Brand Finance logo

C-Suite Partnerships: Aligning marketing and finance to drive growth

Mike Rocha
29 January 2025

At the Brand Finance Global 500 2025 launch at the World Economic Forum in Davos, one critical question echoed throughout the session: How can businesses make a stronger case for greater investment in their brands? With the combined value of the world’s top 500 most valuable brands reaching $9.5 trillion - a fifth of their parent companies’ total enterprise value -their importance as strategic assets is indisputable. However, as the marketing landscape becomes increasingly data-driven, the challenge of articulating and proving the value of investing in brand has never been more complex.

This issue was at the heart of our panel discussion: "C-Suite Partnerships for Outsized Growth." Featuring leaders from marketing, finance, and sustainability—Sumit Virmani (Global CMO, Infosys), Jared DiPalma (CFO, Dow Jones), and Jonquil Hackenberg (CEO, Ellen MacArthur Foundation) - the session explored the balance between purpose and performance, short-term results and long-term brand building.

Redefining brand building in a changing landscape

The traditional approach to brand building has evolved from iconic campaigns like Guinness’s surfer advert to an era dominated by performance marketing and real-time data insights. This shift has enabled precise tracking of sales, leads, and other key metrics but often comes at the expense of investments in building long-term brand equity.

Sumit Virmani highlighted this dynamic from Infosys’ perspective, sharing how the company’s growth as the fastest-growing IT services brand in the Global 500 across the last five years stems from embedding trust and purpose into its strategy. He emphasised, “To sustain brand growth over years and decades, it has to start with the business realising how important the intangible asset is for the long-term success of the business.” Sumit spoke about the “confluence of promise, purpose, and performance,” stressing that marketing must deliver on promises while keeping its eye on business performance.

Jonquil Hackenberg provided insights into how purpose-led organisations, like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, navigate a crowded sustainability space to maintain relevance. She explained that the foundation’s mission is deeply rooted in advancing the circular economy, focusing on initiatives such as eliminating plastic waste and encouraging materials to remain in circulation. By bringing forward proof points through innovation and advocacy, the foundation helps brands associate with sustainability while steering clear of greenwashing risks.

Jared DiPalma shared how Dow Jones, a company with heritage brands dating back to 1882, approaches balancing brand legacy with innovation. “Heritage brands carry immense value,” he noted, “but they demand careful stewardship to avoid the risk of losing what makes them trusted.” Jared detailed the discussions between Dow Jones’ CMO, CEO, and CFO in prioritising brand vision and allocating capital, stressing that the company divides its efforts between brand marketing for market share and performance marketing for direct subscriber results. “For performance marketing, every dollar in should see a result. For brand marketing, it’s about building market share,” he added.

The financial case for brand investment

The financial benefits of strong brands are clear. Data from Brand Finance shows that the top 100 global brands outperformed their peers in the MSCI World Index between 2017 and 2025, delivering 21% higher shareholder yield, 22% higher return on equity, and 20% higher operating margins. This is a testament to the role of brands in driving differentiation, pricing power, and customer loyalty.

However, companies must find the right balance between brand building and performance marketing. Research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) suggests that allocating 60% of marketing resources to brand building and 40% to performance marketing yields the best results in consumer sectors. For B2B industries, the ideal split shifts slightly to 45% for brand and 55% for performance. Campaigns that achieve this balance deliver stronger conversion rates and sustained growth over time.

Airbnb offers a particularly compelling example of how brand marketing can drive significant results. During the pandemic, the company made a bold decision to drastically reduce its performance marketing spend, instead focusing on building its brand. This pivot was exemplified by the launch of the "Made Possible by Hosts" campaign in 2021, which celebrated the unique experiences created by Airbnb hosts. The result was a remarkable turnaround: from a low point of $2.4 billion in 2016, Airbnb's brand value surged to $7.0 billion in 2025. This case highlights how a strategic focus on brand storytelling can deliver record financial performance and improve marketing efficiency, even in challenging circumstances.

Sumit spoke to the tensions between short- and long-term marketing objectives, noting, “There is sometimes a conundrum between brand and performance marketing, as people want to see short-term revenue upticks. But consistent investment in the brand is essential to drive long-term market share growth and shareholder gains.” He explained how Infosys leverages marketing technology, AI and data to strike this balance and maintain a sharp focus on both immediate and future outcomes.

Collaboration across the C-Suite

Achieving these outcomes requires more than marketing expertise - it demands collaboration across the C-suite. CFOs play a critical role in scrutinising the ROI of brand investment, while CMOs must ensure they align marketing efforts with broader business objectives. CEOs, meanwhile, must champion a unified vision that integrates brand strategy into overall corporate priorities.

Jared highlighted the importance of setting clear priorities and using data to drive clarity in budget allocation. “We start early by determining the data and insights we’ll use to measure success and aligning the budget accordingly. Data and insight drive clarity,” he explained, underlining the critical connection between marketing and finance teams.

Jonquil shared how sustainability initiatives align with brand efforts, pointing out that the foundation’s partnerships provide real proof points to help brands avoid reputational risks like greenwashing. As an example, she highlighted the foundation’s food challenge, which brought together 60 brands and 140 products under the tagline “With Nature in Mind,” showcasing innovation in upstream food design.

A call for long-term thinking

As economic uncertainty intensifies, the temptation to prioritise short-term wins is understandable. Yet the brands that thrive in the future will be those that continue to invest in long-term brand building as a driver of sustainable growth. This requires a mindset shift as well, as an evidence-based approach to making the case for brand investment.

By leveraging data, aligning with core business goals, and fostering collaboration across the leadership team, companies can unlock the full potential of their brands. The discussion at Davos underscored that the most successful brands are those that embrace cross-functional partnerships, enabling them to deliver value not just for shareholders but for customers, employees, and communities alike.

About the Author

Mike Rocha
Chief Commercial Officer
Brand Finance

Mike is a global authority on brand economics and valuation, with extensive experience of helping businesses grow by maximising the value creation potential of their brands.

He has over 20 years of experience across a wide range of branding challenges, leading assignments on brand-led growth, brand-related cost savings, brand-based negotiations and transactions, and expert witness work for disputes.

His experience of leading teams of analysts on the evaluation of brand strength and value for the world’s most valuable brands gives him unique insight into the factors that drive brand success globally.

Prior to joining Brand Finance, Mike was the global lead for the brand economics practice at Interbrand. He has a broad range of experience across many sectors, with clients including Allianz, AXA, British Gas, BUPA, Ericsson, Goldman Sachs, Hertz, Hyundai, Kia, Mastercard, Orange, PayPal, Samsung, Standard Chartered Bank, Virgin, among others.

Mike studied Economics at Cambridge University and is a Chartered Marketer and Chartered Accountant, having qualified with Arthur Andersen in London. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, ICAEW Valuation Group and Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Get in Touch

Message