‘Playing the long game’: How marketers can remove the barriers to brand investment
Often forced to “pick sides” in the tussle between short-term tactics and long-term growth, how can marketers ensure brand is seen as business critical?
Marketers in 2025 are being torn in two different directions.
On the one hand, pressure from senior leadership to deliver quick commercial results is seeing them channel more cash into performance marketing channels. At the same time, they’re struggling with what this bias toward short-term uplift means for the brand building activities they know are critical to longer-term performance.
What exactly are the barriers they face when it comes to investing more in brand? What’s the risk of a strategy too geared toward short-term returns? How can marketers convince a sometimes-single-minded senior leadership team they need to rethink the balance?
“Too often, marketers are forced to pick a side, brand or performance, as if one drives growth and the other is a luxury,” says Matti Yahav, CMO at freelance marketplace Fiverr.
