According to the WARC 2025 study, marketing is increasingly moving towards balanced media strategies. While in recent years many brands have focused heavily on performance marketing, recent findings show that long-term growth will come from a combination of branding and performance-based marketing.
The central message of the study is clear: branding and performance should not be seen as opposing directions. They work best together. Strong branding increases the effectiveness of performance marketing because consumers know and trust the brand and are more likely to respond to advertising. Focusing only on short-term sales, however, can reduce the overall impact of advertising over time.
WARC points out that moving to a balanced model can increase ROI by up to 90%. Moving in the opposite direction, i.e. focusing only on performance, can mean up to a 40% drop in ROI. This demonstrates that brand building is not a stand-alone add-on activity, but a direct part of driving results.
AI transforms search and brand visibility
One important trend highlighted by the study is generative search optimisation, or GEO. AI platforms are changing the way people search for information, discover products and make purchasing decisions. While traditional search focused mainly on keywords and search results, AI-based environments are increasingly focusing on brand awareness, positive reputation and third-party referrals.
This means that brands need to think beyond their website or paid advertising. Media mentions, reviews, content marketing, peer reviews and other signals from which AI platforms build responses will also become important.
WARC also stresses the importance of CEPs or category entry points. They help the brand to be visible in situations where the consumer starts to consider a need or a category. This will become even more important in the future as AI and e-commerce increasingly converge. Purchasing directly through AI and the role of AI agents in assisting consumers will grow.
A consistent brand message must match the pace of algorithms
For marketers, it is an increasing challenge to find a balance between consistent brand communication and the demands of algorithms. From a brand perspective, a clear and consistent message works best in the long term. At the same time, digital platforms constantly need new content, formats and variations.
The solution is not to come up with a completely new creative idea every week, but to cleverly expand on a strong one. From a single message you can create many different versions for different channels, audiences and formats.
This is where AI is playing an increasingly important role, helping to quickly create hundreds of variations while preserving the essence of the brand. To be successful, marketing needs to be able to serve both algorithms and humans. Advertising needs to be variable enough to work across platforms, but consistent enough to make the brand recognisable.
Content creators are becoming more and more important in building a brand
In 2025, brands’ investment in content creators increased significantly. According to the WARC study, content creators are no longer just a tactical add-on channel, but an increasingly important part of brand building.
Research shows that content creators can have a strong impact on both short-term and long-term ROI. In some cases, they already compete with traditional mass media channels, including television. Their strength lies primarily in their trust, authenticity and ability to reach audiences in a more natural format.
However, there are risks in using content creators. Results can be highly volatile and the wrong content creator or weak branding can make a campaign ineffective. Therefore, it is not enough to choose a partner with a large following. It is important to assess the suitability of the content creator for the brand, the target audience, the message and the campaign objective.
In the future, the role of content creators is likely to grow. In addition to traditional influencer collaborations, AI will create new opportunities such as virtual influencers, automated content creation and more personalised creative solutions.
Not all contact points affect the consumer equally
The WARC study also highlights the concept of influenceability. According to this concept, not all points of contact in the marketing journey are equal in influencing the consumer. Channel choice, context, timing of the message and consumer readiness play a very important role in the impact of an advertisement.
According to the study, random channel selection has a 20% chance of success. If the channel choice is optimised, the probability of success rises to 47%. This shows how important it is to base media planning on data, consumer behaviour and the actual role of channels in the buying journey.
In addition to paid media, owned, shared and earned channels are also becoming important. WARC estimates that OSE channels can be up to three times more effective than paid media alone. This means that a brand’s impact comes not just from buying advertising, but also from how the brand’s owned channels, shared content and earned visibility work together.
Marketing focus for 2026: impact, visibility and balance
According to the WARC 2025 study, the next stage in the evolution of marketing is clearly about balance. Brands must be able to combine long-term brand building with short-term sales performance. At the same time, they need to adapt to AI-driven search, new content creation opportunities and an increasingly complex media environment.
The main directions for 2026 are a stronger link between brand and performance, the growing influence of AI in search and e-commerce, keeping consistent brand messaging under pressure from algorithms, the growing role of content creators, and measuring the impact of advertising more accurately.
In the future, it will no longer be enough to measure coverage, clicks or impressions. It will become increasingly important to understand whether advertising has had a real impact on the consumer, increased attention and contributed to brand growth.
