2025 Marketing Budgets: Interesting Trends Are Emerging. Also, If You Need Some Help Getting Started, Use Our Budget Calculator.

Based on our experience, there are two types of marketers in Work Tech:

1. The ones who plan and budget for the following year about now.?
2. The ones who plan and budget for the following year after New Year’s Day.

Hey, no judgment. Some of this behavior derives from organizational maturity. Some of it comes from management style. But after two years of budget cuts, some trends are clearly emerging from conversations with clients and prospects:

• Brand refreshes: There is a cohort of brands that have recently gone the PE route or that expect to fundraise in the next six months that are zhuzhing up their brands – visuals, messaging, positioning, etc. More so than ever, if you see a company refreshing its brand, that’s a positive indicator and a bullish bet on 2025.
• Brand experience: Work Tech buyers have had buying interest but not buying authority. Connecting with a prospect to flip them into a demo has been a dead end for the past two years. More brands are looking to play the long game and make first touches less about setting meetings and more about delivering value and laying the groundwork for long-term sales cycles with consultative selling. Some of this work is about defining the vision for the brand experience you want to deliver across brand, marketing, sales, product, and customer success. Some of this work is building out enablement tools – especially with AI – to bring the vision to reality.
• Brand campaigns: To the previous point, we are seeing more straight-ahead brand campaigns in the works than at any time in the past decade. Many of these companies have bootstrapped their way to growth and are hitting the limits of that hustle. Buyers buy from brands they know. There comes a point when you can’t avoid investing in your brand any longer. One interesting point: We are seeing more brands shift money out of PR and into brand campaigns.?

After three years of belt-tightening, most brands can’t cut any further and lack the internal resources to take on everything they need to do. If you want a marketing budget calculator for your 2025 planning, make a copy of ours and book a meeting if you want to discuss after dinking around with it.

What else is going on this week?

ADP Acquires WorkForce Software

The rumored transaction was finally announced and will expand ADP's global offering of workforce management solutions. Deal terms were not disclosed, but earlier Bloomberg reports indicated a $1.2 billion transaction.

Funding and Acquisitions

• Purchasing Power raises $218 million line of credit. The Atlanta company provides voluntary benefit programs that allow access to consumer products and vacation packages through payroll deduction. Congrats Nancy Bistritz-Balkan ! (CB Insights)
• Beam Benefits raises $40 million Series F. The Columbus, Ohio, company provides employee benefits focusing on dental, vision, life, and disability insurance. The company also announced former Gusto CRO Tolithia Kornweibel as its new CEO. (MSN)
• Capacity raises $26 million Series D. The Saint Louis, Missouri, company offers a suite of AI products designed to automate repetitive employee and customer support tasks and facilitate self-service. Congrats David Karandish ! (CB Insights)
• Gladia raises $16 million Series A. The French startup specializes in audio intelligence and speech-to-text services that support virtual meetings, workspace collaboration, content and media production, and call center operations. (VentureBeat)
• Abhi (YC S21) raises $15 million line of credit. The Dubai fintech startup offers Earned Wage Access, as well as invoicing and payroll solutions. (CB Insights)
• Ubeya raises $10 million Series B. The Israeli startup specializes in workforce management solutions in the staffing and temporary employment industry. (CB Insights)
• Prolucent raises Series A. The Dallas startup focuses on healthcare workforce management, providing a platform for managing full-time and contingent labor and access to market intelligence and analytics. Deal terms were not disclosed. (FinSMEs)
• Stema raises $1.7 million seed round. The Italian startup is a career development platform that provides career resources, recruitment services, and professional development tools for engineers. (CB Insights)
• Careerspan raises $1 million in pre-seed funding. The NYC-based career guidance platform rebranded from The ApplyAI. (FinSMEs)
• The quiet liquidity crisis in SaaS. (LinkedIn)

Micro Podcast Ep. 70: Tas Bober On The Need For Creativity In Marketing

TSC’s Matt Tatum riffed with digital marketer Tas Bober on Episode 70 of Micro Podcast about how marketing automation has prompted many marketers to neglect creativity to connect with buyers. (WATCH NOW)

Pharmacy Vertical Integration Is Dead

Not so long ago, vertical integration of pharmacies, PBMs, and insurers was going to be the next big thing to bring down U.S. drug and healthcare costs. Well, that dream seems to be fizzling out. CVS layoffs will include 400 Aetna employees amid signs that the drugstore giant may spin off its health insurance business. In a related development, Walgreens plans to close 1,200 drugstores in a turnaround after $3 billion loss. So what’s the next big thing? Amazon plans same-day prescription delivery in 20 U.S. cities.?

Industry Notes?

• AI agents can do more than answer questions. That could offer a better pricing model for business software users. (Wall Street Journal)
• Google’s Gemini enterprise coding assistant shows how enterprise-focused coding is growing. (VentureBeat)
• ExecuThrive : Private equity firms need a new talent acquisition strategy (thanks Sara Martin ). (LinkedIn)
• Lance Haun : From Dreamforce darling to security nightmare – Why Disney abandoning Slack adds to the risk. (Reworked)
• ServiceNow to invest $1.5 billion in U.K. systems. (MSN)
• Layoffs: CareerBuilder+Monster (15% of workforce/200 employees); TopTal (ND/ND)
• SmartRecruiters announces the launch of Winston, the AI recruiting companion. (LinkedIn)
• OnTheClock partners with Check to deliver payroll for SMBs. (Press Release)
• Intellum and Bluewater announce a strategic partnership to enhance customer education and learning systems. (Press Release)
• EarnIn announces Balance Shield to help employees avoid overdraft fees. (Press Release)
• Leapsome announces new HRIS. (LinkedIn)

ICYMI: Last Week’s Top 3 Reads

The Three Most Clicked Links from Last Week’s Work Tech Weekly.

1. VC Tomasz Tunguz talks about Klarna, the Swedish fintech giant, making waves by churning from industry-standard software like Salesforce and Workday to build its own internal systems with AI. (Blog)?
2. Vimeo is positioning itself as a reliable platform for professionals and corporations and has added former Workhuman CMO Charlie Ungashick to lead the way. (Wall Street Journal)
3. September U.S. jobs report shows strong job growth. (Wall Street Journal)

Around The Shop

Stuff we’re finding interesting right now at The Starr Conspiracy.

• #Desperate and serious: The new job search banner in LinkedIn reflects the reality of the current job market. (Wall Street Journal)
• Can remote workers reverse brain drain? Researchers found that when workers were paid to move to Tulsa, everyone came out ahead. (The New York Times)
• Interbrand’s Best Global Brands research: Focus on short-term performance marketing costs brands $$$; long-term brand strategy delivers value. (Marketing Dive)?
• The Mr. Beast Memo is a guide to the Gen Z workforce. (Kyla’s Newsletter)

That’s it for this week!

Everybody love everybody,

Steve

P.S. Astro the Office Robot says hi.

P.P.S. Let’s meet. Are you a #WorkTech or #EnterpriseSoftware company with more than $10 million in revenue or funding that wants to accelerate your growth? Book a meeting with us to discuss how we can improve your go-to-market strategy and execution.

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