From Ted.
Welcome to the July issue of Tech Brand Brief—brought to you by fred&ted—perhaps the only agency that can make your brand as innovative as your technology.Theme: Building Brand on a Budget. Geopolitics in flux, administration unknowns, rising costs, profit pressure, and 2026 planning already on your whiteboard—belt-tightening is the vibe.
The consensus of recent surveys (Gartner, Deloitte, Forrester, and others) is that marketing, media, and brand budgets are under tightening constraints in 2025, and 2026 won’t loosen the purse strings. CMOs are chasing faster paybacks, trimming the nice-to-haves, and squeezing every drop of ROI from every dollar.
We hope you enjoy this July 2025 edition of Tech Brand Brief!
Metrics that matter.
Marketing wallets are on a crash diet, and every dollar now has to bench-press its own ROI. CMOs are cutting, swapping, and hacking spend to keep brand muscle without bloating the budget.
Here are three stats that reveal where the money’s moving—and how to keep your brand flexing when cash is tight.
of CMOs say their 2025 budgets are insufficient to execute strategy, despite efficiency gains.
—Marketing Dive
of CMOs report generative-AI tools save significant time inside 2025 marketing workflows.
—Marketing Dive
of marketers say more budget will shift to performance channels at brand’s expense this year.
—Nielsen
10-K signals for brand leaders.
Want a peek into how enterprise tech giants are playing the game? Each month, we analyze 10-K filings from major players to reveal what they’re prioritizing in sales and marketing.
Strategic Budget Focus: S&M rose 8%, below revenue growth. Investing in programs and head count, but letting its own tech drive ROI.
Key Takeaway: Adobe is proof that great brands drink their own champagne. GenAI + data-driven ops make every dollar stretch. That’s modern brand (on a budget) stewardship.
Strategic Budget Focus: Ad spend down 5%. Tight control + strategic reallocation toward hybrid cloud and AI.
Key Takeaway: IBM is not spending less—it’s spending smarter. Fewer campaigns, clearer focus, AI-led ops. Less clutter, more clarity. A sign of budget maturity?
Strategic Budget Focus: S&M grew by 17%, but dropped from 37% to 35% of revenue. Productivity is the priority.
Key Takeaway: ServiceNow is spending more, but getting more from it. A master class in investing without inflating—brand + performance can coexist when you track both.
CMO voices
Anastasia Tsimiklis, CMO, Explorance
Anastasia Tsimiklis, CMO of Explorance stresses that big results don’t always require big budgets. By being creative and customer-focused, even lean marketing teams can build strong brands. This sentiment reinforces that smart ideas and clear purpose can trump sheer spending, especially for growth-stage tech companies watching every dollar.
AI & brand.
Osum is a fred&ted essential. Get instant research on competitors, buyers, and positioning—so your team spends less time digging and more time building brand.
You.com looks like a promising way to go from question to strategic intel in minutes. We haven’t tested it yet—but it feels like a potential shortcut for budget-smart brand teams.
From the strategy desk.
The most powerful line in B2B over the last year? It wasn’t expensive. It was true. “Everybody’s ready for AI except your data” helped reposition a legacy tech brand not by outspending—but by out-focusing. On this episode of On Strategy, I join Brett Barash, Senior Director, Brand and Creative of Informatica to talk about how that single insight anchored a brand reset—and why smart strategy is the ultimate budget hack.
What’s making headlines in enterprise tech—and what brand leaders can take away from it.
Shhhh... We know Informatica (yep, our client) is the talk of Salesforce’s $8B shopping spree. If building brand on a budget means buying brilliance, consider this a savvy splurge by Salesforce.
DoorDash’s $175M Symbiosys deal shows it’s delivering more than meals—it’s delivering budget-savvy brand reach for merchants, turning its platform into a cost-effective growth engine.
Google bets that one plus one equals budget-savvy security, not bloat. By acquiring Wiz, they aim to offer a one-stop cloud security shop—turning a pricey acquisition into a value play that saves customers from costly tool sprawl.
What’s coming up.
October 14–16, 2025
Salesforce’s annual flagship event for enterprise innovation, AI transformation, and customer experience—drawing CMOs, CIOs, and tech leaders worldwide.
November 10–13, 2025
One of the largest global tech conferences—where enterprise leaders, startups, and investors collide across brand, innovation, AI, and the future of business.
December 1-5, 2025
AWS’s flagship event covering cloud, AI, infrastructure, and innovation—where IT leaders, engineers, and tech marketers shape what’s next.
fred&ted in the wild.
We’re excited to unveil a bold new campaign and brand platform for our client partners at Foundation Technologies—a different breed of IT service provider. Thank you Matt Woestehoff for the opportunity to dive deep into your business and “get weird” as Greg Fischer would say!
Foundation Technologies. IT as Unique as You. Check out some of the work here!
From Fred.
Canva didn’t just book ad space—they turned it into a product demo. In their new OOH campaign, they made Waterloo Station a crash course in creative chaos (and how to avoid it). Think: logos busting out of frames, posters crammed into the wrong aspect ratio, a rogue bike impaled on a billboard. It’s all a visual wink to the headaches Canva helps fix—Magic Resize, Brand Kit, Background Remover—shown in action, not just named in a feature list. Proof that when your product is built to solve real-world pain, the smartest creative move is to let it show. Big idea, low lift, no budget bloat. A campaign that teaches by showing—and proves that clarity beats complexity, every time.
A tight budget forces what a big one doesn’t: discipline, creativity, and focus. That’s not a limitation—it’s an unfair advantage. When budget is limited—or shrinking—clarity becomes currency. Smart brands don’t scale by outspending—they scale by outthinking.
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