The Much Needed Marriage of Brand and Performance Marketing

We are currently at the crossroads of creativity and performance marketing. In an era where every click is scrutinized and every impression is measured, the need for a harmonious blend of creativity and performance has never been more crucial. The tension between brand-driven advertising and performance-driven advertising is palpable, yet it’s within this tension that the future of marketing excellence emerges.

Our challenge lies in crafting narratives that resonate with audiences, while simultaneously delivering measurable outcomes that fuel success. Even with the advent of all the new tools and data sets and opportunities to target the right audiences, marketers’ roles are more complex than ever. And yet the highest level title for a marketer now seems passé. Companies assign their top marketers a wide range of titles, from Chief Brand Officer to Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, with an even wider range of responsibilities and expectations.

Yet, according to Adweek, only 36% of Fortune 500 companies call their marketing heads CMO. As technology fuels the need for efficiency, marketers face mounting pressure from CEOs and CFOs to prove the ROI on their efforts – often to show more immediate and direct results from their creative and media spending.

A recent WARC study states that 25% of marketing respondents were cutting investment in creativity due to economic conditions, and almost the same number felt more pressure to prove the effectiveness of creativity. This is leading toward generating more performance-based campaigns. Leaner budgets these days mean “carte blanche” creative is being closely examined because brands want the most for their buck.

On the other hand, the “magic” of impactful brand messaging or groundbreaking creative campaigns can do wonders for a company’s image and/or bottom line. Yet, the industry often suspects that awards are given to campaigns that are popular but haven’t done much for sales and thus are not “effective.” But when we say something’s effective, what do we mean? Driving sales? Creating a behavioral change? Building brand health? Having a positive return on investment? New product launches, likes, and impressions? Awareness? All of the above?

There is a reason why marketers invest heavily in big cultural events like the Super Bowl to the tune of millions of dollars per :30 spot. Culture is one of the biggest ingredients that marketers either want to tap into or in some cases help drive.  The ROI on cultural relevance is undeniable. When consumers consider a brand culturally relevant, 30% are more likely to feel favorable about the brand, 23% become more interested in the brand, and 23% are more likely to consider purchasing the brand’s product/service.*

In many instances, placing high-quality creative within and around experiences that engage audiences delivers immeasurable success. Or does it?

"Leading brands and agencies have known for many years that more creative work delivers better results than ‘safe’ and rational advertising. What has been exciting in more recent times is to see the emerging proof of this; the hard evidence that creative work is more memorable, more effective, and more able to drive overall business performance," said, Keith Weed, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Unilever in his foreword to The Case for Creativity.

Even with this in mind, the pendulum seems to have almost fully swung on the side of performance these days, which is logical. We now have the data to validate or immediately invalidate the efficacy of campaigns. Prior to this ubiquity of information, we were probably over-indexing on potentially indulgent creative, constantly in search of striking brand gold.

Well, the reality is that the balance of campaigns is the key. It’s really not an either-or, but yes, and…we need to stop pitting brand and performance against each other when they’re both on the same team. There’s no reason you can’t have both. Like it or not, the truth is, marketers or CMOs, or whatever we are calling these decision-makers these days, really need to do both brand and performance marketing…for the sake of effectiveness AND success.

*Source: Paramount Advertising's Culture of Branded Content Study (2022)