Nearly half (49%) of marketing directors in Spain identify Donald Trump’s presidency and potential tariff measures as key issues impacting marketing activity in the coming year. Despite these concerns, 34% of Spanish companies closed 2025 with better-than-expected results. Optimism persists for the year ahead, according to the Marketing Directors’ Expectations Index (IEDM) for the first half of 2026.

Despite Trump, 54% of marketing directors globally believe that conditions will improve next year, and sales forecasts for the first half of the year exceed 3%. Even so, three out of five specialists (61%) are concerned about how economic conditions may affect their marketing strategies for 2026, according to WARC Media, which also projects a 7.4% increase in the global advertising market.

Has Trump affected advertising?

The WPP agency conglomerate, along with other analysts, suggests the advertising market has been less affected by factors like tariffs than initially anticipated. This resilience has led to upward revisions in macroeconomic spending expectations for 2025. While the Trump administration’s economic policies may have dampened consumer sentiment over the recent holiday season, brands are not pulling back. Instead, they are shifting investment into emerging channels, such as retail media and gaming, to reach shoppers who are adjusting their budgets and moving away from traditional media.

Internationally, McKinsey’s Global Survey indicates that after two quarters of caution regarding trade policy, executives are ending 2025 with renewed confidence in both the macroeconomic environment and their organizations’ performance.

How technology is reshaping marketing functions

McKinsey also reports that leaders are increasingly prioritizing customer experience and technology investments over macroeconomic concerns. Data from WARC supports this, noting that marketing directors have moved beyond the «experimentation phase» with AI. The technology is now being used for clearly defined strategic purposes:

  • Summarizing long texts (76% of users).
  • Analyzing competitors and categories (74% of users).
  • Obtaining consumer insights (60% of users).

Where are the opportunities for 2026?

According to business leaders surveyed by McKinsey, 63% expect company profits to increase in the next six months, the highest level since December 2024. In addition, for the first time in 2025, more than half of those surveyed (52%) expect customer demand for their products or services to increase in the next six months. Executives in financial services, energy, and materials are notably more optimistic about demand than they were a year ago.

In Spain, the most optimistic marketing directors are those in the tourism, technology, insurance, health, and education. This positive outlook is also shared by leaders in banking, energy, media, and fashion. Meanwhile, digital advertising continues its upward trajectory; 58% of marketing directors in Spain now allocate more than 40% of their total budgets to digital advertising.