RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF. — Long-standing distinctions between brand and performance media budgets are rapidly breaking down as marketers face economic pressure and intensify their focus on measurable outcomes, said Jill Kelly, CEO, North America at Stagwell’s Assembly Global.
Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet Retreat LA, Kelly said clients are increasingly allocating spend against a unified set of short- and long-term key performance indicators rather than separating “brand” and “performance” dollars into discrete silos.
“We’re seeing a fusion of brand dollars and performance dollars that are tied to specific KPIs, but they don’t work independently of each other,” Kelly said. “There’s now a much more holistic view of brand-performance media investment.”
Balancing cost pressure with quality
That shift is unfolding amid heightened economic uncertainty across industries, from housing and insurance to consumer goods. Kelly said marketers are navigating a delicate balance between controlling costs and continuing to invest in premium media environments and strategic partnerships.
“What clients are leaning hard into is efficiency when it comes to hard-working media dollars tied to performance,” she said. “At the same time, they’re also leaning into value for investment. You can’t choose one or the other. You have to do both.”
Kelly noted that economic headwinds, including tariffs, consumer conservatism and government funding uncertainty, are forcing advertisers to rethink how efficiency is defined, moving beyond pure cost-cutting toward value creation.
Measurement still fragmented
Measurement fragmentation remains a persistent challenge, Kelly acknowledged, but she said progress will require collaboration beyond individual agencies.
Industry groups such as the Association of National Advertisers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau are advancing cross-media measurement initiatives, which Kelly described as “much needed.”
“Agencies can reconcile activity across channels to a degree, but no agency can solve this alone,” she said. “It has to happen at the ecosystem level, with partners across the industry.”
Creative accountability moves center stage
Kelly also pointed to the accelerating collapse of silos between media and creative, driven by growing accountability for creative performance.
“Content, whether you call it creative, messaging or content, drives about 60% of KPIs,” she said. “Placement alone or context alone can’t do that.”
As a result, media strategies are now expected to arrive with an integrated content approach. Clients no longer view creative and media metrics as separate, Kelly added, but as interdependent drivers of campaign success.
“When we bring forward a media idea, it’s never absent a content strategy,” she said. “If those two aren’t working together, it’s a disservice to the campaign.”
Where spend is heading next
Looking ahead, Kelly said search remains a growth area, despite predictions that generative AI would reduce query volume. Instead, she said, search activity has increased.
“We’re actually seeing about 7% more search as a result of generative AI,” Kelly said.
She also expects increased investment in experiential marketing and creator-led platforms, as brands look for deeper engagement and differentiation beyond traditional digital channels.
Those trends, Kelly said, reflect a broader reality for marketers: success now depends on integrating performance, brand, creative and measurement into a single, accountable framework.
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