In partnership with Analytic Partners, BERA.ai, Prophet, and System1, WARC has released The Multiplier Playbook – The CMO’s Guide to Integrating Brand and Performance, a report that examines why so many companies still fail to connect long-term brand building with short-term performance results.
Although the marketing industry has largely embraced the idea that combining brand and performance activities delivers the strongest business outcomes, the research shows there is still a significant gap between theory and actual organizational practice.
According to the report, as many as 90% of ads are never given enough time to reach their full impact, while 60% of marketers believe the C-Suite still does not fully understand the real role of advertising in driving business growth. At the same time, nearly half of organizations continue to operate with separate brand and performance teams, making integrated communication strategies even harder to achieve.
The report places particular focus on what the authors describe as the “gap between what the marketing industry says and what it actually does” – a situation in which marketing leaders understand the principles of effectiveness, but fail to translate them into concrete processes, investment models, and ways of working within their organizations.
According to earlier findings from The Multiplier Effect study, companies that shifted from a performance-only approach to a combination of brand and performance advertising achieved an average ROI increase of as much as 90%. However, the new report shows that organizational and cultural barriers continue to significantly slow down such changes.
One of the biggest challenges concerns the relationship between marketing departments and company leadership. Although two-thirds of marketers believe their CEOs understand the importance of brand, only 19% of respondents say the C-Suite truly connects brand equity with tangible business results. In other words, brand is still too often viewed as a reputational or communications category rather than a business asset that directly impacts company growth.
The report also criticizes the dominance of short-term performance metrics such as platform-specific ROAS indicators, which increasingly reduce advertising to a “cost of sale” instead of a long-term value creation investment. Because of this, the authors warn that many organizations today measure only what is easy to quantify, while overlooking advertising’s broader influence on demand, perception, and future growth.
The problem is further complicated by internal divisions within marketing teams. The research shows that 49% of companies have completely separate brand and performance teams, while only a quarter operate through a fully integrated model. Separate budgets exist in 65% of organizations, and fewer than half of teams share a common “language” or understanding of target audiences and business goals.
The report’s authors warn that these organizational structures are becoming one of the biggest barriers to effective marketing today, especially in an increasingly fragmented media environment where brand and performance can no longer function as separate systems.
Another important section of the report focuses on creativity. Although creative work has traditionally been associated with brand campaigns, the research shows that creativity also plays an important role in direct performance results. Despite this, 41% of marketers still see creativity-led approaches as too risky, while more than half of respondents lack confidence in their ability to properly evaluate advertising effectiveness.
As a result, the authors recommend an approach they describe as “fewer campaigns, bigger ideas, and longer-lasting communication.” At the same time, they warn that excessive obsession with short-term results often destroys advertising’s ability to generate its full impact over time.
Particularly notable is a statement from Mike Cessario, founder of Liquid Death: “If you’re a small company, playing it safe is actually the riskiest thing you can do.”
The full The Multiplier Playbook report is available through WARC, alongside a new podcast series exploring the relationship between brand building, performance marketing, and business growth in greater depth.
