The most effective strategy combines brand building with performance marketing. This hybrid approach uses measurable channels to tell stories and build brand equity, ensuring every marketing dollar is accountable for results while avoiding the limitations of pure performance plays.

Data shows that adding brand marketing to a performance-driven engine can increase median ROI by 90%. The persistent tension between brand and performance stems from short-termism and the allure of easily measured clicks, creating a false dichotomy between two essential functions.

Effective demand generation is a barbell, requiring strong top-of-funnel brand investment to create awareness and great bottom-of-funnel product marketing to convert interest. Viewing performance marketing as a standalone function and funding it in isolation is like "throwing money at a problem but not solving it."

Instead of separating brand and performance budgets, treat every performance ad as a brand-building opportunity. Ensure all creative is polished and educates the consumer about the product and brand, building equity with every dollar spent on acquisition.

Leading marketers confidently invest in high-cost, low-measurability channels like billboards and physical books. They understand that reaching a concentrated target audience builds brand in a way that can't be captured by direct attribution but drives long-term pipeline.

Established brands are making a critical error by copying the performance marketing playbook of startups. This playbook, focused on short-term, measurable actions, is antithetical to the long-term, mass-reach brand building that made them successful in the first place and still works today.

Legacy brands often wrongly separate sales activation from brand building. True marketing excellence involves creating work that both generates immediate, measurable ROI and builds a lasting brand, avoiding the subjective "brand health studies" that plague corporate marketing.

In a volatile market, pressure mounts to focus only on short-term performance marketing. However, brands can't neglect brand building because strong brand awareness and relevance are what make lower-funnel tactics like retail media more efficient and effective in the first place.

Narrative strategist Lulu Cheng predicts the focus for brands will shift from flashy, one-off stunts (like cinematic launch videos) to sustained, high-quality work. She compares it to building fitness: consistent gym sessions are more effective than a single, extreme fast.