Marketing procurement in Europe has quietly undergone a glow-up, and the 2026 Spendshift Report shows just how dramatic the makeover really is. At the risk of spoilers: Tier 3 has stolen the spotlight, AI has moved from “shiny toy” to “core infrastructure”, and everyone secretly wants fewer partners… while simultaneously onboarding more of them.

Why we wrote Spendshift 2026

Working with WBR Insights and Tina Fegent, we spoke with 200 senior procurement leaders across Europe about where the money’s actually going, what’s changing, and what keeps them awake at night. The result is Spendshift 2026: a data-led look at how budgets, partners, and priorities are evolving across three tiers of marketing work: Tier 1 strategy and creative, Tier 2 design and development, and Tier 3 pure production.

The short version: the age of big, infrequent campaigns quietly dominating the budget is over; always-on content and operational delivery are now calling the shots.

The big plot twist: Tier 3 takes the lead

In 2025, Tier 1 held the largest slice of marketing spend; 12 months later, Tier 3 has overtaken it and now holds the biggest share of the budget, with Tiers 1 and 2 sitting at roughly a third each. This reflects a structural shift from “big idea first” to “can we get 400 assets live across 12 markets by Tuesday?” as always-on content and high-volume execution become the norm.

Tier 3 isn’t just getting more; it’s getting more volatile, with the highest proportion of respondents reporting both large and small increases in spend over the past year. Meanwhile, Tier 1 spend is flattening or declining in many organisations, even as the strategic stakes stay high.

AI has stopped being hype and started being plumbing

Nearly all respondents agree that AI and automation have dominated the agenda over the past 12 months, particularly in Tier 3 production workflows. What used to be experimental pilots are now embedded into core processes: templated content creation, automated versioning, and workflow tools that quietly shave time and cost out of the system.

But AI isn’t only about cost-cutting; the report shows procurement teams are preparing for AI-powered personalisation, real-time optimisation, and data-driven content planning as standard expectations from their agency and production partners. The emerging brief is simple and brutal: be smarter, faster, and cheaper, all at once.

Procurement’s influence: powerful… but in specific places

One of my favourite “oh wow” moments from the data is how sharply procurement’s influence diverges by tier. In Tier 3, 72 percent of respondents say procurement has strong influence over spend, rising to effectively universal influence when you include “some influence.”

In Tiers 1 and 2, however, the story is very different: the share of respondents who say they have little or no influence over spend in these tiers has risen significantly year-on-year. The report suggests this is less about procurement becoming irrelevant and more about influence shifting from direct budget control to governance, frameworks, and collaboration with marketing leadership.

The agency ecosystem: expanding and contracting at once

If you feel like you’re managing more partners than ever, the data says you’re not imagining it. Tier 2 is seeing a noticeable increase in partner numbers, with more respondents reporting 10–25 or even more than 25 suppliers, particularly where specialist skills are needed for channels like influencer marketing, emerging social platforms, and complex performance media.

Tier 3 is going the other way: the number of partners is contracting, as automation and AI make it easier to consolidate execution with fewer, more integrated suppliers, combined with a growing push towards in-housing. The result is what we describe in the report as a “congested supplier spectrum” at the top and middle, and a more concentrated, industrialised model at the bottom.

What great partners will need to deliver next

When we asked procurement leaders what capabilities they’ll need from partners over the next 12 months, the answers clustered around eight themes: AI and data, speed, global–local balance, sustainability, interactivity, personalisation, influencer ecosystems, and Martech integration.

In practical terms, that means partners who can:

• Act as tech-enabled content engines, blending creativity with automation, data, and operational excellence.
• Scale globally while adapting locally, with culturally relevant content and local-language execution.
• Build interactive, engagement-focused formats rather than passive “push” content, from live streams to UGC-style campaigns.
• Integrate seamlessly into the client’s Martech stack, from asset management to workflow and reporting.

Sustainability is also moving from “nice to have” to “baked into the brief,” with respondents expecting eco-conscious production practices and purpose-led storytelling as standard.

So, what now for marketing procurement?

Across all 200 respondents, one message is loud and clear: the job is no longer just about shaving points off a rate card. The future role of marketing procurement looks more like a growth architect than a cost cop, orchestrating ecosystems of agencies, platforms, and internal teams to deliver creativity at scale.

For me, that’s the exciting part. If Tier 3 is becoming the engine room, Tier 1 the strategic brain, and Tier 2 the connective tissue that makes the system actually work, then the opportunity for smart, collaborative procurement has never been bigger. And if you’re wrestling with these questions in your own organisation, I’d love to compare notes.

If you’d like a copy of the full Spendshift Report 2026 or want to talk about how to turn these insights into an actual roadmap for your marketing ecosystem, drop me a message here on LinkedIn or visit https://spring-cc.com/spendshift-report