Most marketers are still arguing about brand vs performance. The real job is knowing how to make both work together to drive growth, writes current Head of International Marketing for TUI, Rachel Moss. 

Most organisations suffer from a siloed approach where the "brand" team and the "performance" team speak different languages. A marketing director could write about how they integrated these two functions to ensure long-term equity doesn't come at the expense of short-term conversion. 

It sounds like 2026 is shaping up to be another year where there’s a choice to be made: Brand or Performance?

I don’t think this conversation is helping us as marketers. In fact, I think it’s a bit of navel-gazing.

If we want to be taken seriously by the business, we need to stop arguing about labels and start doing what leaders are paid to do: create value. That means finding the sweet spot between what the business is trying to achieve and what customers actually want and investing our time, money and energy in driving growth.

Marketing Isn’t Ideology, It’s a System, designed to meet customer needs and deliver profit.

When everything else is right, the product, the distribution, the pricing, then we arrive at the final P: Promotion.

And that’s where the debate usually starts.

How much of our investment goes into brand?

How much goes into performance?

In some organisations, it that a large chunk of marketing investment has already been spent improving the brand experience. What’s left has to work hard in performance channels to ensure we deliver the sales targets the business expects.

That’s not a failure. That’s just commercial reality.

Brand and Performance Both Drive Growth

Brand and performance can both drive business growth, short term and long term.

A well-branded, brilliantly executed ad sitting in the “performance” line of the budget can absolutely build brand. Equally, that glorious TV ad might be the very thing that finally convinces Josephine Bloggs to buy.

In today’s messy media world, fragmented channels, distracted consumers, LLMs shaping journeys, nothing is linear anymore.

Yes, people love to talk about 60:40 (brand:performance). But maybe it’s 40:60 in your category. Or maybe it’s “as much brand as you can possibly afford”.

There is no right answer. Context matters.

The Real Problem Isn’t Brand vs Performance

The real problem is that many organisations still run brand and performance as separate disciplines, often managed by different teams, measured in different ways, incentivised differently.

So what’s the real skill marketers need?

Leadership.

Leadership means:

  • Being clear on the marketing outcome you need to deliver
  • Bringing teams together to deliver it together
  • Briefing everyone at the same time and insisting on one plan
  • Putting brand and performance KPIs on one page
  • Clearly explaining the expectations and the consequences of the choices you make

Marketing Spend Is Investment

And one thing we really need to get better at saying out loud:

All marketing spend is investment. That’s how everyone else who manages money thinks.

Your ISA, your pension will be invested in a combination of quick wins and slow burn funds. It’s a mix, balancing short-term returns with long-term value.

So why should marketing be any different?

Brand investment makes performance more effective.

Performance activity delivers the “we need more sales by the end of the quarter” outcome faster than brand ever will.

Sometimes, to hit a short-term target, you may even need to reduce brand spend. The important question isn’t whether you do it, it’s whether you understand and can explain the implications.

How long can you pause brand investment before effectiveness drops?

What happens to performance efficiency when you do?

This Is the Job

Be a leader. Invest the business’s money responsibly. Reach and delight customers.Deliver growth.

Then do it again, maybe with a different mix, and repeat.

Recognise the context and demonstrate the value of marketing to your business.