Summary

At pivotal moments of change, it’s tempting to chase bigger ideas and new formats. Yet the signal blurs when strong work isn’t seen. Progress comes when leaders invest in distribution—budgeting reach first—and design ideas to travel. That’s how organisations regain dependable growth and compound market memory.

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Our Perspective

What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.

The Real Bottleneck

Most leadership teams over-index on originality and underinvest in how that originality actually meets people. The unseen truth is simple: great work without reach can’t compound. The constraint isn’t taste or talent; it’s how reliably the idea travels through the market and shows up often enough to be remembered.

That’s why the LinkedIn B2B Institute points to a 10:1 weighting favouring distribution over creative development; it reframes brand investment as an exercise in engineered reach rather than art for its own sake. When you treat distribution as the multiplier, creative becomes a choice about efficiency, not a bet on luck.

Designing For Travel

The practical shift is to design ideas for travel before adding flourish. That means building from positioning, proof, and repetition, so the message can be carried by multiple channels, formats, and people with minimal loss of meaning. It’s less about novelty, more about coherence under pressure.

• Pinpoint priority audiences and the environments where they already pay attention.
• Codify proof points that simplify credibility and reduce friction in adoption.
• Decide cadence and repetition rules so memory builds predictably.
• Pre-commit to the minimum viable set of formats your plan will sustain.

Budgeting For Reach

Budgeting reach first changes decision quality. Treat distribution as a fixed design constraint, then tailor creative to work hard within it. Done well, you gain steadier share of voice, stronger recall, and lower volatility in outcomes.

• Lock base reach and frequency targets before “upgrading” craft choices.
• Fund a channel plan that blends broad platforms with targeted follow-through.
• Prioritise reliable, scalable placements over experimental fragmentation.
• Equip internal teams with simple toolkits so the message carries into sales conversations and talent channels.

Leadership Implications

Governance matters. Give one senior owner accountability for distribution, and align measures around reach, frequency, and effective share of voice, not just engagement surges. Creative should then earn headroom by proving its effect on those reach metrics and on return on investment (ROI). We often see organisations regain momentum when a single accountable owner is mandated to prioritise reach, with creative required to serve that plan.

Culturally, this reframes brand as an operating system, not a campaign. Consistency builds memory; memory builds advantage. Organisations that rebalance towards distribution create a quieter, more durable edge—less noise, more certainty, and growth that compounds rather than peaks and fades.

Sources:

Further Resources

1. Maximising Brand Investment for Long-Term ROI
2. Purpose-Driven Growth: Accelerating Brand Success
3. Building Brand Awareness While Driving Revenue Growth

Every organisation hits brand questions it can’t solve alone — if you’d like an outside perspective, we’re here. Let’s talk.

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