Measurement methods that are standard practice across the industry have been tested in peer-reviewed research and found to routinely overstate what advertising actually contributes. Agency remuneration models have shifted over the past decade toward revenue streams that are less visible to the client.
The split between long-term brand building and short-term activation matters enormously — research across nearly a thousand case studies makes that clear. Most companies have never assessed their allocation against it. And marketing itself covers product, pricing, distribution and communications, but in most companies the focus is biased towards communications.
None of this requires bad intent. It is simply how the system was built. Every part of it — the agencies, the platforms, the measurement vendors, the marketing team — has a structural reason not to answer the question clearly. The cumulative effect is that most boards are making significant spending decisions without an independent view of what that spend is producing.
