The world has changed quite a bit since we first launched our first Horizon survey of built environment marketers at the end of 2022.

Several new prime ministers, a number of international conflicts, and the rapid rise of AI. When you dig into the sentiment in some of the qualitative questions, you can see these themes start to come through each year, depending on what’s happening in the macro environment.

There is one comforting constant in this ever-changing world; construction marketers believe that they’re getting a bigger budget to spend this year.

And so they should. It’s precisely because of these shifting sands that businesses need to double down on their investment in their brand and in communicating with their audiences, seeking to gain an outsized advantage over their peers that hold back.

According to our latest Horizon data, almost nine-in-ten built environment marketers (89%) believe they’ve got the same as last year (or more) to spend, with the average marketing budget increasing by 11%.

Elsewhere in Horizon you’ll find how organisations are linking marketing to their commercial objectives, the tactics that marketers are likely to deploy this year, and the big trends that the sector’s leading brands are keeping a weather eye on.

If there’s one sector that should be used to negotiating an economic environment in constant flux it is construction. The marketers in this sector are some of the best placed to take a lead on the wider economic market and mood, guiding their organisations through the choppy waters and calm seas.

That’s what makes Horizon essential reading each year; it is a look to the future from the very people helping to shape it. This year there’s even more data and some fresh questions, and there’s also some deep dive comparisons into data from the past four years.

A huge thank you to all of the senior marketers that took part and help to make Horizon what it is.