From data to dialogue: speaking the CFO’s language

The challenge every marketer knows

Every marketer recognises the dilemma: how to deliver quick business results without compromising long-term brand health. At the UBA Marketing Communication Effectiveness round table, participants openly discussed the tension between investing in brand and driving short-term performance.

Brand building is a long game. Its effects are not always immediately visible, but over time it creates the awareness, trust, and preference that make sales easier and more sustainable. By contrast, short-term wins, such as performance campaigns, are easier to measure and often more attractive to boards and finance teams, especially in difficult economic contexts. The risk is that when budgets are tight, brand activities are often the first to be reduced or postponed. CMOs emphasised that divesting in brand building in favour of a performance-driven strategy may indeed generate short-term gains, but it can jeopardise long-term brand growth.

Brand building is measurable

To justify long-term investment in brand, several measurement approaches allowing marketers to quantify the contribution of brand and performance activities to sales over time were discussed. Several measurement models can help defend brand investments. For example, cause-and-effect analyses and brand tracking studies can help demonstrate the brand’s role in driving long-term outcomes. Though it remains difficult to show a direct link between brand equity and immediate sales figures, these tools provide a solid basis to defend brand investments.

CMOs also stressed the importance of continuously monitoring the impact of both brand and performance activities. This builds the evidence base needed to sustain a balanced marketing mix, even when the pressure for immediate results is high.

Storytelling is key

The conversation also touched on the challenge of KPIs. One recurring issue is not the lack of KPIs, but the lack of prioritisation. From ROAS and ROMI to awareness, conversion, and satisfaction, the number of metrics available is overwhelming. With so many indicators, different teams prioritise different metrics: marketing looks at brand health, finance at ROI, the board at market share. This makes internal alignment difficult.

The solution? Prioritisation and narrative. Defending brand investment requires strong internal storytelling. For KPIs to be effective, they need to be relevant to the audience and accompanied by a compelling narrative. Boards don’t need to see CPC or CPM, they want clear outcomes and trends. Also, KPIs become useful when they are not just numbers on a slide, but part of a broader story: Marketers need to explain what the number means, why it matters, and how it connects to the broader business strategy.

Building brand and business… at the same time

The session also explored how marketing budgets are built. Some make incremental adjustments each year, with bigger shifts every two years. Others use zero-based budgeting, rebuilding the budget annually while still considering historical spending patterns. Many combine top-down financial targets with bottom-up market insights to arrive at a plan, reviewing it regularly to adapt to competition, crises, or market shifts. But in nearly all cases, performance KPIs carry significant weight in final budget decisions.

The message was clear: marketing must deliver both short-term performance and long-term brand strength. This requires careful budget allocation, consistent measurement, and clear communication with internal stakeholders., The right KPIs, combined with clear storytelling, can help make that case to decision-makers and ensure that both immediate and future goals are served.

In a third and last article of this series, we examine the evolving role of media. From integrating owned and paid channels to cross-media measurement gap, CMOs share how they connect with audiences.

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