The Great Marketing Reset: Why Brands Are Ditching Quick Wins for Lasting Impact
Performance marketers in Africa and Europe face a hard truth. For years, they chased return on investment. Every ad had to convert. Now, costs are rising. Privacy laws tighten. Competition grows. They must change.
Brand building is back. A strong name matters. A lasting impression beats a quick sale.
Companies once hooked on performance marketing shift gears. Jumia, Zalando, and others now mix in live events, influencer deals, and striking videos. They must build trust, not just chase clicks.
Advertising costs climb. Audiences scatter. GDPR and other laws make data harder to track. Brands need new ways to stay visible. Agencies see a surge in demand for branding. Statista reports 38% of European marketers plan to spend more on it this year.
Take Woolworths in South Africa. They invest in pop-up stores and sustainability campaigns. L’Oréal in France bets on influencer marketing over ads. Coca-Cola pushes local, community-driven efforts in Africa. The fintech world follows suit. Trust matters for Flutterwave and Paystack. Without it, they fail.
Post-pandemic, spending habits changed. Inflation made buyers cautious. Brands leaned on performance ads to stay afloat. Now, they hit a wall. Growth stalls. Customer loyalty fades.
Performance marketing isn’t dead. But it must share the stage. The once clear-cut approach of relying purely on performance marketing is proving unsustainable. Businesses that focused solely on immediate returns now face diminishing engagement and rising acquisition costs. The reality is that customers no longer make decisions based on ads alone. They need familiarity, trust, and emotional connections with brands.
This is where Brandformance marketing comes in. It blends the precision of performance marketing with the long-term impact of branding. It moves beyond short-term conversions and instead builds customer loyalty over time. Instead of flooding digital channels with transactional ads, businesses invest in content, storytelling, and community-building. They create experiences that make their brand memorable while still driving measurable results. Companies that embrace this shift see stronger retention, greater organic reach, and a more sustainable return on investment. The rise of Brandformance marketing, a blend of performance and brand marketing, marks the way forward. Performance sells. Branding keeps customers coming back.
With cookies disappearing and privacy rules getting stricter, new tools emerge. Connected TV, brand partnerships, and earned media gain ground. African streamer Showmax and European broadcaster ITV offer fresh ways to tell brand stories.
The fight is for attention. The ones who hold it win. The brands with the best content and boldest ideas will lead the way.