Is it a must to have big budgets to achieve marketing goals or smart marketing with tight budgets could achieve similar/exceptional results ?

In marketing what really matters is your target audience. A successful social media marketing strategy that costs barely nothing could be more successful than a high budget marketing campaign. For a good marketing campaign take a look at the strategy Salt used to enter the Dubai market.

It always will depend of the product/service and the audience your aiming to....but is not about the budgets nowadays....is about the creativity and ideas of the marketer.... I've done some really good marketing strategies with no money at all, just a team who believed in the product and they had the passion for it.