Marketing into the Skid: How—and Why—APAC Teams Should Double Down, Not Double Back
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Schedule a ConsultMarketing into the Skid: How—and Why—APAC Teams Should Double Down, Not Double Back
I have a confession: I still haven’t watched that new F1 movie with Brad Pitt. I’m told this qualifies as a crisis.
But I have seen the Ayrton Senna documentary on Netflix. And there’s a quote from Senna, one of the greatest drivers in the history of Formula One, that’s stuck with me:
“You can’t overtake 15 cars in sunny weather, but you can when it’s raining.”
Uncertainty = opportunity. That’s true in racing…and in B2B marketing.
To be sure, the economy’s raining on marketing right now. Pretty hard. And at many global HQs of technology firms, CMOs are tapping the brakes. They’re putting the kibosh on new marketing initiatives as they wait for the skies to clear.
But if the past has taught us anything, it’s this: Downturns aren’t a time to pull back; they’re a chance to pull ahead. While others are busy zigging into the pit lane, the winners are zagging forward—their feet planted firmly on the gas.
And B2B tech marketers in APAC—thanks to a mix of pretty unique conditions—are unusually well positioned to take advantage of today’s wet track and jockey for position at the front of the pack. (That’s the end of the racing metaphor. Promise.)
The Empire Strikes…Pause
Listen closely and you’ll hear it: A faint tinkling sound as global marketing teams break glass and trigger emergency measures to combat market uncertainty. Budgets are getting DOGE’d, campaigns shelved, and bold ideas swiped left.
Gartner captures some of that mood. Data from its CMO spend survey shows how B2B technology marketing budgets for 2025 have dropped to 7.7% of revenue, down from 9.1% just two years ago.
And even that’s likely to get pared. “Given the looming macroeconomic uncertainties,” says Ewan McIntyre, Chief of Research at Gartner’s Marketing Practice, “CMOs are now confronting the prospect of in-year budget cuts.”
Ouch.
Beat the Crowd, Stay Loud
But that big picture isn’t the full picture. Zoom in on APAC, and the story shifts. In key markets like Australia, Japan, and Singapore, the mood isn’t quite as gloomy.
Let’s look at what’s actually happening in the region’s top markets.
| Australia | Japan | Singapore | |
| Overall Economy | Negative.
GDP growth slowed to 0.2% in Q1 2025—below market expectations of 0.4%. Source: Trading Economics |
Negative.
The economy contracted by 0.2% in Q1 2025, a sharper drop than the 0.1% forecast. Source: CNBC |
Positive.
GDP grew 4.3% in Q2 2025, beating forecasts. Source: Channel News Asia |
| Enterprise IT Spend Outlook | Positive.
IT spending in Australia is projected to grow 6.6% in 2025. Source: Forrester |
Positive.
Japan’s ICT market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% between 2025 and 2030. Source: Report and Insights
|
Positive.
Technology spending in Singapore is forecast to grow 5.6% in 2025. Source: Singapore Business Review |
Here’s what’s clear: Global uncertainty isn’t hurting everyone. And if the pain isn’t equally spread, the strategy (yanking back on marketing) shouldn’t be evenly applied across regions either. Right?
And even if a slowdown was really looming in APAC, the smarter move might still be to double down on marketing. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that brands which rev up marketing during a downturn come out ahead. Research from the International Journal of Business and Social Science, for example, shows that organizations that upped their marketing spend saw an average profit lift of 4.3%. Those that held steady gained 0.6%. And those that cut? They lost ground—profits dropped by 0.8%.
For veteran marketers in APAC, none of this is breaking news. There’s been research backing it since the 1920s. Someone even compiled a roundup of the greatest hits.
Pulling Off Austerity Marketing in APAC
Okay, so what have we learned so far?
- B2B marketers in APAC should be putting more wood behind their marketing arrows.
- See point 1.
So what’s the hold up? Why aren’t we dialing things up?
Probably because someone has to make a case to the CFO. And hasn’t it been drummed into our heads that finance is tamping down on expenses like a barista on overdrive?
Well, they are, kind of. But not really.
CFOs haven’t turned off the marketing tap, they’ve just made it harder to turn. Here’s how one Gartner analyst put it: What got greenlit last year because it offered, say, a 2X return now needs to promise 5X, thanks to the rising cost of capital.
So how exactly are marketers supposed to make that math work? How do we lean in—not out—and do more with less?
In our experience, the smartest marketing teams in APAC are using two strategies.
- Data for Smarter Targeting: Teams are stitching together intent signals and wallet data from platforms like G2, Bombora, Demandbase, and 6sense to zero in on accounts that are most likely to convert. Some of our customers in APAC, including a leading expense management SaaS company, are doing exactly that. They’re also using data from tools like ROI·DNA Spark, our proprietary solution, to surface messaging that’s more on point.
- AI for Faster, Leaner Campaigns: They are also leveraging AI to slash the time and cost of producing campaign content. One leading open-source enterprise software provider, for example, is using another of our proprietary tools, ROI·DNA Ignite, to research and create assets for an ABM campaign—dramatically compressing the time, effort, and expense involved. It’s also letting them scale 1-to-1 ABM from the usual 5–15 accounts to over 150, effectively redefining 1-to-1 ABM.
For APAC marketers, today’s conditions aren’t perfect. But it’s at moments like this that we need to remind ourselves: Momentum is a competitive advantage. So keep that pedal to the metal.
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Sunil Shah
