Earned & PaidMacy's
Macy's spent $1.00B on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2026, down 9.2% on the year before and -14% since 2019. That's 4.6% of revenue, less than in 2019: the business outgrew its marketing.
Marketing spend by year
Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.
What they told investors
“So I believe the focus continues to be making sure we have relevant assortments, making sure we are rooting out the redundancy within our assortments, improving the variety, and making sure that top of funnel, we are spending enough time from, social to CRM to, audio and video…”Antony Spring · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“But the other areas are brand marketing, particularly for Macy's, for top of the funnel to build out our brand.”management · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“That we are working with our colleagues to help them to become better sellers We are spending more time on our PDPs and on the quality of our top of funnel marketing, making sure that we are underscoring and accentuating the benefits of buying better things.”Antony Spring · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“So while there will be some benefit to the short term, most of it, when you talk about top of funnel brand building, when you talk about piloting reimagine, store initiatives, when you talk about defraying fuel costs in the fourth quarter, those things do not have a short term,…”Antony Spring · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“We need to have a better balance of the top of funnel and bottom of funnel and make sure that there is a communication about the why in addition to the what.”management · 2026 Q1 · transcript
“I think what we're working on is the right balance between top of funnel and bottom of funnel, or what we're doing to kind of tell the story about the brands we sell and the fashion that we sell and the brand Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, and how we convert in-store…”Antony Spring · 2026 Q1 · transcript
Say vs do
Macy's has made 1 statement about its marketing budget for a year that isn't filed yet; the verdict comes with that 10-K.
What they said
“i think marketing spend continues to be consistent.”
Antony Spring on the 2026 Q1 earnings call, Jun 4, 2026 · transcript
Too early to check FY2027 isn't filed yet.
“We need to have a better balance of the top of funnel and bottom of funnel and make sure that there is a communication about the why in addition to the what.”
Management on the 2026 Q1 earnings call, Jun 4, 2026 · transcript
Can't tell from annual filings Filings don't split brand from performance or report spend by channel.
“We have a better balance today than we had a year ago in top of funnel and bottom of funnel investments.”
Tony Spring on the 2025 Q1 earnings call, May 28, 2025 · transcript
Can't tell from annual filings Filings don't split brand from performance or report spend by channel.
What they did
| Year | Marketing spend | Change | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $1.00B | -9.2% | 4.6% |
| FY2025 | $1.10B | -0.5% | 4.9% |
| FY2024 | $1.11B | -4.8% | 4.8% |
| FY2023 | $1.16B | -1.2% | 4.8% |
| FY2022 | $1.18B | +43.9% | 4.8% |
| FY2021 | $818M | -28.4% | 4.7% |
Against its peers. Compared with the 7 other Retail advertisers we track (Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy and 2 more): since 2019 its marketing spend went -14% (peer median +11%); its share of revenue moved -0.1 pts (median -0.2); last year -9.2% (median +5.9%).
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.
- Creative campaigns “At Bloomingdale's, we just launched our fall campaign named Hotel Bloomingdale's.” Antony Spring on the earnings call · Sep 10, 2026 · source
- Experiential & events “We also leverage the reach of this national event to drive in store traffic through local activations, celebration Saturdays, and fireworks themed marketing.” Antony Spring on the earnings call · Sep 10, 2026 · source
- CRM, loyalty & first-party data “It's making sure that the loyalty program first kind of credit second is that there's a reason to be a part of the membership of these brands that there's something exciting to be a part of beyond just the points or the discount.” Antony Spring on the earnings call · Jun 4, 2026 · source
- Sponsorships & athletes “And we have a new partnership with Live Nation and Major League Baseball designed to help our customers celebrate the summer.” Antony Spring on the earnings call · Jun 4, 2026 · source
- Paid search “I think what we're working on is the right balance between top of funnel and bottom of funnel, or what we're doing to kind of tell the story about the brands we sell and the fashion that we sell and the brand Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, and how we convert in-store…” Antony Spring on the earnings call · Jun 4, 2026 · source
What they see in the market
What its leaders and filings say about the ad market: its own ad business, or the channels advertisers use, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.
- Retail media “We're focused on engaging with current and new advertisers, activating growth initiatives, including the Amazon Ad partnership that we announced last year.” Thomas Edwards on the earnings call · Jun 4, 2026 · source
- Sponsorships & athletes · Experiential & events “We have lots of products for the 50th fireworks as well as the first time ever, the East side and the West side, we'll have Fireworks, the partnership with MLB and stadium activations.” Antony Spring on the earnings call · Jun 4, 2026 · source
- Creative campaigns “Recently, we started to test a more engaging advertising experience through on-site videos on our desktop platform, offering brands to tell their stories with engaging content.” Jeff Gennette on the earnings call · Aug 23, 2022 · source
- Programmatic & display “In the first quarter alone, Macy's media network delivered more than 300 million offsite media impressions, resulting in a traffic increase of more than $3 million to the Macy's website.” Jeff Gennette on the earnings call · May 18, 2021 · source
In the news
- Macy's Digital Push Gains Traction as AI & Omnichannel Efforts Expand TradingView · Sep 29, 2026 · AI in marketing