It has long been understood that brand is advertising’s most powerful driver of growth. Yet, in a marketplace worth more than one trillion dollars, less than 10% of digital campaigns track brand outcomes.
This leaves advertisers blind to long-term impact, media companies with no way to connect media to brand outcomes and agencies without the clarity to guide smarter tactics and strategies.
Brand, however, is why people instinctively choose one bottle of water over another. It’s why companies invest millions for 30 seconds of attention during the Super Bowl. Marketers know that brand creates cultural relevance, loyalty and long-term impact. The problem is that measurement hasn’t kept up with capturing and unpacking that impact.
It’s time to close the gap with an industrywide call to make brand the most – rather than the least – measured signal in advertising.
Why brand measurement matters now
We can only improve what we measure. In business, science, sports and advertising, measurement doesn’t just keep score; it defines the game. What we measure shapes what we value and what we value sets the course for action. Yet, paradoxically, the most powerful lever of growth – brand – is the one we measure the least.
Over the past decade, this gap in brand measurement has only widened, even as the need to close it has become more urgent. As AI reshapes how consumers discover and evaluate products, media continues to fragment. Attribution, meanwhile, becomes increasingly complex and noisy – and marketers are losing a clear line of sight into what’s working and why.
Amid this complexity, brand remains the anchor that gives advertisers a clearer view into what drives consumer choice and preference. When measured and understood, it becomes the force that builds market share, fuels lasting profitability and helps companies win.
Blurring the line between performance and brand
It’s time to put brand back at the center of advertising. All digital campaigns, whether labeled “performance” or “brand,” shape perception and drive choice. A discount coupon may prompt sales today and influence how consumers feel about a brand tomorrow. A Super Bowl ad can build cultural impact while also driving immediate action. The division between “brand” and “performance” has always been artificial. Both work together, and both must be measured together.
In an ideal world, every marketer would measure both performance and brand outcomes for every dollar spent, regardless of media strategy. But that is far from the current reality, especially when it comes to brand. That’s why DISQO launched The Brand Movement, an effort to ensure marketers can understand the full impact of their advertising.
To propel this movement forward, DISQO is removing the barriers that kept brand measurement out of reach with the launch of a free, self–service, brand–lift product for media companies to enable the measurement of incremental brand lift across digital campaigns.
When media companies can measure brand with precision and ease, agencies can sharpen their strategies and improve ad effectiveness. This drives better outcomes, leading to greater advertising investment from brands. The result is an economic flywheel: stronger results, increased spend and growth across the industry.
Brand has always been advertising’s most powerful tool. Now, as an industry, we have a greater opportunity to measure it, elevate it and build on it together.
For more articles featuring Armen Adjemian, click here.
