it was.
As marketing budgets expanded, supplier ecosystems grew more complicated, and pressure on accountability intensified, procurement became more embedded within agency relationships, commercial structures and production oversight. The direction of travel felt clear.
But marketing itself has changed dramatically over the past few years, and procurement’s role is now changing with it.
The latest Spendshift Report, developed by Spring CC in partnership with WBR Insights, suggests the story is no longer about procurement simply gaining or losing influence. Instead, influence is shifting into new areas, operating in different ways, and becoming more interconnected with marketing operations, production systems and technology infrastructure.
That distinction matters.
Because many procurement leaders are still measuring influence through older models of control, approval authority and ownership. Meanwhile, the organisations moving fastest are redefining influence through integration, operational alignment and workflow connectivity.
The role is not disappearing. It is evolving alongside the complexity of modern marketing itself.
Marketing No Longer Operates in Straight Lines
Traditional marketing structures were relatively predictable.
Strategy came first. Creative development followed. Production executed the final output. Procurement often sat alongside this process as a commercial function responsible for supplier management, negotiation and governance.
That linear model has largely broken down.
Modern marketing organisations now operate inside continuous production environments. Campaigns no longer arrive in neatly defined waves. Content is always on. Channels move faster. Teams are spread across regions, agencies and platforms. Production cycles are compressed. Technology stacks are constantly expanding.
In this environment, decision-making becomes far more distributed.
Creative teams work alongside operations teams. Martech influences production. Performance marketing affects content requirements. Localisation changes workflow complexity. AI tools introduce entirely new production models. Internal and external capabilities blend together in ways that would have looked unfamiliar even a few years ago.
And as the ecosystem becomes more interconnected, procurement’s role becomes less about controlling isolated decisions and more about helping the system operate effectively as a whole.
That is a very different type of influence.
Why Procurement’s Centre of Gravity Has Shifted Towards Production
One of the clearest themes emerging from the Spendshift Report is the growing operational importance of production and executional marketing.
The report shows marketing spend continuing to move further towards Tier 3 production work, reflecting the growing demands of always-on marketing environments. Businesses are producing more assets, across more channels, at greater speed and with tighter operational pressure than ever before.
This shift naturally changes where procurement becomes most influential.
Production environments involve scale, workflow efficiency, supplier coordination, delivery consistency, automation, governance and operational resilience. Those are all areas where procurement has historically added value and where its role becomes increasingly critical as complexity grows.
It is also where AI and automation are currently having the most immediate impact.
As production workflows become more technology-enabled, procurement teams are becoming more involved in conversations around scalability, platform integration, resource allocation and operational efficiency. The discussion moves beyond simple supplier management and into broader operational transformation.
That explains why procurement influence appears strongest in executional and production-led environments. The operational stakes are simply higher.
At the same time, production is becoming less visible and more infrastructure-driven. Much of the modern marketing engine now depends on systems working together seamlessly behind the scenes. Procurement’s contribution increasingly sits inside that infrastructure layer.
In many organisations, that makes procurement more important operationally than ever before, even if the visibility of that influence looks different from traditional commercial oversight.
Strategic Marketing Influence Is Becoming More Collaborative
At the other end of the spectrum, procurement’s influence within strategy and creative development appears more nuanced.
That can easily be misinterpreted as a reduction in relevance.
In reality, strategic marketing decisions have become far more collaborative and interconnected than they once were. Creative direction, customer experience, brand positioning and innovation are now shaped across multiple disciplines simultaneously. Marketing leadership, specialist agencies, creative teams, operations functions and technology stakeholders all influence outcomes together.
In this context, procurement rarely operates through direct control alone.
Instead, its influence is often embedded through governance structures, supplier frameworks, operational models, pitch processes, commercial design and performance management systems. Procurement shapes the conditions around decision-making rather than owning every individual decision itself.
That distinction is important because it reflects a broader evolution in business operations generally.
Modern influence often comes through enabling better collaboration rather than controlling isolated points within a process.
For procurement leaders, that can sometimes create tension internally. Influence feels harder to quantify when it becomes distributed across systems and relationships instead of sitting inside direct authority.
But in many cases, the role has not weakened at all. It has simply become more embedded within the operational fabric of marketing organisations.
The Real Shift Is From Control to Connectivity
Perhaps the most important change happening inside marketing procurement today is the movement away from rigid control models and towards operational connectivity.
Historically, procurement influence was often associated with centralisation, ownership and commercial governance. Success was measured through negotiation leverage, cost reduction and supplier rationalisation.
Those priorities still matter. But modern marketing ecosystems now demand additional capabilities.
Businesses are managing increasingly fragmented combinations of agencies, production partners, in-house teams, AI tools, creator ecosystems and technology platforms. Marketing operations now rely heavily on workflows moving smoothly between these different environments.
That creates a new challenge.
Disconnected systems slow production. Fragmented supplier structures create inefficiency. Poor integration limits scalability. Lack of visibility introduces governance risks. Technology adoption becomes inconsistent.
In this environment, procurement leaders increasingly create value by improving operational alignment across the wider ecosystem.
That may involve standardising supplier processes, improving workflow consistency, helping integrate production technologies, creating clearer governance structures or reducing operational duplication across partner networks.
None of these responsibilities fit neatly inside older definitions of procurement influence.
Yet they are becoming increasingly central to how modern marketing organisations function.
The procurement teams creating the greatest impact are often the ones helping different parts of the business connect more effectively together.
AI Is Accelerating the Change Faster Than Expected
Artificial intelligence is adding another layer of complexity to this transformation.
Much of the wider conversation around AI in marketing still focuses heavily on content generation and automation. But the more profound impact may actually sit inside operations and production infrastructure.
AI is beginning to influence how marketing work is scoped, produced, adapted, reviewed and distributed. Workflow tools are changing production timelines. Automation platforms are reshaping supplier requirements. In-house capabilities are expanding. Traditional production economics are shifting.
For procurement leaders, this changes the conversation significantly.
The challenge is no longer just understanding supplier costs. It is understanding how technology changes operational value itself.
As AI becomes more integrated into production systems, procurement teams will increasingly need to navigate questions around governance, scalability, commercial structures, workflow efficiency, transparency and operational risk.
That responsibility places procurement much closer to business transformation than traditional sourcing functions alone.
The organisations adapting fastest are already starting to treat marketing procurement as part commercial discipline, part operational strategy and part systems integration function.
That hybrid role is likely to become far more common over the next few years.
Supplier Complexity Is Becoming Harder to Manage
Another major pressure emerging across the marketing landscape is the growing complexity of supplier ecosystems.
As channels diversify and marketing specialisms expand, businesses are relying on larger and more fragmented partner networks. Specialist expertise is increasingly valuable, particularly in areas like influencer marketing, platform optimisation, AI-enabled production and localisation.
But complexity creates operational strain.
Managing larger partner ecosystems introduces duplication, fragmented workflows, inconsistent governance and rising coordination costs. Procurement teams are often expected to support innovation and specialist capability while simultaneously simplifying operations and improving efficiency.
Balancing those competing pressures is becoming increasingly difficult.
This is one of the reasons operational integration has become such an important theme within the Spendshift Report. Businesses are no longer simply asking whether they have the right suppliers. They are asking whether the entire supplier ecosystem can operate cohesively at scale.
That question places procurement in a far more strategic operational position than many traditional procurement models anticipated.
The Future of Procurement Influence Will Look Different
One of the clearest conclusions emerging from the report is that marketing procurement is moving into a far more interconnected role inside organisations.
The future will likely involve less emphasis on isolated control and greater emphasis on integration, scalability and operational enablement.
The most effective procurement leaders will increasingly be the ones who understand how marketing systems connect together. They will need visibility across production operations, supplier ecosystems, AI-enabled workflows and technology infrastructure. They will need to work closely with marketing operations, creative leadership and transformation teams rather than operating separately from them.
In many ways, procurement’s influence is not shrinking at all.
It is simply moving closer to the centre of how modern marketing organisations actually function.
And that may ultimately prove far more valuable than the older models it is gradually replacing.
See How Marketing Procurement Is Evolving in 2026
The Spendshift Report 2026 explores how senior procurement leaders across Europe are responding to changing marketing spend, operational complexity, AI-driven production and supplier transformation.
Download the full report to explore:
- changing patterns of marketing spend
- the rise of production-led operations
- procurement influence across different marketing tiers
- in-housing and outsourcing trends
- AI and automation in marketing production
- the future shape of supplier ecosystems
WHAT WE DO
OUR WORK
ABOUT US
ABOUT US
GET IN TOUCH →
Procurement’s Influence in Marketing Is Changing, Not Disappearing
For years, the assumption across the industry was straightforward: procurement’s influence over marketing spend was steadily increasing.
And in many ways, it was.
As marketing budgets expanded, supplier ecosystems grew more complicated, and pressure on accountability intensified, procurement became more embedded within agency relationships, commercial structures and production oversight. The direction of travel felt clear.
But marketing itself has changed dramatically over the past few years, and procurement’s role is now changing with it.
The latest Spendshift Report, developed by Spring CC in partnership with WBR Insights, suggests the story is no longer about procurement simply gaining or losing influence. Instead, influence is shifting into new areas, operating in different ways, and becoming more interconnected with marketing operations, production systems and technology infrastructure.
That distinction matters.
Because many procurement leaders are still measuring influence through older models of control, approval authority and ownership. Meanwhile, the organisations moving fastest are redefining influence through integration, operational alignment and workflow connectivity.
The role is not disappearing. It is evolving alongside the complexity of modern marketing itself.
Marketing No Longer Operates in Straight Lines
Traditional marketing structures were relatively predictable.
Strategy came first. Creative development followed. Production executed the final output. Procurement often sat alongside this process as a commercial function responsible for supplier management, negotiation and governance.
That linear model has largely broken down.
Modern marketing organisations now operate inside continuous production environments. Campaigns no longer arrive in neatly defined waves. Content is always on. Channels move faster. Teams are spread across regions, agencies and platforms. Production cycles are compressed. Technology stacks are constantly expanding.
In this environment, decision-making becomes far more distributed.
Creative teams work alongside operations teams. Martech influences production. Performance marketing affects content requirements. Localisation changes workflow complexity. AI tools introduce entirely new production models. Internal and external capabilities blend together in ways that would have looked unfamiliar even a few years ago.
And as the ecosystem becomes more interconnected, procurement’s role becomes less about controlling isolated decisions and more about helping the system operate effectively as a whole.
That is a very different type of influence.
Why Procurement’s Centre of Gravity Has Shifted Towards Production
One of the clearest themes emerging from the Spendshift Report is the growing operational importance of production and executional marketing.
The report shows marketing spend continuing to move further towards Tier 3 production work, reflecting the growing demands of always-on marketing environments. Businesses are producing more assets, across more channels, at greater speed and with tighter operational pressure than ever before.
This shift naturally changes where procurement becomes most influential.
Production environments involve scale, workflow efficiency, supplier coordination, delivery consistency, automation, governance and operational resilience. Those are all areas where procurement has historically added value and where its role becomes increasingly critical as complexity grows.
It is also where AI and automation are currently having the most immediate impact.
As production workflows become more technology-enabled, procurement teams are becoming more involved in conversations around scalability, platform integration, resource allocation and operational efficiency. The discussion moves beyond simple supplier management and into broader operational transformation.
That explains why procurement influence appears strongest in executional and production-led environments. The operational stakes are simply higher.
At the same time, production is becoming less visible and more infrastructure-driven. Much of the modern marketing engine now depends on systems working together seamlessly behind the scenes. Procurement’s contribution increasingly sits inside that infrastructure layer.
In many organisations, that makes procurement more important operationally than ever before, even if the visibility of that influence looks different from traditional commercial oversight.
Strategic Marketing Influence Is Becoming More Collaborative
At the other end of the spectrum, procurement’s influence within strategy and creative development appears more nuanced.
That can easily be misinterpreted as a reduction in relevance.
In reality, strategic marketing decisions have become far more collaborative and interconnected than they once were. Creative direction, customer experience, brand positioning and innovation are now shaped across multiple disciplines simultaneously. Marketing leadership, specialist agencies, creative teams, operations functions and technology stakeholders all influence outcomes together.
In this context, procurement rarely operates through direct control alone.
Instead, its influence is often embedded through governance structures, supplier frameworks, operational models, pitch processes, commercial design and performance management systems. Procurement shapes the conditions around decision-making rather than owning every individual decision itself.
That distinction is important because it reflects a broader evolution in business operations generally.
Modern influence often comes through enabling better collaboration rather than controlling isolated points within a process.
For procurement leaders, that can sometimes create tension internally. Influence feels harder to quantify when it becomes distributed across systems and relationships instead of sitting inside direct authority.
But in many cases, the role has not weakened at all. It has simply become more embedded within the operational fabric of marketing organisations.
The Real Shift Is From Control to Connectivity
Perhaps the most important change happening inside marketing procurement today is the movement away from rigid control models and towards operational connectivity.
Historically, procurement influence was often associated with centralisation, ownership and commercial governance. Success was measured through negotiation leverage, cost reduction and supplier rationalisation.
Those priorities still matter. But modern marketing ecosystems now demand additional capabilities.
Businesses are managing increasingly fragmented combinations of agencies, production partners, in-house teams, AI tools, creator ecosystems and technology platforms. Marketing operations now rely heavily on workflows moving smoothly between these different environments.
That creates a new challenge.
Disconnected systems slow production. Fragmented supplier structures create inefficiency. Poor integration limits scalability. Lack of visibility introduces governance risks. Technology adoption becomes inconsistent.
In this environment, procurement leaders increasingly create value by improving operational alignment across the wider ecosystem.
That may involve standardising supplier processes, improving workflow consistency, helping integrate production technologies, creating clearer governance structures or reducing operational duplication across partner networks.
None of these responsibilities fit neatly inside older definitions of procurement influence.
Yet they are becoming increasingly central to how modern marketing organisations function.
The procurement teams creating the greatest impact are often the ones helping different parts of the business connect more effectively together.
AI Is Accelerating the Change Faster Than Expected
Artificial intelligence is adding another layer of complexity to this transformation.
Much of the wider conversation around AI in marketing still focuses heavily on content generation and automation. But the more profound impact may actually sit inside operations and production infrastructure.
AI is beginning to influence how marketing work is scoped, produced, adapted, reviewed and distributed. Workflow tools are changing production timelines. Automation platforms are reshaping supplier requirements. In-house capabilities are expanding. Traditional production economics are shifting.
For procurement leaders, this changes the conversation significantly.
The challenge is no longer just understanding supplier costs. It is understanding how technology changes operational value itself.
As AI becomes more integrated into production systems, procurement teams will increasingly need to navigate questions around governance, scalability, commercial structures, workflow efficiency, transparency and operational risk.
That responsibility places procurement much closer to business transformation than traditional sourcing functions alone.
The organisations adapting fastest are already starting to treat marketing procurement as part commercial discipline, part operational strategy and part systems integration function.
That hybrid role is likely to become far more common over the next few years.
Supplier Complexity Is Becoming Harder to Manage
Another major pressure emerging across the marketing landscape is the growing complexity of supplier ecosystems.
As channels diversify and marketing specialisms expand, businesses are relying on larger and more fragmented partner networks. Specialist expertise is increasingly valuable, particularly in areas like influencer marketing, platform optimisation, AI-enabled production and localisation.
But complexity creates operational strain.
Managing larger partner ecosystems introduces duplication, fragmented workflows, inconsistent governance and rising coordination costs. Procurement teams are often expected to support innovation and specialist capability while simultaneously simplifying operations and improving efficiency.
Balancing those competing pressures is becoming increasingly difficult.
This is one of the reasons operational integration has become such an important theme within the Spendshift Report. Businesses are no longer simply asking whether they have the right suppliers. They are asking whether the entire supplier ecosystem can operate cohesively at scale.
That question places procurement in a far more strategic operational position than many traditional procurement models anticipated.
The Future of Procurement Influence Will Look Different
One of the clearest conclusions emerging from the report is that marketing procurement is moving into a far more interconnected role inside organisations.
The future will likely involve less emphasis on isolated control and greater emphasis on integration, scalability and operational enablement.
The most effective procurement leaders will increasingly be the ones who understand how marketing systems connect together. They will need visibility across production operations, supplier ecosystems, AI-enabled workflows and technology infrastructure. They will need to work closely with marketing operations, creative leadership and transformation teams rather than operating separately from them.
In many ways, procurement’s influence is not shrinking at all.
It is simply moving closer to the centre of how modern marketing organisations actually function.
And that may ultimately prove far more valuable than the older models it is gradually replacing.
See How Marketing Procurement Is Evolving in 2026
The Spendshift Report 2026 explores how senior procurement leaders across Europe are responding to changing marketing spend, operational complexity, AI-driven production and supplier transformation.
Download the full report to explore:
- changing patterns of marketing spend
- the rise of production-led operations
- procurement influence across different marketing tiers
- in-housing and outsourcing trends
- AI and automation in marketing production
- the future shape of supplier ecosystems
General enquiries
hello@spring-cc.com
Copyright 2025 Spring CC. All Rights Reserved.