How do I balance short- and long-term marketing needs?

Addresses how marketers should balance short-term and long-term marketing activity and how these activities work together across different categories.
  • Les Binet and Peter Field have shown that the optimum split in marketing investment is 60% for long-term brand building and 40% for short-term activation; this, however, can vary by category and lifestage.
  • The most profitable and successful campaigns support both volume (through short-term activation) and price (through long-term brand building, but the optimum balance of spend varies between categories).
  • Econometric modelling can measure the impact of short- and medium-term effects (over weeks and months), though models are evolving.
  • Brand equity modelling combines econometrics with pathways modelling, which allows advertisers to understand which...

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We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
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