• by Anthony Chiaravallo , November 4, 2024

Image of "Bridging the Gap" panel courtesy of Advertising Week by Shutterstock

At this year’s Advertising Week New York, one of the most important discussions revolved around the delicate balance between brand and performance marketing. As marketers, we’ve become increasingly data-driven, prioritizing short-term gains and measurable results. But what happens when we over-focus on performance marketing at the cost of brand-building?

The Multiplier Effect: Why Brand Equity Is Job #1

One standout panel, “Brand as Multiplier: Why We Need to Rethink Brand vs. Performance,” brought together industry experts from WARC, BERA.ai, and System1, who stressed the need to reintegrate brand-led thinking into advertising. One crucial insight? Brand equity is the foundation—it’s Job #1 for any marketing team.

Key data shared during the panel revealed that companies who lean too heavily into performance marketing (at the expense of brand-building) actually perform worse 80% of the time. This is because brand equity creates a tailwind for performance marketing, strengthening every downstream effort.

Performance Bias & The False ROI Narrative

Another major theme from the panel was the performance bias many brands suffer from. When marketers focus solely on immediate returns, they tend to rely on siloed metrics like ROAS or last-click attribution. The problem? These metrics can be misleading.

A full 30% of paid search results are influenced by upper-funnel marketing efforts, according to WARC, but because we tend to measure these channels in isolation, we underestimate the full impact of brand advertising

Bridging the Gap: Performance Marketing Meets Brand Building

A second panel I attended, "Bridging the Gap: Performance Marketing Meets Brand Building” explored how brands can balance the urgency of performance marketing with the need for long-term brand-building. As Karen Benson of Deutsch pointed out, brands that dive too far into performance tactics often struggle to move back up the funnel.

Take Nike, for example. The company’s shift towards D2C and performance marketing initially drove short-term wins but failed to maintain brand equity over time, contributing to a stock drop of 24% this year, according to Insider Monkey. The lesson? Performance marketing can drive quick sales, but it’s brand-building that gives consumers a reason to buy again and again.

Jasmine Presson of Mediaplus summed it up well with the term “brandformance”—the need for attribution to measure both short-term performance and long-term incrementality. To scale, brands need to shift from purely performance-focused metrics to a more holistic view that incorporates the full funnel.

Emotion & Creativity: The Power of Integration

Panelists from both sessions underscored the importance of integrating brand and performance marketing teams. Brands that outperformed their competition were almost always the ones with aligned goals, clear strategies, and cross-functional collaboration.The mistake many brands make is treating these functions as separate; or worse: favoring one over the other. But as the experts highlighted, it’s the integration of these two forces that drives long-term success. When brand and performance marketing work in tandem, businesses see both immediate returns and sustained growth.

Key Takeaways:

1. Brand and performance work better together—integration is the future of successful marketing.
2. Ads work in both the short and long term—emotion-driven ads build lasting connections.
3. Brand advertising is the main driver of sales—brand equity creates a tailwind that strengthens performance campaigns.

Ready to rethink your approach? It’s time to integrate brand and performance for maximum impact.