Bring back balance: Where do we stand on brand and performance?

Campaign ME

13-06-2025

Middle East marketers are demanding results. Client stipulations to justify investments through demonstrable return on ad spend (ROAS), quantifiable cost per acquisition (CPA) and bottom-of-the-funnel sales conversions that reflect on short-term profit and loss (P&L) statements are becoming increasingly pronounced with a seeming over-rotation on performance.
Now, with agentic AI accelerating the pace of real-time adjustments and optimisation based on sophisticated attribution models, it's no surprise that performance marketing is back in the spotlight, especially in a measurement-driven ecosystem.
Campaign Middle East speaks to marketers and agency leaders about the industry gravitating towards performance metrics and evaluates whether this is taking a toll on long-term brand equity.
While some seasoned professionals speak about existing synergies between brand and performance, others call for a shift in mindsets: for clients to stop viewing brand as a cost-centre, and for agencies to defend sustainable brand health.
Is performance winning the tug of war?
Although brand versus performance is not a novel debate, it is a critical one in the current landscape. The discussion, previously reflected in the seminal works from James Hurman in 'The Case for Creativity' – circa 2011 – as well as the deep tech work of Karen Nelson-Field, has come back to the fore in recent research.
The 2024 Nielsen Annual Marketing Report reveals that 70 per cent of marketers plan to increase their emphasis on short-term performance marketing over brand building. Watching this notion come to life in 2025 is unsurprising.
Placing the age-old debate in the current context, Alka Winter, Vice President – Destination Marketing and Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), says, 'The almost zero-sum relationship between brand and performance is played out routinely over time. Now, as the focus shifts towards attribution and sales performance, especially in the age of agentic AI – where optimisation can now take place at a breakneck speed – performance marketing is certainly having its day.'
She adds, 'This calls into question pressing issues all marketers face: How can we assign attribution? How do we balance brand and performance advertising? Can we iterate as we go; and if so, how often? Can AI technologies get us closer to cleaner targeting and cleaner attribution? Does brand need to be on the back burner to appease stakeholders, including the finance team?'
''In the age of instant gratification, it's all too easy for marketers to become addicted to performance metrics.'
Mary Anne He, Head of Data Analytics and Insights, Havas Media Group, says, 'In the age of instant gratification, it's all too easy for marketers to become addicted to performance metrics, being readily available, quick to turnaround and somewhat easier to attribute to specific marketing activities.'
She adds, 'On one hand, performance metrics are usually linked to the latest tech and shiny new tools.
On the other hand, brand metrics lack that excitement because they move much slower, and proving their impact is challenging because so many factors come into play. As a result, many brands don't track brand health as rigorously as they should, often lacking the granularity and continuity in methodology needed for meaningful insights.'
Wisdom post-Covid and words of caution on performance
Looking back, economic constraints began tearing up the brand budget between 2020 and 2023, and it hasn't corrected since.
An article by Harvard Business Review posits that the Covid-19 pandemic led to a tidal shift from upper funnel reach and brand marketing towards performance marketing to generate leads. The simultaneous boom in digital channels exacerbated this trend.
In June 2023, as the world began to bounce back from the pandemic, Scott Galloway, professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, told audiences at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, 'The era of brand is dead.'
At the time, Galloway said, 'I'm essentially training people to go to work for a CPG [consumer packaged goods] company and be fired, because the skills around creating intangible associations in broadcast advertising are, increasingly, being undermined by industry practice.'
Unsurprisingly, Galloway's comments created pandemonium among 'brand-believers'. To settle a heated debate, leaders Campaign Middle East spoke to after Cannes Lions 2023 said that time would be the best litmus test.
''We need a passionate mindset shift, which involves seeing brand equity as a living, vital asset – not a soft extra.'
Fast forward two years, and leaders now have proof that brands who have taken the braver route – even during the pandemic – succeeded and have important lessons to share.
Vicky Kriplani, Business Lead, Leo Burnett ME, says, 'During Covid – when everything paused – it was actually brand narratives, not performance ads, that kept companies emotionally relevant. That period reinforced an important lesson: Brands that focused on long-term connection were the ones that endured. It's a reminder that building a meaningful, lasting brand is just as crucial as chasing immediate performance metrics.'
The general verdict is clear: The industry has been overrotating towards performance for years. However, the data shows that the opposite is required.
Marketing research organisation WARC's latest research analysis titled The Multiplier Effect argues that marketers need to switch things up – immediately – with findings proving that the strongest returns from advertising come from using brand equity as an accelerant for commercial performance. While most marketers believe in integrating brand and performance, the say-do gap is evident in the fact that only about a third practise it.
To spur this move towards a more balanced approach, marketers have shared words of advice.
Winter says, 'Performance marketing alone might bump up conversion-based key performance indicators (KPIs) in the short run but, ultimately, to the detriment of long-term and sustained, growth. At some point it plateaus off and leads to diminishing returns.'
Gita Ghaemmaghami, Leader – Communications and PR, LIXIL IMEA, says, 'We've seen this shift from brand to performance, especially under budget constraints. But it's risky. As someone who has led both agency and in house brand communication, I have seen how undervaluing brand equity leads to short-term wins but long term loss.'
Mindset shift: Time to flip the script?
The harmonious co-existence of brand and performance – even in the current metrics-minded landscape – is not a utopian or idealistic concept, but one rooted in reality.
The trouble is: This will require the industry to challenge the status quo. It will require leaders to end the endless debate of 'brand versus performance' and accept a new normal that makes room for a 'brand and performance'.
This will require a revamp of organisational structures to prevent separate siloed teams with different KPIs working separately on brand and performance, competing for budgets and often rowing the boat in different directions.
Mai Cheblak, Head of Corporate Marketing, Emirates NBD, says, 'In today's landscape, brand can't exist in a silo; it must actively support commercial outcomes. That doesn't mean compromising on brand; it means making brand accountable. The most successful marketers are those who can create campaigns within which brand storytelling and performance metrics reinforce each other.'
Cheblak adds, 'This is especially relevant in the Middle East, where digital maturity is evolving rapidly, and audiences are increasingly discerning. There's a unique opportunity for marketers to use data-led storytelling that drives both resonance and results – building meaningful connections while also delivering on business goals.'
''Brand-building demands creative bravery but also disciplined measurement.'
However, this will also mean redefining ROI in a region where performance marketing often dominates the measurement agenda.
Ibrahim Ghazal, Head of Search and Social, GroupM MENA, says, 'It's about finding harmony, not choosing between them. This means aligning brand and performance with short-, mid-, and long-term KPIs. Focus solely on sales in year one, and you may struggle in year two. Focus only on the brand, and you risk missed revenue. Performance media often mirrors sales targets, but even the best execution needs a strong brand.'
Maya Tayara, Managing Director, iProspect MENA, explains, 'While performance KPIs remain critical, too often, immediate results are prioritised at the expense of future relevance. To walk the marketing tightrope, marketers and their partners must shift from binary thinking to fluid frameworks – using data and technology to not only track conversions, but also to unlock richer, predictive insights about brand impact, cultural relevance and consumer intent.'
Leaders share that both clients – and the agencies that serve them – should develop better ways to measure the effectiveness of investments into brand, which they believe will make the case for brand-based investments.
Hemalatha Subramanian, Senior Manager – Customer and Technology, Alshaya Group, says, 'We need a passionate mindset shift, which involves seeing brand equity as a living, vital asset – not a soft extra. Agencies must fiercely defend sustainable brand health, resisting clients' demands for instant results. Also, marketers collaborating with agencies should adopt a holistic measurement method, blending qualitative data and brand tracking with traditional metrics.
She adds, 'Ultimately, success hinges on establishing a robust marketing KPI that evaluates the brand's connection with its audience, not solely focusing on performance-based ROI.'
Building on this need for a 'mindset shift' Cheblak calls for a move away from viewing brand as a cost centre to understanding it as a long-term growth enabler.
However, in order to achieve this, Cheblak says, 'Marketers and agency leaders must move beyond transactional KPIs and build partnerships rooted in trust, shared goals and data transparency. Sophisticated measurement models are key – frameworks that capture both short-term wins and long-term brand health indicators such as trust, sentiment and loyalty.'
On the flipside, leaders are also challenging the industry to look beyond the numbers – to use insights not only to optimise performance, but also fuel innovation and meaningful storytelling.
With competition fierce and customer expectations soaring, marketers reached a consensus that it's imperative for brands to master the balance and walk this tightrope – with authenticity and precision.
Artificial intelligence joins the brand and performance conversation
Before marketers embrace the thought of AI piloting them to the future, they discuss the need for a data sanity check. Leaders share that the biggest challenge is often collecting accurate, clean data to feed the tools and models we rely on.
Anne He said, 'For brand in particular, the problem is usually a lack of data or inconsistency in measurement. But with the right data in place, there is a lot we can achieve.'
With the fundamental checks and balances in place, leaders evaluate whether the industry is optimally leveraging predictive analytics, machine learning and AI-driven insights to dynamically adjust budgets between brand and performance in response to real-time market changes.
Tayara says, 'We're heading in the right direction, but 'optimal' is a moving target. We're already applying AI and machine learning to interpret signals across the marketing funnel and shift investment dynamically, based on real-time performance and market volatility.'
Winter adds, 'Whether its performance optimisation on ad bids or dynamic creative output at scale, AI is doing the heavy lifting, and it's about time. From an analytics perspective, marketing mix modeling can really help in determining attribution and ultimately budget adjustments.'
Leaders agree that in the age of AI, it is entirely possible to work both forwards and backwards at every stage of marketing to understand the impact of changes up or down the funnel, which allows marketers to allocate budget where it will have the greatest impact.
Anne He explains, 'We can model the full funnel using client's own data and industry benchmarks, from awareness to consideration, to intent, in-market targeted reach, website visits, and finally to conversions.'
Research released by the likes of McKinsey and Company, and Forrester, further validate these notions, highlighting how AI-powered predictive analytics offer a promising shift from static budget allocation.
Companies are witnessing 30 per cent cost reduction and improvement in forecasting, according to these reports. Brands increasing conversion rates and reducing cost-per-acquisition – by leaning into AI and executing real-time campaign adjustments – are indirectly increasing financial pliability and channelling more investment into brand, instead of pure performance plays.
Tayara says, 'Our future lies in building adaptive strategies that learn, evolve and respond in real time, allowing brands to flow budget between performance and brand-building efforts without losing precision or impact. That's how we unlock real growth, in any market condition.'
Yet, while the effects of AI on brand and performance budgets become part of mainstream conversations, leaders also call for the industry to take a step back, pause, reflect and ask: Are organisations equipped with the right infrastructure and skilled professionals? Are 'brand success' and 'performance success' clearly defined for AI? Can AI truly grasp real-time market changes?
Subramanian says, 'While AI offers efficiency and better forecasting, it is crucial to address data infrastructure, skills and market aptitude. The potential is clear, but marketers must continue to invest and refine AI systems thoughtfully in a way that harmonises technology and human expertise.'
Ghaemmaghami adds, 'There should be more upskilling, cross-functional collaboration and trust in data-driven experimentation. I have seen the most progress when marketing, technology and finance are aligned early on.'
Cheblak sums it up saying, 'Brand-building today demands creative bravery but also disciplined measurement. When art and science come together, brand becomes a multiplier for performance – not a trade-off.'
Marketers conclude that while several tools exist to help them process larger datasets, identify discrepancies and move faster, there's a need to balance the art and the science of marketing; balance brave and disruptive decisions with disciplined measurement; balance creativity with analytics; and balance time and money spent on building a well-cultivated brand and amplifying performance outcomes.