Earned & Paid
Companies · Alcohol

Brown-Forman

AdvertiserBF-B

Brown-Forman spent $462M on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2026, down 4.5% on the year before and +17% since 2019. That's 11.8% of revenue, less than in 2019: the business outgrew its marketing.

$462Mmarketing spend, FY2026
-4.5%vs the year before
11.8%of revenue (-0.2 pts vs 2019)

Marketing spend by year

2013: $408M2014: $436M142015: $437M2016: $417M162017: $372M2018: $405M182019: $396M2020: $383M202021: $399M2022: $438M222023: $506M2024: $529M242025: $484M2026: $462M2611.8%

Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.

What they told investors

“we are not thinking really we're going to cut back based on the suppliers, the supply chain challenge.”Lawson E. Whiting · 2022 Q2 · transcript
“And so the media spend has increased significantly in our industry, but it's still the right thing to do and I think longer term, we like the rebalanced of how we're spending the money.”Lawson E. Whiting · 2021 Q3 · transcript
“We look at what we've spent this year, we spent a lot more in digital, we're up 100% year-to-date in digital media spend, and that is cognizant of where the consumer is and where they're watching whatever they're getting or mobile device they have in their hand and how they are…”Jane C. Morreau · 2021 Q3 · transcript

What the 10-K says about marketing

Say vs do

Brown-Forman's management has talked about its marketing budget, but in ways annual filings can't check: one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix.

What they said

  • “we are not thinking really we're going to cut back based on the suppliers, the supply chain challenge.”

    Lawson E. Whiting, President and Chief Executive Officer on the 2022 Q2 earnings call, Dec 8, 2021 · transcript

    Can't tell from annual filings It's about several years, not one we can check.

What they did

YearMarketing spendChangeShare of revenue
FY2026$462M-4.5%11.8%
FY2025$484M-8.5%12.2%
FY2024$529M+4.5%12.7%
FY2023$506M+15.5%12.0%
FY2022$438M+9.8%11.1%
FY2021$399M+4.2%11.5%

Against its peers. Compared with the 2 other Alcohol advertisers we track (Constellation Brands, Molson Coors): since 2019 its marketing spend went +17% (peer median +8%); its share of revenue moved -0.2 pts (median +0.0); last year -4.5% (median -3.5%).

How we check: a statement gets a verdict only when it's clearly about the size of the whole company's marketing budget over a full fiscal year; we compare it with the advertising and marketing expense in that year's 10-K. Statements about one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix between brand and performance can't be checked against annual filings.

What they say about media

The marketing channels it talks about using for itself on earnings calls and in its 10-Ks and 10-Qs, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

Sponsorships & athletes 7× since 2019Creative campaigns 5× since 2019Experiential & events 4× since 2020

In the news

Peers

Constellation BrandsMolson Coors