How combining brand building with performance marketing drives long-term growth, efficiency, and impact backed by real case studies.

This article explores how brand building and performance marketing work best when combined, creating compound growth. While many businesses over-rely on promotions, research shows that balancing long-term brand investment with short-term performance delivers stronger growth, higher margins, and greater efficiency. Case studies from Lightforce Solar, Blind Low Vision NZ, and Bendon demonstrate how bold creative platforms can both build fame and drive measurable results. The article outlines principles for challengers: think long and short, make every execution interesting, benchmark beyond competitors, and embrace boldness. By aligning brand and performance, challengers can escape the trap of constant discounting and build businesses that thrive long-term.

This is the ninth article in our Challenger Marketing series you can find article eight here, Be Bold: Why Challenger Brands Win with Brave Ideas

Brand and Performance: Driving Growth Together

When it comes to marketing, one of the biggest myths is the idea that you must choose between building your brand or driving performance. The reality is clear: brand and performance aren’t opposites - they’re teammates. When they work together, they deliver compound growth.

For challenger brands, getting this balance right is critical. Promotions and performance tactics might deliver short-term spikes, but without brand building you’ll never escape the treadmill of discounting. Likewise, brand fame without the mechanics of performance means attention won’t convert into revenue. To grow sustainably and profitably, challengers need both.

Why Balance Matters

Research consistently shows that brands investing 10 - 20% of revenue into marketing see stronger growth, margins, and market share. Higher marketing investment generally correlates with higher returns, but where you put that spend matters.

• Brand building fuels awareness, memory, and preference. It makes people care and allows you to charge more.
  
  
• Performance marketing drives immediate action – leads, sales, sign-ups. It translates interest into results. 

When combined, the effect compounds. Brand campaigns prime the market, making performance spend more efficient. Performance campaigns keep the brand front of mind, showing customers you’re active and relevant.

“Businesses get hooked on the drug of promotion. They fear that if they turn it off, the world will fall. The reality is, it won’t. The world won’t fall – but your long-term growth will stall if you don’t build your brand.” 

Unfortunately, in New Zealand many businesses are still addicted to promotions. Daily deals, discounts, and tactical campaigns feel safe, because you can see the instant return. But that short-term comfort comes at a cost: eroding margins, fatigued audiences, and the inability to build sustainable equity.

A Challenger Mindset for Brand + Performance

Getting the brand/performance balance right is not about risk. The real risk is staying hooked on short-term sales. For challengers, brand building is your way out of that cycle. The way out of a promotionally dominant spend is to reallocate existing spend to brand. Move from 90:10 Promo : Brand to 60 : 40 as a first step. Benchmarked best practice is 40% Promo, 60% Brand. But take it one step at a time. The key is moving enough allocation to make a difference. 

Here are the principles to guide the way:

1. Think Long and Short. Recognise that for many categories only 5 - 10% of your market are actively buying at any moment. Promotions target the few in-market. Brand advertising primes the rest - so that when they are ready to buy, they think of you first.
2. Be Interesting, Always. Both brand and performance need to be distinctive and engaging. Even a promotion should reflect the brand’s personality and values.
3. Benchmark Beyond Competitors. Your real competition for attention isn’t the brand down the road, it’s Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, and everything else in people’s lives. Bold, distinctive ideas are the only way to break through.
4. Embrace Boldness. Being remembered is more valuable than being safe. Polarisation isn’t a problem if it’s relevant and truthful.

Case Study 1: Lightforce Solar – Smarter not harder

Lightforce approached YoungShand to drive better media performance – and sales improved by 15%. But performance alone wasn’t enough. The brand needed fame.

The solution was The Future is Obvious: a brand platform built around the obvious benefits of solar power, fronted by All Black brothers Beauden, Scott, and Jordie Barrett, and their dad, Kevin. The campaign highlighted power resilience, cost savings, and renewable energy in a way that was simple, logical, and distinctly Kiwi.

“Sales increased by 100% – without any extra media spend”

We also switched the media spend from 100% promotionally focused, to 50/50 brand/performance. Media placements were also prioritised to high-visibility outdoor, video, radio, and social, with Beauden’s star power leading the charge. The results? Sales increased by 100%. The lesson: combine brand fame with performance mechanics, and you amplify both.

Case Study 2: Blind Low Vision NZ – Creating a new product

In a crowded charity sector, Blind Low Vision NZ struggled to stand out. Traditional charity appeals were getting lost among 28,000 other charity organisations competing for the donation dollar in New Zealand.

The solution wasn’t another awareness ad, it was a product. Doggy Doonations turned the humble dog poop bag into a revenue stream and a brand statement. The product solved a real customer need, raised funds for guide dogs, and made people smile.

This wasn’t just a gimmick. It built brand distinctiveness, created a talking point, and delivered tangible sales. A perfect example of brand and performance working hand in hand.

Case Study 3: Bendon – Bold is better

Bendon’s bold Bra Better platform is a good example of how driving brand fame also delivers measurable performance. By reframing bras around real women’s real lives, the campaign reignited relevance, re-energised internal culture, and boosted sales. 

It showed how bold brand work doesn’t just build awareness – it drives purchase intent and performance too. This was explored in detail in article eight.

Lessons for Challengers

From solar panels to charity donations to lingerie, the lesson is the same: brand and performance fuel each other. Here’s how to apply it in your own marketing:

• Set the Balance. Use the 60/40 rule as a guide (60% brand, 40% performance) – then adjust for your category and growth stage. Decades of research by Les Binet and Peter Field suggest that, for established brands, a 60/40 split between brand-building and performance marketing is a good benchmark for optimal long-term growth and short-term sales.
• Align marketing with the customer’s journey. Map your marketing activity against each stage of the customer's journey. Understand customers' needs and fears at each stage. And ensure you have campaign activity that works at each stage.
• Use a Modern Media Mix. Customers no longer sit neatly in two or three media channels – today you often need four to six to get the reach required. Build your mix using three dimensions: Breadth – to achieve reaching across platforms, Depth – matching channel to objective, and Consistency – one story, many places. 
• Demand Distinctiveness. Ensure your messaging, identity, tone and style is consistent at each phase. And most importantly ensure your work is clearly distinctive. Both brand and performance must cut through and work together. Don’t let tactical campaigns slip into wallpaper.
• Invest in Fame. Fame accelerates performance. The more people know you, the more efficient your performance spend becomes.
• Track Both. Ensure you have brand measurement KPIs - brand awareness (prompted vs. unprompted), brand equity, share of search, and customer lifetime value (CLV). And performance KPIs - Track metrics that measure immediate actions and ROI, such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, cost per acquisition (CPA), and return on ad spend (ROAS).

From principle to practice: one lesson in particular, building a modern media mix, deserves a deeper dive. Many brands underestimate how fragmented audiences have become and how important it is to show up consistently across multiple touchpoints. Here’s how challengers can put this into practice.

How to Build a Modern Media Mix

To cut through today’s fragmented landscape, challengers need to be present in more places, with more purpose. Yesterday two or three channels might have been enough. Today, it often takes four to six to get the reach and impact you need. A modern media mix works across three dimensions:

• Go wide: Customers follow messy, nonlinear paths across online and offline channels. Expanding your mix – TV, outdoor, online video, paid search, social – captures incremental reach and scale.
• Spread risk: Don’t rely on a single platform. If one drops in effectiveness or changes the rules, others keep your performance steady.

• Upper funnel: Broad-reach channels (TV, outdoor, online video) build awareness and fame.
• Lower funnel: Precision channels (search, social, programmatic) drive conversion and efficiency.
• Balance: Use the 60/40 rule as a guide, but adapt based on category and growth stage. Media mix modelling can help you sharpen this allocation.

• Creative cohesion: Adapt for each platform, but keep brand identity and tone unmistakable.
• Integration: Connect channels so customers experience a logical, joined-up journey – not just a jumble of disconnected ads.

The Challenger’s Payoff

Strong brands don’t just drive awareness – they drive margin. They make customers less price-sensitive, more loyal, and more likely to recommend you.

For challengers, brand building is not a luxury. It’s the multiplier that makes your performance spend work harder. And performance marketing isn’t the enemy of brand, it’s the engine that keeps momentum alive. Together, they create compound growth. 

The challenge is simple: will you keep chasing discounts and deals, or will you balance bold brand work with sharp performance to build a business that thrives long-term?

In the end long-term success comes down to combining bold creative with a strong performance approach that builds brands and drives growth.

Source: Duncan Shand, 26 Sep 2025