It takes ~36 – 47 days to fill a marketing role, in today’s market, while delivery deadlines move weekly. That mismatch is the real capacity crunch of 2026.
Budgets haven’t collapsed, but they’ve flatlined at ~7.7% of revenue for a second year running– meaning leaders must do more with the same wallet. Meanwhile, event costs and execution complexity keep rising.
There is a collective shift that’s gaining momentum. Our recent report, Field Marketing Transformation 2026–2028, revealed that 89% of executives plan fundamental strategic shifts by 2026 – driven by AI adoption, hybrid engagement, and tighter measurement.
Marketing leaders face the same paradox across industries: deliver more programs, campaigns, and events, without expanding headcount. That’s the reality – not a mantra – and thinning the team only yields burnout, churn, and inconsistent delivery. In fact, 75% of leaders reported staffing challenges across event, field, and partner marketing, and 36.5% said full-time staff face fluctuating workloads that waste budget on under-utilisation.
The hidden cost is convergence (learn more about the event production convergence tax). But pressure isn’t just cost-cutting; hiring gaps blur roles. When seats stay open, marketers stretch to cover them – strategy bleeds into execution, campaign owners take on logistics, and priorities collide. That’s not personal inefficiency; it’s a structural mismatch.
The capacity crunch is less about budget and more about how we deploy talent against priorities. Our Field Marketing Transformation 2026–2028 report also found AI and predictive analytics are the top priority for 87% of field leaders, with 91% planning to deploy AI tools by 2026 – raising expectations for throughput without headcount growth.
The solution many teams are adopting is a flexible capacity model: on-demand specialists who augment the core team without increasing permanent headcount. Rather than hiring a full-time event producer or partner manager for a single program, teams plug in proven talent when the workload spikes and scale back when it doesn’t.
Our research shows that 92% of marketing leaders are open to flexible talent models – primarily for 40–50% cost savings – and 54.5% can engage contractors within 1–2 weeks, turning speed into an advantage.
It’s not just a staffing tactic – it’s an operating model shift. Ring-fence the core team for strategy and orchestration, and flex execution through specialists. That protects people from the churn of “doing everything” while delivering more programs at a lower marginal cost. With 86% of market leaders reporting hybrid as higher-ROI, execution peaks are the new normal—exactly what flexible capacity handles. As budgets shift to tech/analytics through 2028, a lean core plus scalable specialists is the pragmatic model.
In 2026, this is less about saving money and more about sustaining performance. The companies that thrive will be those that:
Objections are real – and solvable. Research highlights the top concerns with flexible talent: quality (25.9%), ramp-up time (17.1%), and continuity (16.1%). The fixes are deliberate: rigorous vetting and senior practitioners to address quality; repeatable playbooks to compress ramp; and documentation plus knowledge-transfer protocols to protect continuity.
The capacity crunch isn’t going away. But leaders who blend permanent teams with flexible specialists will move faster, protect talent, and deliver more without expanding headcount. The shift to hybrid engagement and AI-enabled orchestration is accelerating and the teams that adapt their resourcing model now will capture the upside.
Map a flex plan for your team:
Download the Field Marketing Transformation 2026–2028 report.
