You don’t need a new strategy, you need capacity

Brilliant marketing plans are gathering dust in spreadsheets and slideshows.

Why? Hiring freezes and budget cuts have left teams starved of execution power.

Why You’re Not Hiring (And You’re Not Alone)

Across the UK, the data is telling us that permanent hiring is on pause.

• According to the latest REC/KPMG Report on Jobs , permanent staff placements fell at the fastest pace in 22 months in June, as firms “pulled back on hiring due to reduced confidence around the outlook and worries over costs.”

• While recruitment giant Robert Walters reported a 13% drop in recruitment fee income, warning that clients are “particularly cautious” in a worsening economic climate.

  
  

This isn’t a temporary dip, it’s a structural pause. Hiring is off the table (again) but your to do list is very much still on the table and growing by the day.

CapEx vs OpEx: The Hidden Budget Loophole

During crunch time, CFOs and finance teams enforce hiring freezes and slash operating budgets (OpEx).

Yet (usually) they continue signing off CapEx spend, including your marketing budget, as those costs are seen as investments and if things get really bad, they can generally be turned off or adjusted without a massive headache .

CapEx is investment. OpEx is sunk cost.

So if your Marketing capacity is structured as CapEx it's becomes easier to approve, is flexible, and most importantly for bean counters, reversible. Unlike permanent hires or even long term agency retainers which are treated as ongoing monthly expenses.

CapEx is treated as investment—used for acquiring or upgrading assets or capabilities. That includes technology, infrastructure... and yes, even short-term project-based marketing support.

“CapEx is often easier to get signed off because it’s seen as an investment, not a recurring cost.” — Finance Alliance

When IMG works with clients, our scoped, time-bound support, fits into CapEx budget lines - normally your already approved marketing budget. That makes it:

• Easier to approve

• Faster to mobilise

• Simpler to pause or scale

No new salaries. No multi-year retainers. Just high-impact execution when and where it’s needed.

The Real Cost of Standing Still

When capacity dries up, strategy and execution gets stuck and the negative consequences ripple outward.

• 65% of UK employees reported burnout in 2024, according to Leone Centre.

• The AXA UK & CEBR report found that work-related stress and burnout cost the UK economy £28 billion annually—driven by 23.3 million lost working days.

• Deloitte UK pegs the annual cost of poor mental health to employers at £51 billion, with burnout a significant driver.

And churn? It’s not cheap.

• PayFit UK estimates that replacing an employee can cost £25,000 once you account for recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity.

• CIPD reports that 27% of UK employees change jobs annually, with a national churn rate of 35% overall (Get Staffed).

So while strategy sits idle, businesses are quietly burning money.

Case Study: From Napkin Sketch to Global Team in 12 Months

We've been there and done it already with one of our clients, The Access Group, one of the UK’s leading SaaS firms.

The Digital Marketing Director had a vision—to create a digital centre of excellence across multiple divisions. But she didn’t have the internal resource, the budget for permanent hires, or the time to navigate traditional agency retainer models.

The Solution:

IMG helped her build an MVP team using our CapEx-friendly, plug-and-play model.

• We launched digital product owner “Tribes” within weeks—each including paid media, SEO, web and analytics support.

• These roles were short-term, specialist contracts, fully flexible, low risk, and fast to scale.

• As the model proved successful, other business units wanted in. At its peak, IMG had 19 team members across the business, all delivering value without a single new hire.

  
  

The Result:

• Strategy delivered and performance proven in months.

• No locked-in costs—if it hadn’t worked, the contracts could have been cancelled with minimal legacy.

• After 9 months, the business chose to bring several IMG team members in-house full time.

• The model was so successful it was exported globally.

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That’s the power of flexible capacity funded as CapEx: low risk, high velocity.

Capacity That Flexes (And Gets Signed Off)

With IMG, you’re not committing to headcount—you’re investing in outcomes.

• Specialist marketers scoped to your real needs

• Flexible engagements that qualify as CapEx

• Quick mobilisation, no long-term ties

Your finance team stays happy. Your strategy moves forward. Your people don’t burn out.

You can check how resilient your marketing function is today with our free Marketing Function Resilience Scorecard. It only takes 5 minutes and can give you some insight into the gaps or risks in your team today.

Final Word

If you’re stuck in hiring limbo, consider this:You don’t need to change the plan. You just need people to make it happen.

IMG delivers executional power without long-term weight. CapEx-friendly, finance-friendly, stress-free.

Let’s turn your strategy into momentum—before it becomes shelfware.