Some media companies are feeling the heat on what they describe as a tightening advertising market, particularly linear TV. But there's a very different story coming out of investor briefings in recent weeks at some of the world's biggest brands. Many are increasing their advertising and promotion and much bigger overall marketing budgets. Some of these listed CFOs and CEOs apparently agree with marketing’s brand building champions – at least at face value. L'Oreal's overall advertising and promotion budgets, for example, pumped 11 per cent in 2023. Unilever, Diageo, Kellogg’s, Gucci, Mondelez, Ford and big insurance companies all told investors they're upping advertising and marketing budgets. But Brian Wieser, a long-time US-based equities analyst who founded Madison and Wall thinks most are piling into performance for short-term hits that "helps them justify their existence for another year". Long or short, they are unmistakably pulling further away from the zero-based budgeting ethos that saw Kraft Heinz "explode". Ironically, the big walled gardens now hoovering up all that increased investment from brands are now looking seriously at zero-based budgeting, per Wieser, with potential fallout for media's supply chain.