By Tina Fegent, guest author for RAUS Global
Over the last two decades, marketing procurement has undergone one of the most significant transformations of any procurement discipline.
What was once viewed primarily as a cost-control function has evolved into a strategic capability operating at the intersection of marketing, creativity, technology, data, AI, agency ecosystems, commercial innovation and business growth.
Today, marketing procurement professionals influence decisions involving millions, often hundreds of millions, of dollars in annual marketing investment. They shape agency ecosystems, commercial models, production strategies, technology investments and supplier relationships that have a direct impact on business performance.
Yet despite the increasing complexity and importance of the role, one challenge remains largely unresolved. Capability development has not kept pace with the evolution of the function. In many organisations, marketing procurement professionals are still expected to develop through generic procurement training programmes that were never designed to address the unique challenges of marketing spend.
And that raises an important question: If marketing procurement is expected to deliver increasingly strategic outcomes, are we investing enough in the skills required to achieve them? I would argue that, as an industry, we are not.
A Lesson From the Early Days
My own journey into marketing procurement started many years ago in the UK at BT Cellnet, now part of O2. At the time, I had spent a couple of years in general procurement after graduating and had recently moved into what was then the relatively new world of marketing procurement. One of my first projects involved mobile phone instruction manuals. What surprised me was that our advertising agency, AMV BBDO, was responsible for sourcing and managing their production. Coming from a traditional procurement background, I remember thinking: “Is this really the best use of one of the country’s leading creative agencies?”
The challenge was that there was no roadmap. No established marketing procurement function. No capability frameworks. No industry communities. No LinkedIn. Certainly, no AI. And nobody internally who could explain how marketing procurement was supposed to work.
What I quickly realised was that the answer was not simply about reducing cost. The answer was understanding value. I spent time researching alternative suppliers, speaking to printers, learning how agencies operated and, most importantly, understanding what mattered to my marketing stakeholders. Eventually, we moved the production directly to a specialist printer, reducing costs by more than 50%. But the most important outcome was not the saving. It was freeing the agency to focus on the work they were uniquely qualified to do: creating outstanding advertising that drove business growth.
The best marketing procurement professionals don’t simply negotiate lower prices. They understand ecosystems. They understand value creation. They understand where expertise sits and how resources can be deployed most effectively. — Tina Fegent
That distinction separates tactical procurement from strategic marketing procurement. And it is a distinction that matters more than ever.
The Profession Has Changed Beyond Recognition
If my first marketing procurement challenge involved instruction manuals, today’s professionals face a vastly different landscape. Modern marketing procurement teams are expected to understand:
- AI-enabled agency operating models
- Retail media networks
- Programmatic advertising ecosystems
- Marketing technology stacks
- Data and analytics platforms
- Creator and influencer economies
- Content supply chains
- Sustainability requirements
- Outcome-based remuneration models
- In-house agency structures
- Marketing effectiveness frameworks
- Global agency ecosystems
At the same time, stakeholders are demanding more. CMOs are under pressure to demonstrate return on marketing investment. CFOs are scrutinising spend more closely than ever. Boards are demanding greater accountability. Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace.
The result is that marketing procurement now sits at the centre of some of the most commercially important conversations within organisations. Yet capability development often remains stuck in a world where procurement is viewed primarily through the lens of sourcing processes, negotiation techniques and cost reduction. Those skills still matter. But they are no longer enough.
The Dangerous Myth That Anyone Can Buy Marketing
One of the biggest misconceptions that still exists within some organisations is the belief that marketing is simply another procurement category. The thinking goes something like this: a good procurement professional can buy anything.
The reality is more nuanced. Marketing sits at the intersection of commercial rigour and creative judgement. Success depends not only on managing cost but on understanding effectiveness. It requires balancing structure and flexibility and demands commercial discipline while protecting innovation. The procurement professional sourcing logistics services or facilities management faces a very different challenge from the individual selecting a creative agency, designing an agency remuneration model or evaluating a retail media strategy. Marketing procurement professionals need to understand the language of marketers. They need credibility with agencies. They need enough knowledge of marketing effectiveness to ask intelligent questions. They need to navigate subjective stakeholder environments while maintaining commercial discipline.
These are specialised skills. And specialised skills require specialised development.
The Hidden Cost of Capability Gaps
The consequences of capability gaps are often invisible. Unlike operational procurement, where savings and efficiencies can be measured relatively easily, the impact of poor marketing procurement decisions can be harder to identify. But that does not make them any less significant.
A poorly structured agency selection process can result in the appointment of the wrong partner. An outdated remuneration model can incentivise the wrong behaviours. Weak scopes of work can create inefficiencies that persist for years. Poor stakeholder management can erode trust and limit procurement’s influence.
Collectively, these issues can cost organisations millions of dollars. Ironically, many businesses will spend significant sums on marketing technology, agency fees and media investments while investing very little in developing the people responsible for managing those expenditures.
That is a false economy. The quality of decisions often matters more than the cost of the resources being managed.
From Cost Savings to Value Creation
For many years, procurement has been measured largely by savings. While cost efficiency remains important, this narrow definition of success has limited the perception of marketing procurement. The future of marketing procurement is not about being the cheapest function in the organisation. It is about becoming one of the most valuable.
The most progressive marketing procurement teams are already making this transition. They are helping organisations:
- Build stronger agency ecosystems
- Develop more effective commercial models
- Improve supplier performance
- Reduce waste and duplication
- Accelerate innovation
- Strengthen stakeholder relationships
- Improve marketing effectiveness
- Maximise return on investment
In other words, they are creating value rather than simply removing cost. That shift requires a different capability profile.
The Capabilities Modern Marketing Procurement Professionals Need
Through work with practitioners, brands, agencies and industry leaders, the profession has identified a core set of capabilities that increasingly define success in modern marketing procurement:
Commercial Acumen. Strategic Thinking. Stakeholder Management. Negotiation. Agency Relationship Management.
None of these capabilities exist in isolation. The most effective professionals combine commercial expertise with marketing understanding. They can negotiate robust commercial outcomes while maintaining strong relationships. They understand data and technology without losing sight of creativity and brand-building. They are equally comfortable speaking with procurement leaders, marketers, agencies and finance stakeholders.
This is the skill set that the next generation of marketing procurement leaders will require.
The Investment Case Has Never Been Stronger
The business case for capability investment is remarkably compelling. Consider a marketing procurement professional responsible for influencing $50 million of annual marketing spend. If stronger capability improves the effectiveness of those decisions by just 1%, the value created could exceed $500,000. At 2%, the figure becomes $1 million. Even modest improvements in agency selection, commercial models, supplier performance, governance or marketing effectiveness can deliver returns that significantly outweigh the investment required to develop capability.
The answer is not always to spend less. Often, it is to spend smarter. And spending smarter requires people with the skills to make better decisions.
Where Practitioners Are Finding Support
The profession is beginning to respond. A small but growing number of structured, category-specific learning options have emerged to address the gap that generic procurement training cannot fill.
One example is Marketing Procurement Mastery (MPM), a programme built around a dedicated Marketing Procurement Capability Matrix and designed specifically for practitioners working across marketing spend categories. Rather than adapting general procurement frameworks to a marketing context, it focuses on the knowledge and commercial understanding that the role actually requires. It represents one model for how category-specific capability development can be structured and delivered at scale.
Formal programmes such as MPM address one dimension of the challenge. But structured learning is only part of what practitioners need, particularly those who are earlier in their careers, working in smaller teams, or navigating the function without strong internal peer networks.
That is where community plays a different but equally important role.
The Future Belongs to Strategic Enablers
For many years, marketing procurement has fought to earn a seat at the table. In many organisations, that battle has already been won. The more important question now is whether we are investing enough to justify keeping that seat.
As marketing ecosystems become more complex, the expectations placed on marketing procurement will continue to increase. The profession will need leaders who can navigate AI, technology, data, creativity, commercial models and stakeholder relationships with equal confidence.
“Those capabilities will not emerge by accident. They must be developed intentionally”.— Tina Fegent
The organisations that recognise this and invest accordingly will be the ones best positioned to unlock the full value of their marketing investments.
A Note from Women in Marketing Procurement
Tina’s perspective resonates deeply with the work we do inside Women in Marketing Procurement (WMP). One of the most consistent themes we hear from our members is that the capability gap she describes is real, and that it falls particularly hard on those who are newer to the discipline or navigating it without a strong internal network to lean on.
WMP exists, in part, to close that gap informally but meaningfully. Our community serves two connected purposes.
The first is education. We actively surface learning opportunities for our members: workshops, roundtables, speaker events, shared resources and conversations with practitioners who have done the work at the highest levels. We believe that access to category-specific knowledge should not depend on the size of your organisation’s training budget or the seniority of your title.
The second is career support. Marketing procurement can be a surprisingly solitary profession, particularly for women who may find themselves the only person in their company doing this work. WMP functions as an informal job support network, where members can share opportunities, ask questions without judgment, get honest advice on career moves and find others who understand the specific pressures and possibilities of this role.
If you are building your career in marketing procurement, or looking to invest in the development of your team, we invite you to join the conversation. WMP is a community of practitioners who are serious about the profession and generous with what they know.
Christine Moore | Founder, Women in Marketing Procurement
