Brand Isn’t Just a Long Game
Recently, I caught an IKEA ad celebrating 50 years in Australia. It gave me the warm and fuzzies, and maybe next time I need a sofa, that emotional connection will put IKEA top of mind. But am I buying a sofa this week? Probably not. Still, that’s the point: brand campaigns aren’t about instant results — they’re about building long-term memory and preference.
But does that mean we shouldn’t measure ROI? Or, as I asked our Marketing Science Partner, Grace Gilbert, “If brand campaigns aren’t designed to drive short-term sales, should we be measuring their ROI at all? Or are we just forcing emotional long-term brand building through a performance marketing shaped keyhole?”
Grace’s answer was clear: “Advertisers should absolutely care about the short-term ROI of their brand campaigns. I agree Brand campaigns are designed with a different objective in mind. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t measure it.”
The Overlooked Short-Term Power of Brand
But brand media isn’t just about the long haul: as Grace explained, “Brand builds both long-term equity but can also drive short-term sales.” Broad, brand-focused campaigns can actually deliver more incremental sales than hyper-targeted ones. “If we shift the perspective from conversion rates to incremental conversion volumes, we see how broad reach campaigns are essential to growth.”
My experience is the same, but with the dollar return of Brand media often unknown, the sales potential is often overlooked. And that’s a problem, “CFOs aren’t always across the industry research that sets the case for brand building. If they’re not seeing the value it generates then relying on research over results is going to always be an uphill battle when focus is on hitting targets in the next quarter, the next year etc.”
Grace made it plain: “Brand media is really hard to defend if you’re not putting any numbers on the board. If we can’t show that it’s moving something in the short term, it’s a real uphill battle for marketers to sustain that investment.”
The Synergy Between Brand and Performance
Brand and performance aren’t rivals — they’re partners. Brand media doesn’t just drive sales on its own; it supercharges your performance channels. As Grace put it, “Brand media doesn’t just drive sales on its own, but it also makes all of your other channels work harder throughout the funnel.”
Marketers need to look at full-funnel effectiveness, not just isolated channels. “Marketers should be looking at their overall effectiveness over time so that they can see how brand investment improves conversion and ROI beyond just the sales that we can directly attribute to individual elements of a complex campaign.”
Measuring the Long-Term Payoff
Whilst short-term sales are important, we both agreed that Brand media’s real superpower is in building long-term equity, those base sales that happen because your brand is top of mind. As I said, “A high level of base sales is often a really good indicator that a business is not reliant on short term levers. It shows they have put in the work to build up that underlying demand, or the gut feeling amongst its audience that ensures they are picked before their competitors.
To really get under the skin of the long term pay back, it’s possible to go a step further derive the dollar value of brand equity metrics, creating golden nuggets of insight such as, “What is the value of increasing awareness by another percent point? And how does that compare to increasing consideration?”
Practical Steps for Marketers
- Break the norms: The classic 60/40 split between brand and performance is a useful starting point, but not a rule set in stone.
- Measure full-funnel impact: Don’t just look at direct sales from brand campaigns. Track how brand investment lifts performance across the funnel, including conversion rates and base sales.
- Forecast and defend: Use data to forecast the impact of increasing brand spend — not just on long-term growth, but on short-term revenue targets. Back up your investment in Brand, and avoid being strong-armed in the boardroom into increasing performance investment.
Final Word
Brand media isn’t a luxury or a leap of faith. It’s a critical driver of both short-term sales and long-term growth. By measuring its ROI — holistically and rigorously — marketers can make the case for sustained brand investment. This will ensure that your brand isn’t just remembered, but chosen.
Watch the MMMorning! episode here.
[Will Marks is Head of Marketing Science at Mutinex]