Emotional brand-building can help a little more budget go a long way

With 2025 now in full swing and the festive break a distant memory, I know the growth challenge that’s currently top of mind for marketing teams is driving future demand. While the most recent IPA Bellwether shows budgets were up marginally in the final quarter of 2024 after flatlining in the previous quarter, the limited sense of optimism this offers shouldn’t minimise marketers’ ambitions to achieve far more with just a little extra.

Alongside my work with brand health tracking platform Tracksuit, I’m fortunate enough to be trusted to teach marketers around the world how to upskill and create more impactful campaigns. Whether I’m in Auckland or Austin, I hear the same challenge: “I know my Binet and Field, but the problem is persuading my finance director as they only care about short-term bang for their buck”.

So, for all those facing that challenge – here’s the answer. Put the marketing theory to one side and ask those stakeholders the following: “How long are you prepared to continue spending to achieve the same, or are you interested in more?”

Take juice shot brand Moju. It was a huge success story in 2024 – and a great proof point of a little going a long way in terms of results. Far from a “one-shot” wonder, the brand saw its volume sales increase by 56% in 2024 to become the UK’s fastest-growing soft drinks brand.

Moju succeeds because of the strong emotional connection it creates with its audience from day one. A data-driven brand development strategy underpinned a smart partnership with Absolute Radio to bring the brand into commuters’ daily routines in the run-up to Christmas, as well as an emotionally led ‘Wake, Shake, Boom’ creative to celebrate the wonderful “Moju faces” its customers pulled after sampling the powerful shot. Launching its latest refresh of the campaign on Boxing Day was a perfect touch from its agency Bicycle to acknowledge the ‘Twixmas’ lethargy into which many workers had sunk.

Moju is the perfect riposte to the assumption that smaller budgets demand a shift toward rational, performance-led campaigns.

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Emotional marketing doesn’t just create memorable connections; it drives superior business results, even in resource-constrained environments. As brands navigate economic uncertainty, the smart money is on campaigns that harness the power of emotion to deliver both short-term wins and long-term value.

Sustainable marketing campaigns recognise that costs mount up over time, they don’t stay the same. Stand still on your spending and you risk moving backwards.

The impact of emotional marketing is amplified by creativity. In The Effectiveness Code, a 2020 white paper I was privileged to work on alongside Peter Field, we revisited the effectiveness of creativity, finding that campaigns awarded for their creativity continue to be much more likely to win effectiveness awards too.

Creativity acts as a force multiplier, enabling modest budgets to deliver outsized results. Consider the success of Moju or Elf Beauty. Their recent campaigns resonate because they make people feel something – whether it’s warmth, joy, or humour. They don’t rely on the biggest budgets to make an impact. Instead, they succeed through ingenuity and emotional resonance.

For marketing directors facing tough conversations with finance counterparts, the data supporting emotional marketing offers a powerful argument. Studies consistently show that emotion-driven campaigns yield better long-term returns, even when resources are limited. Peter Field and Les Binet’s work highlights that brands investing in long-term emotional connections significantly outperform competitors.

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Armed with your reinforced belief in emotional marketing you should be positioning your campaigns as a form of risk mitigation. While performance marketing provides immediate but fleeting gains, emotional storytelling ensures the brand remains relevant and resilient, even during economic downturns.

So how should marketers look to assess how, when and where they engage with their audiences for the maximum impact? Well, here context is key. I know from my own investments that being the startup challenger in the room with an innovative new product is a superpower that doesn’t last forever.

Most marketers will be playing in a crowded and mature category, and indeed will usually enjoy high brand awareness to boot. Unless they’ve managed to carve out a monopoly like Google or Airbnb they’ll be surrounded by many competitors offering similar wares. This is when brand becomes the key differentiator – moving from ‘value proposition-centric’ to ’emotional positioning-centric’.

The choice is clear: will your brand invest in emotion to secure long-term relevance and growth, or will it fall into the trap of chasing short-term gains at the expense of its future?

Here, a brand’s superpower is that customers choose them simply because they feel emotionally close to them. Few brands illustrate this so well as Apple or Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, reflecting that in general, emotional ads boost a brand’s price premium by up to 40%, making customers more willing to pay a premium.

According to our global tracking of 21,000 consumers, LVMH aligning with the 2024 Olympics was a super smart decision, with the sporting event identified as the standout brand moment of the year. Results showed levels of recall were higher than viral brands including Ozempic or Temu. The luxury conglomerate recognised the value of associating its brands with cultural icons such as Olympian Simone Biles.

Again, according to our Biggest Brand Moments of the Year study, her impact on consumer recall rivalled that of Brat Summer’s Charli XCX. By connecting with high-energy, emotionally-charged celebrations, LVMH reinforced its premium positioning while maintaining relevance.

So next time you’re face-to-face with the number crunchers, remember the power of emotional marketing. Ultimately, the choice is clear: will your brand invest in emotion to secure long-term relevance and growth, or will it fall into the trap of chasing short-term gains at the expense of its future? For marketers, the time to act is now. After all, no one remembers the size of your budget or the precision of your targeting. They remember how your campaign made them feel.

James Hurman is co-founder of brand tracking platform Tracksuit