Brand building
DefinitionPaid Media
Brand building
Long-term marketing that builds memory structures for future buying situations: broad reach, emotional, works over years and shows up in brand metrics before it shows up in sales. The complement of sales activation; the evidence-based starting split is roughly 60% building, 40% activation.
Evidence from the library
Brand building and sales activation work over different timescalesPrincipleBrand building and sales activation need different mediaPrinciple6 monthsBrand effects build and decay slowly while activation effects spike and fade fast, and brand only overtakes activation as the growth driver around 6 months into a campaign.Principle41%Brand building is CMOs' number one priority for 2026StatAcross roughly 500 IPA digital-era case studies, campaigns that combine brand building and activation together outperform campaigns that use either alone.Stat
Related marketing laws
Source
Marketing Definitions
Les Binet and Peter Field, The Long and the Short of It (2013)
More from this source
DefinitionShare of voice (SOV)DefinitionExcess share of voice (ESOV)DefinitionReachDefinitionFrequencyDefinitionSales activationDefinitionBrand liftDefinitionIncrementalityDefinitionAttributionDefinitionMarketing mix modeling (MMM)DefinitionShare of searchDefinitionHalo effectDefinitionATL/BTL (above/below the line)
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