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The Long and the Short of It cover

The Long and the Short of It

Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies

Split your budget roughly sixty-forty between brand and activation.

by Les Binet and Peter Field

Drawing on the IPA Effectiveness Databank, Binet and Field show that marketing works on two timescales: short-term sales activation and long-term brand building, which behave very differently. They argue that the most effective strategies balance the two, with a roughly 60:40 split favoring brand building over activation. The short book has become a touchstone for marketing effectiveness.

Founders defaulting to performance marketing learn why pure short-term activation plateaus and how brand investment compounds growth over years. The 60:40 guideline gives a concrete starting point for allocating limited budget.

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