The most useful part of the performance plateau was identified by its readers, not its authors
CaseBrand Strategy
The most useful part of the performance plateau was identified by its readers, not its authors
The plateau was not the point of the chart when it was drawn. Roach and Kite published the whole model in 2020; it was readers telling them the flat section was the genuinely difficult part that made them go back and write about that moment specifically in 2022.
Source
The WARC Podcast - Four marketing frameworks you need to know (2026)
Tom Roach (VP, Jellyfish / Brandtech Group), interviewed by David Tiltman (WARC)
00:07:35-00:11:28, Tom Roach on The WARC Podcast, April 2026
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PrincipleThe performance plateau is Binet & Field translated for brands that only ever bought performancePrincipleLong and short have to be drawn as one system, or the chart itself invites a choicePrincipleFor a digital-first brand, performance spend is a floor, not a variableWarningThe flat part of the growth curve is the most dangerous moment in a scale-up's lifeWarningThe brand-performance balance has shifted far less than the brand bubble believesWarningTeams named after funnel stages are structurally incentivised to stop the system workingPrincipleThe funnel survived because it made ad inventory easy to sell, not because it was ever accurateWarningThe funnel's real problem is the assumption that you can push people through stages in orderPrincipleBuild, Nudge and Connect - the funnel rewritten around how memory works rather than how inventory sellsPrincipleAwareness is not wrong, it is just far too thin a description of the top of the funnelPrinciplePerformance advertising mostly directs people to brands they have already chosenPrincipleCategory entry points are what replaces the message on a creative brief