Our approach involves looking at brand building and marketing as two distinct strategies that can reach audiences in two different yet connected ways to strengthen relationships and lasting impressions.”

If you’ve ever wondered why some brands are memorable while others fade in and out of consciousness, it often comes down to the balance between building a brand over time and focusing on short-term activations. Brands need both: a lasting impression at every touchpoint, supported by turbo-charged campaigns along the way.

Brand vs Marketing
The connections and subtle differences between the two lie in the proposition, tone of voice, values and emotions used to tell stories. Brand building weaves together narratives through deep associations and natural evolution over time – the trilogy of storytelling – whereas marketing focuses on the most recent chapter of a brand’s life story.

Our approach treats brand building and marketing as two distinct strategies that reach audiences in different yet connected ways, strengthening relationships and lasting impressions. Together they broaden awareness and engagement, both by reaching different audiences who may connect better with one than the other, and by reaching the same audience in two different ways. Rational responses to marketing campaigns lead to short-term behavioural reactions and decisions, whereas emotive, brand-driven connections are more memorable and result in longer-term preference and positive perceptions.

The Golden Ratio for Returns

The ideal balance between long-term brand investment and action-driven marketing spend, considered the golden ratio for results, has been established by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) as 60:40 brand to marketing. It is best treated as a guide rather than a law, as the right split varies by category; B2B brands, for example, tend to sit closer to 46:54. Yet many businesses continue to operate in the opposite weighting and focus on short-term activation budgets to drive their strategies and tactics. And we understand why – it is harder to prove and therefore justify spend on long-term gains when short-term activations can more accurately be measured and realised immediately. However, a number of studies, conducted over extended periods of time clearly demonstrate the benefits of long-term, brand-driven stories. For example, in their 2026 IPA report Go Big or Go Home, Binet and Will Davis warn that chasing short-term ROI undermines effectiveness.

The IPA did what many managers and businesses don’t have the time or ability to do. It analysed the effectiveness of 996 campaigns over 30 years, covering more than 700 brands in over 80 categories. The results showed that¹:

• Only 3% of short-term campaigns delivered large market-share growth, compared with 38% of long-term brand-driven campaigns
• Emotional campaigns were twice as likely to deliver top-box profit growth over the longer term
• Campaigns with large salience effects were  twice as likely to deliver both top-box short-term sales growth and long-term share growth

The research also showed that short-term activation on its own generates little long-term growth, whereas brand building produces both. Within the constructs of storytelling, an ongoing narrative that communicates a brand’s unique value to its audiences will, when properly aligned, only benefit a more focused campaign. The long-term impact on a brand, however, is not simply the accumulation of a series of short-term campaign headlines.

Research beyond marketing points the same way. A McKinsey Global Institute study with FCLT Global, covering 615 US-listed companies, found that between 2001 and 2014 those managed for the long term achieved²:

• 47% more growth
• 36% higher earnings
• Added average market capitalisation of around $US7 billion

Brand Building from the Foundations Up
Brand building impacts every aspect of a business and its performance. The long-term strategy, or series of connected strategies, starts at inception, continues through activation and lives on through growth. Focused on creating the strongest, most credible and trustworthy reputation, brand building shapes the perceptions consumers have of the company, its products and its values. Importantly, it also supports a business through the ups and downs of audience opinion, market turbulence and competitor activity.

Encompassing a brand’s identity, storytelling and experiences – each of which must resonate with the business’s audience, purpose and promise – brand building is not a one-off game plan focused on one area of the business or one objective. It is an ongoing process, and one of its core objectives is to support marketing activity.

The Short-Term Campaign Boost
It can be tempting to create a marketing campaign without fully aligning it to the bigger picture. Shorter-term initiatives aimed at specific objectives, such as increasing sales, driving awareness or launching a product, are often not driven by, or designed to fit into, the longer-term brand narrative. In some cases they can even undermine the value of the brand. A more valuable approach, one that supports the ROI of both brand building and the campaign, is to leverage the foundations already in place and use marketing headlines to accelerate the business forward.

Working Together to tell The Brand Story

As mentioned previously, storytelling is an effective way to demonstrate both the connections and the subtleties between brand and marketing. It is imperative that marketing campaigns tell stories that are consistent with and underpinned by a brand’s core values, vision and messaging pillars. They present an opportunity to reinforce the brand’s benefits and strengthen the messages that will run in-between campaigns and across wider touchpoints. By leveraging the power of brand building in marketing, it means campaigns are not starting from scratch when it comes to creating emotive connections and lasting impressions with audiences.

Over time, successful brand building will result in greater audience loyalty, allow businesses to command higher price points, attract more prestigious partnerships etc. – all of which contribute to long-term profitability, albeit harder to directly attribute to a specific activity. However, whilst it is more difficult to measure ROI from brand building, the ROI from individual marketing campaigns will go some way to reflect the impact of and on the brand.

Balancing Short-Term Gains and Long-Term Value:
Achieving the 60:40 Ratio of Brand to Marketing

So how do businesses avoid the trap of short-termism and move towards a 60:40 ratio of brand to marketing?

Under pressure to deliver short-term wins, it is difficult to keep more than one eye on the long-term value of the brand. One answer is for CEOs and CMOs to get behind brand building as an essential part of any strategy that lives alongside marketing. The ideal mindset is to see the two relationships and stories as symbiotic.

While the IPA research demonstrated impressive results for long-term approaches, it also found that investing in both delivers even higher returns. Strong brand building enhances the effectiveness of marketing narratives and should be recognised as a significant contributor to the direct, short-term ROI of campaigns. Conversely, when marketing campaigns are aligned with and complementary to the brand, they build long-term brand equity through stronger perceptions and audience loyalty. Together, brand and marketing strategies and storytelling create the most memorable and enduring brands in the hearts and minds of audiences.

For further insight into how to balance brand building and marketing campaigns, please contact us.

¹ Binet, L. & Field, P., The Long and the Short of It (IPA, 2013); Media in Focus (IPA, 2017); Effectiveness in Context (IPA, 2018); Binet, L. & Davis, W., Go Big or Go Home (IPA, 2026)
² McKinsey Global Institute & FCLT Global, Measuring the Economic Impact of Short-Termism (2017)