Today’s marketers face increasing pressure to connect marketing to business performance, trapping them between two often conflicting priorities: brand storytelling and performance marketing.
Lately, this conversation has gained traction among marketers, becoming a point of discussion on at least three panels Monday at this year’s Advertising Week conference in New York.
The brand-performance debate dates back to even before the advent of Advertising Week, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, according to Advertising Week co-founder and CEO Lance Pillersdorf. This is a timely topic for this year’s event, given the mix of new media channels, such as streaming ads, economic challenges tightening marketing budgets, and changes in technology, such as generative artificial intelligence , which promised to spark creativity faster than ever, according to marketing experts and experts. agency executives.
“It is a sort of contrast between art and science that has existed as long as creativity has existed, therefore [with] media platforms on which to place that creativity,” Pillersdoff said from this year’s symposium near Penn Station in Manhattan. “It’s a conversation that has evolved over time as technology changes.”
In theory, there should always be a balance between brand storytelling and performance goals. (It helps for shoppers to be aware of the brand before making a purchase.) But in recent years, the pendulum has swung in a direction where marketers have become overly dependent on short-term, performance-oriented marketing tactics.
The conundrum it has created is “inconsistent messaging across touchpoints, incredibly fragmented campaigns that lack synergy, and wasted resources that duplicate efforts and create inefficiencies,” said Eddie Gonzalez, chief strategy officer at marketing agency Razorfish, in an email to Digiday.
That said, there has been a marketing push lately to do more brand building and story telling. Since January, agencies say they have seen an increase in requests for proposals that include brand-building elements. It is therefore logical that panels such as “Brand as a ‘multiplier’: Why we need to rethink the relationship between brand and performance” and “Closing the gap: performance marketing meets brand development” were featured on Monday’s advertising week programme.
“Lack of investment in brand advertising inadvertently pushes a brand to the left,” said Ken Favaro
head of strategy at BERA Brand Management, a brand technology platform; Favaro spoke on Monday at the panel “The brand as a ‘multiplier’ – Why we need to rethink the brand with respect to performance”. “So you have to invest more in performance-based advertising just to produce the same results, which means you’re investing less in brand advertising, moving your brand even further to the left, and around you.”
As the 2025 planning cycle gets underway, marketers expect this conversation to continue, encouraging clients to split the money between brand and performance to work together instead of having two separate focuses, according to Cody Mohon, associate media director by GS&F. advertising agency.
“This allows for efficiencies and budget optimizations that build on each other for a stronger outcome across the board,” Mohon said.
Elsewhere from Advertising Week:
OMG’s AI Buying Agent standardization initiative aims to ensure that advertisers’ interests are taken into account when platforms create their automated algorithms for advertising products.
Coming soon:
8:00 Why it’s difficult to meet customer needs and how to succeed at Penn 1 Social Stair
9.40am AI in action: a new era of advertising effectiveness in the innovation phase
10.10am From clicks to conversations: How to build connections and engage your audience in the insights phase
11.30am Fandom, clichés and reaching Generation Z through storytelling in the insights phase
00:45 Owning the game: Achieving great results in women’s sports in the creativity stage
3.30pm House of Data: Advanced Advertising in a Fragmented Media Ecosystem in the Media Stage
https://digiday.com/?p=557368
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