Why It’s Time to Shift from Clicks to Brand building
Oct 23, 2025
Content
At Odyssey, we’ve just initiated an exciting collaboration with Peter Mackhé – a recognized expert in marketing effectiveness – to explore one of the most crucial questions in modern marketing:
How can brands grow in a world obsessed with short-term metrics?
Together, we’re diving deep into the 95/5 Rule and the power of memory building – a concept that challenges how most companies think about marketing investment, time horizons, and what truly drives growth.
The 95/5 Reality
Research from LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and Professor John Dawes at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that in nearly every category, only about 5% of potential buyers are in-market right now.
The other 95% are out-of-market – they’re not ready to buy today, but they will be someday.
The implication is profound: if your marketing only targets the 5% who are ready now, you’re ignoring 95% of your future customers.
This is why brand advertising and memory building are critical – they ensure your brand is remembered when those future buyers finally enter the market.
Performance Marketing: Fast Results, Short Lifespan
Performance marketing is powerful for short-term activation.
It drives immediate sales, delivers measurable ROI, and offers real-time optimization.
It drives immediate sales, delivers measurable ROI, and offers real-time optimization.
But there’s a trade-off:
When you turn off the ads, the impact vanishes.
Performance marketing builds clicks, not connections.
And connections are what drive long-term growth.
Performance marketing builds clicks, not connections.
And connections are what drive long-term growth.
Brand Advertising: The Compounding Effect of Memory
Brand advertising, by contrast, focuses on building mental availability – ensuring your brand is top of mind when purchase decisions are made.
This is what we call “the art of being remembered.”
It’s about shaping perceptions, evoking emotions, and creating consistent, recognizable brand assets that live rent-free in people’s minds.
Memory building works like compound interest: every impression adds value over time.
The result? Future sales become easier, cheaper, and more frequent.
Rethinking the Budget: The 60/40 Rule
Research from the IPA and Ehrenberg-Bass suggests an optimal split between brand building and sales activation:
60% brand building
40% activation (performance)
60% brand building
40% activation (performance)
This balance ensures both immediate performance and long-term brand growth.
The issue today is that many companies have flipped this ratio – spending 80–90% on performance and leaving almost nothing for brand advertising.
That might deliver short-term spikes, but it erodes long-term demand and weakens market position.
That might deliver short-term spikes, but it erodes long-term demand and weakens market position.
By rebalancing budgets toward brand investment, marketers can drive sustainable growth rather than short-lived returns.
How to Shift Toward Long-Term Brand Growth
- Define long-term success
Go beyond immediate conversions. Track metrics like brand awareness, mental availability, and emotional connection.
- Rebalance spend intentionally
Shift a meaningful portion of your performance budget toward brand campaigns.
You may not see results tomorrow – but in six to twelve months, the compound effect begins to show.
- Build emotional resonance
Tell stories that make people feel something.
Emotion creates memory, and memory drives future sales.
- Reach broadly, not narrowly
The 95% aren’t in your remarketing audience.
Focus on consistent, creative campaigns that reach the whole market, not just the low-hanging fruit.
From Conversion to Brand building
Odyssey’s partnership with Peter Mackhé reflects a shared belief:
The future of marketing belongs to brands that play the long game.
Companies that invest in memory, meaning, and emotion don’t just chase sales — they build lasting preference.
They create demand before demand even exists.
Reallocating your marketing budget from performance to brand is not a cost — it’s a growth investment.
As Les Binet put it best:
“Short-term sales drive efficiency. Long-term brand building drives growth.”
“Short-term sales drive efficiency. Long-term brand building drives growth.”
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