What if the secret to real marketing effectiveness wasn’t choosing between brand or performance, but building a formula unique to your business?
THE AGE-OLD DEBATE
Brand vs Performance. An ongoing debate that has been widely discussed and written about in our industry over the last two decades… or perhaps even dating back to the 60s if an episode of Mad Men I recently (re)watched is anything to go by.
Many are in favour of the more emotionally charged side of brand building, others are more attracted to the immediate response generated by performance.
But at Medialab we don’t think it’s one or the other. Indeed, perhaps not even always one and the other. In order to use communications in a way that creates sustainable growth and doing so against the ever-changing habits of consumers and cultural forces of influence, we (our industry) shouldn’t be placing so much emphasis on these binary factors. In fact, choosing one or the other can result in a marketing approach that will soon be superseded and potentially meaningless to the consumer, we believe more in a process of discovery in terms of uncovering what really matters.
OUR SOLUTION
At Medialab we believe the answer lies in ‘finding your formula for growth’.
Recently there has been arguments both for and against the traditional advertising funnel linked to brand and performance, claiming that this is becoming ‘obsolete’. Many of these points of view chime with the way in which Medialab approaches media and communications for our client partners.
But that’s because Medialab is a different type of media agency.
There is a deep-rooted culture of effectiveness and experimentation at Medialab, something we see as increasingly important in a landscape that is changing at pace and becoming more and more complex to navigate. We’re purpose-led, data-driven and proudly independent. This means that we’re always fully focused on acting upon our clients’ specific needs. We work with a wide variety of clients, with diverse needs, which has fuelled our expertise in overcoming a wide-ranging set of business challenges. From scaling ‘performance’ clients, to helping others navigate the delicate steps from short-term only growth to a more balanced strategy, to building brands for some of the UK’s best-know organisations.
We do that through ‘finding your formula for growth’. But we recognise that every business is different, and so every formula we create needs to be different – the correct approach is entirely dependent on the objectives and needs of the client in question, with one constant being that it is always founded upon data and insight. Our data driven approach and obsession with insight means that we’re equally obsessed with understanding what truly works (and importantly what doesn’t) for our clients. We believe in a culture of effectiveness and demonstrate that through a test and learn mindset, minimising and controlling risk – only scaling further once we have the proof of effectiveness to guide our output.
To find a formula, we set and establish a shared growth ambition for our clients, define the strategic accelerators required to get there, and identify the practical actions we can build from to make this vision a reality. We pride ourselves in ‘digging deeper to understand’ (one of our long-standing agency values) how we can use media and communications as a competitive advantage, ultimately aiding our client’s business to grow.
It’s why every Medialabber comes to work; to help our clients grow.
But we don’t stop there. Our data driven approach, growing capabilities and transparent trading approach mean we’re always learning, optimising and adapting for growth. And, with the help of Apollo (our proprietary marketing intelligence platform) we’re able to visualise results, fast, and enable optimisations.
Our independence and values driven approach gives us the freedom to not only identify but also truly act on a formula, doing so in a way that puts brand and business outcomes as the priority, ensuring that we always commit to doing the right thing.
OUR SUPPORTING EVIDENCE:
CASE STUDY:
Here’s how finding Laithwaites’ formula for growth resulted in winning two golds at the 2024 IPA Effectiveness awards
AMBITION:
The most effective mix of long-term and short-term growth to build Laithwaites’ revenue, brand equity and market share
ACCELERATORS:
- An appetite to evolve the marketing model, to one that aims to prove brand communication as a driver of long-and short-term sales
- New consumer facing messaging, creative and a media mix capable of fuelling brand health, to compliment acquisition
- Strategic and commercial goals that are acceptable to key stakeholders and boar members in order to gauge effectiveness
ACTIONS:
- Design of a thorough and bespoke regional test and control media strategy
- Reallocate budget from acquisition towards a brand test
- Detailed and frequent measurement discussions with key stakeholders
Despite generating award winning results, our work hasn’t stopped there. The formula for growth we developed for Laithwaites is ongoing, always being optimised and adapted for growth. And this applies to each client we work with.
Growth doesn’t come from choosing between brand and performance — it comes from knowing how to combine them. So, if your business is currently wrestling with this age-old debate, consider whether there is greater value in not choosing sides, but creating your own unique mix — your formula for growth.
If your business is questioning ‘brand vs performance’, we’d love to explore that with you.
