Key highlights include continued marketing growth, a surge in events and direct marketing, and renewed optimism despite economic caution.
- Marketing investment continues: Total UK marketing budgets expanded for a second consecutive quarter, despite macroeconomic caution. Universities appear to be mirroring this resilience by protecting or slightly increasing spend, particularly in high-conversion channels.
- Events and Direct Marketing lead: These were the strongest growth categories in Q3. For universities, this backs up the importance of open days and targeted communications as pivotal to student recruitment.
- Digital rising, traditional falling: Online video and direct digital performed well, while print, and audio saw sharp cuts – reinforcing the shift toward digital-first strategies in the student journey. Out of home saw sharp cuts do giving big opportunities for universities to book more relevant sites.
- Cautious optimism: Businesses are feeling marginally more confident in their own outlook, but pessimism remains about the wider economy. Universities adopting data-led, agile strategies are best placed to navigate this.
- 2026 planning needs sharp focus: With adspend growth expected to slow, universities must prioritise ROI, hybrid engagement formats, and real-time applicant intent signals (open day attendance, whilst obvious being top of the tree for this) to guide investment.
Marketing Budgets Hold Firm Amid Uncertainty
Total UK marketing budgets expanded by +3.6% in Q3, marking the second consecutive quarter of growth, despite economic uncertainty ahead of the Autumn Budget. This shows that organisations, including universities, are continuing to prioritise marketing as a critical lever for stability and growth, albeit cautiously.
“In higher education, we’re seeing a similar picture – universities are holding their nerve, protecting what works, and focusing on data-led strategy to stay ahead,”
says Rob Hunter, Founder, Hunterlodge Advertising.
Events and Direct Marketing lead growth — reinforcing open day Investment
As we say above, events saw the largest quarter-on-quarter increase in investment (+10.9%), followed closely by direct marketing (+9.7%). This is obviously highly relevant to universities, where open days, subject-specific taster sessions, and face-to-face outreach remain among the most effective ways to convert interest into applications.
This reinforces our own observations across our client base that open day attendance is still the largest indicator of serious applicant intent – no surprises there BUT making the most of the opportunities to convert is more critical than ever due to the fierce competition to recruit those students . Investing in these channels appears not only justified but aligned with broader market confidence in engagement-led growth strategies.
Digital Channels show modest gains – Print and OOH see sharp cuts
Main media marketing spend held flat in Q3 overall (0.0% net balance), but there were bright spots in video (+6.7%) and online (+2.1%). In contrast, traditional formats – print (-6.2%), audio (-13.0%), and out-of-home (-15.2%) – saw sharp declines.
This presents a clear opportunity and challenge for universities: students are consuming digital content more than ever, and the media mix should increasingly reflect this. Video and digital-first open day invites, virtual tours, and social-led direct response campaigns will continue to outperform legacy ad formats in both reach and efficiency. That said, this does also present great opportunities for our education clients to have access to more and more relevant OOH sites. We are firm believers that quality OOH is not just amazing for driving action but also brilliant for building long-term brand recognition and recall.
Universities should prepare for budget constraints
While 2025 has seen a slight upward revision in GDP growth forecasts (from 0.8% to 1.3%), the forecast for 2026 adspend has been revised down to just 1.2%, reflecting concerns about inflation, tax policy, and borrowing costs.
This suggests that while the market isn’t retreating, it’s operating in a more cautious, performance-driven mode. For universities, this means measuring ROI across channels is critical, and “nice-to-have” spend will likely be squeezed in favour of tightly targeted, conversion-led activity.
Signs of optimism – But still uneven
For the first time since Q2 2024, company-level financial prospects turned positive, with a net balance of +2.9% of businesses expressing confidence in their own financial outlook. However, confidence in the broader industry remains low (-24.0%), signalling that optimism is localised and strategic, rather than systemic.
In higher education, this mirrors the divide between universities that have embraced new recruitment strategies and those still relying on pre-COVID-era methods. Institutions that are data-led, digital-forward and responsive to cost-of-living pressures are faring better and should continue to outperform.
Implications for universities
- Open day performance is a leading indicator. With events being the top growth category, universities should continue using open day data as a signal of intent and conversion potential.
- Prioritise targeted, engagement-focused channels. Direct marketing and digital video are outperforming traditional media in the wider economy – and likely in student recruitment too. But don’t forget the opportunities OOH can give Universities now more inventory is available.
- Cost-of-living and travel limitations are real. Hybrid event formats and regional outreach remain critical in reaching underrepresented or distant student groups.
- Short-term restraint shouldn’t stop long-term brand building. As IPA notes, brands that maintain visibility in downturns come out stronger – and in higher education, consistent brand presence leads to applicant loyalty and trust. We cannot recommend enough increasing budget allocation to this area for long term gains.
Rob’s View: Strategy before spend
“While marketing growth is modest, it is growth nonetheless. For the UK university sector, the message is clear: focus budgets on what works, remain adaptive, and continue leaning into real-time applicant behaviour data – driven from open day attendance and survey data – to guide next year’s strategic-led decisions. With 2026 planning underway, this quarter’s results underline one clear message – stay focused, stay flexible, and keep investing where performance proves its value.”
Rob Hunter, Founder Hunterlodge Advertising