2025: The year of brand building

“We’re good at performance marketing, but our brand sucks!”

Possibly the most apt statement we’ve seen as marketers get ready for the ‘2025 brand building revolution’.

With a big shift back to brand building marketing over the last 6 months and all trends pointing to budgets moving away from ‘short-termism’ strategies in 2025, we asked 120 marketing leaders from across the UK how they were feeling about performance marketing.

The result…

65% are struggling to see clear business results from performance marketing, and find it difficult to get beyond the vanity metrics to the real business impact.
70% are planning to invest more in brand marketing in 2025 after a period of increased investment into performance marketing over the last 24 months.
83% felt ROI on performance marketing was getting harder to justify due to digital changes and the increasing costs of performance marketing.

We all know, performance marketing can drive those immediate results, but if it doesn’t align with a strong brand story, are you really growing your business long term?

Brands that master the balance between performance and brand building are the ones set up for success. Not least because the digital environment in 2025 and beyond presents a unique set of challenges: rising customer acquisition costs, stricter privacy regulations, and changing consumer expectations around trust and authenticity. Relying solely on ‘short-term tactics’ is not just risky, it’s unsustainable and creates a significant disadvantage for businesses.

The Digital Shift: What’s In and What’s Out for 2025

Over the past few years, performance marketing which focused on driving measurable, short-term actions like clicks, leads, and conversions has been the focus of many companies’ strategies. But this emphasis on performance marketing is becoming harder to sustain on its own due to:

Privacy regulations

Changes like GDPR and the phasing out of third-party cookies are making it more difficult to track and target consumers across platforms. The reduced ability to collect data is affecting the precision of performance tactics, making it more expensive and much less effective. With higher customer acquisition costs, brands need to rethink their approach.

Rising costs

Our research with senior marketers revealed that 70% feel ROI is getting harder to justify due to digital changes and rising costs of performance marketing. While it’s still necessary and valuable, it is becoming less efficient on its own. Many brands are stuck focusing on easily measurable vanity metrics, clicks, likes, and shares, but these metrics don’t translate into long-term business success. Platforms like Google Ads, Meta and TikTok have become highly competitive, driving up the cost of performance marketing campaigns by up to 70%. Many brands find it increasingly difficult to justify ROI, especially when the vanity metrics don’t translate into sustainable business results.

Changing consumer preference and expectation

Consumers are becoming more immune and less interested in transactional advertising. They are savvy and can see through the performance hype, instead they are gravitating towards brands that have an emotional connection, where they feel content is authentic and believable. Consumers are more likely to engage with a brand they trust, and they are willing to pay a premium for products or services that align with their values and deliver consistent experiences. This emotional connection drives repeat business, customer retention, and word-of-mouth referrals, outcomes that performance marketing alone can’t achieve.

The UK brands with the right balance

There are plenty of brands leading the way by successfully balancing performance and brand, but they all have one thing in common, their marketing is filled with the big ideas and brand led content that performs in the earned space first.

Heineken

This beer company has mastered the art of brand and performance. Making sure everything they do is brand led and interruptive. In its latest bid to foster IRL social connections, the brand hacked two music events, Mexico’s Live Out festival and Amsterdam Dance Event’s opening party, to discourage phone use on the dance floor. Heineken installed technology that delivered a hidden message that only became visible on phone screens via infrared lighting. When people held up their phones to film the performance, the message was revealed, telling attendees to keep the moment in their memories, not on their devices. Heineken has made the hidden infrared technology publicly available for any music artist to implement it at their own live shows. Alongside this, they shared thousands of ads with the key messages, encouraging audiences to enjoy Heineken with every special moment.

GymShark

The fitness apparel brand Gymshark is another standout in the UK, having built a strong community around fitness enthusiasts while running highly targeted performance marketing campaigns. Gymshark invests heavily in brand ambassadors and influencer marketing, alongside community-driven content, which enhances brand loyalty and long-term engagement. Simultaneously, its performance marketing efforts are designed to drive sales and conversions, leveraging tools like retargeting ads and social media campaigns to drive immediate results. The brand’s ability to unite an authentic community with performance-driven campaigns has led to its explosive growth.

Monzo

The digital bank Monzo has mastered the balance. Monzo is known for its distinct brand voice, relatable, transparent, and customer-centric, which helps it stand out in the competitive fintech market. Its performance marketing is laser-focused on user acquisition, with referral programs and digital ads optimised for conversions. However, it doesn’t just focus on short-term gains. The brand’s overall messaging emphasises its mission of transparency and customer empowerment, ensuring that its performance campaigns are aligned with long-term brand goals.

The need for integration: why both matter

The brands highlighted demonstrate the power of getting it right, they are some of the pro’s when it comes to integrated strategies. So, let’s embrace four marketing mantras for 2025:

Brand Building Drives Loyalty
Performance Marketing Drives Conversions
Every idea should perform in the earned space first
Proper Data = business success

The result… We call it Offectiveness™

As we head into 2025, it’s time to think differently, use budgets wisely and get back to a time where audiences are genuinely surprised and inspired and not ‘transacted with’. The marketing landscape is becoming increasingly complex, and no one can afford to rely solely on performance marketing, the consumer demands a more balanced and authentic approach. By investing in both brand building and performance marketing, you can accelerate sustainable growth, drive customer loyalty, and weather the challenges of an evolving digital ecosystem – which let’s face it, is changing every day!