The brand and activation split calculator: a starting point for the balance

The calculator splits a communication budget between brand building (long-term, broad-reach work that builds memory and willingness to pay) and sales activation (short-term work aimed at people ready to buy now). Enter the budget and choose a context; it returns the brand and activation shares and amounts suggested by the effectiveness research as a starting point. Both terms are in the glossary: brand building and sales activation.

Les Binet and Peter Field's analysis of IPA effectiveness cases, The Long and the Short of It, set out ten key principles of success¹, including the average best split for consumer brands of about 60:40 in favour of brand building; their later study Effectiveness in Context put it at 62:38², looking at how the rules change with a brand's circumstances³. Context moves the number further: Mark Ritson, summarising Binet and Field, gives 80:20 for financial services, where customers switch providers rarely⁴. For business-to-business marketing, Binet and Field's 5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing, published by LinkedIn's B2B Institute⁵, found the best-performing split closer to 46:54, slightly in favour of activation⁶. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute's John Dawes explains why brand still matters in B2B: at any one time only a small minority of business buyers are in the market, so most communication has to reach people who will buy later⁷.

1. Enter the budget for the period, the total communication spend across disciplines.
2. Choose the context that fits the category: general (consumer brands), B2B, or financial services.
3. Read the split as a starting point, and write down why your situation might move it: a new brand or a launch tends to need more activation early; a long purchase cycle or rare switching favours brand.
4. Assign disciplines to each side by job, not by channel name: the same video can build the brand or activate, depending on targeting and message.
5. Agree how each side will be judged: brand on long-term measures such as awareness, consideration and pricing power; activation on response.

Illustrative figures for the fictional Ourika Roasters; not benchmarks.

With a budget of 100,000 in the general context, the calculator suggests 60,000 for brand building and 40,000 for activation. The team then notes its own circumstances: the subscription is new and needs trials, so for the launch quarter it plans a heavier activation share, returning towards the starting point once the subscription has a base to retain.

• Treating the ratio as a law The evidence gives averages with wide variation by category and circumstance^2, 3.
• Labelling by channel Brand and activation are jobs, not media types.
• Judging brand on short-term sales Its effects build over longer periods¹.
• Ignoring B2B's future buyers Most of the market is not buying today⁷.

• Binet and Field, The Long and the Short of It¹; the IPA on the next chapter²; Effectiveness in Context³.
• Ritson on budgets⁴; the B2B Institute⁵ and The Drum on the B2B research⁶; the 95:5 rule⁷.
• On IMC Report: budgeting for IMC and measuring effectiveness.