As the landscape has changed, along with fundamentally, marketers need to prepare for a dovetailing of the two. Brands are looking for growth and differentiation, but that cannot be done with investments in either brand or performance. In fact, most best practices now suggest that the smartest media approaches are those that accomplish both brand building and performance benefits cohesively.
Traditionally, “performance marketing” has been defined as the ability to target the right person at the right place and the right time. It has been associated with digital channels primarily, and its strength has been strong measurability, particularly to take action within the quarter. What’s not to love? Everyone dropped their focus on brand and moved media in that direction.
It’s not that simple though. Marketers need to be looking for the media partners and agencies that think beyond one or two channels. Conversely, brand agencies need to be held accountable for measurable ROI . Here are a few places that marketers can start to get creative.
Performance marketing needs to also build brands but in a more personalized way Marketers should think about their message and content strategies in a more 1:1 way, knowing that they can be targeted to specific audiences. Analytics and automation will create the need for more tools to assess the landscape and audience.