The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) is a global authority on what makes marketing work across many sectors, thanks to decades of research, analysis and case studies from the IPA Effectiveness Awards, now the world’s gold standard. Director of Effectiveness Laurence Green offered some learnings from just two financial brands shortlisted in 2024 – HSBC and AML client Vanguard.
Long-run investment in brand has been proved again and again to deliver value real value to organisations – even transforming entire industries, as Vanguard have demonstrated. A strong brand will multiply investment in all marketing channels, inspiring internal stakeholders and consumers alike. According to Green it’s only a matter of time until brands are valued on the balance sheet.
Jet Cooke, former CMO at Fidelity and now marketing leader, agrees. She advises using data to inform budget negotiations, starting with competitor framing. As she says, if a CMO is asked to achieve market leadership on half the budget of the market leader, that’s simply not realistic; “we’re marketers, not magicians”.
Agencies can help, as AML CEO Ian Henderson said. Sensible agency heads value long-term partnership and will work with client teams to bring objectivity, experience over economic cycles and sectors and knowledge of optimum budget allocations. Aligning business priorities, brand positioning and marketing behaviours is a useful addition to the budget discussion.
NinetyOne’s CMO Malcolm Fried challenged the audience to take a serious, informed role in budgeting as the way to win the argument. He said marketers should be armed with three things; What’s going on in the wider economy? What do my company’s financials tell me? What’s our relative performance in the marketplace?
Only then he says can marketers expect to make a rational case for budget as part of the wider business context, in a way that the rest of the senior leadership team will buy into. In a lively discussion with the audience, it was clear that marketers can do a lot to help themselves secure the budgets they need. And to make sure brand and marketing are seen as the engine of business growth, not merely a cost to be managed.
