{"id":226759,"date":"2025-09-24T15:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/?p=226759"},"modified":"2025-09-24T15:33:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:33:22","slug":"dont-just-spend-plan-to-win-4-planning-principles-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/insights\/dont-just-spend-plan-to-win-4-planning-principles-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Just Spend. Plan to Win: 4 Planning Principles for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every January, budgets get signed off, targets are set, and marketers are told the same thing: \u201cSpend wisely. Deliver growth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the uncomfortable truth: most brands don\u2019t fail because they didn\u2019t spend enough. They fail because they didn\u2019t plan to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning is more than allocating budget lines and booking channels. Planning is deciding where the brand will compete, how it will matter to people, and how the team will defend their choices in the boardroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we head toward 2026, the context for CMOs is more complex than ever. Inflationary pressure, consumer fragmentation, media disruption, and cultural volatility aren\u2019t going anywhere. Planning has to do more than keep up. It has to lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are four principles to help ensure your next plan isn\u2019t just a spending spreadsheet, but a winning strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Planning to win
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Balance Now and Later (the tension that never disappears)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketers have been debating brand vs performance for decades. Les Binet and Peter Field famously argued for a 60:40 balance between long-term brand and short-term activation (IPA, 2018). The evidence is clear: long-term brand building drives growth, short-term activation harvests it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is, boards don\u2019t want balance. They want results. Fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCMOs who thrive in 2026 will be the ones who can bridge this divide. It\u2019s not about preaching theory to the CFO. It\u2019s about showing that when you underfund brand, you increase the cost of performance. When you build brand salience, every click costs less.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look at Airbnb. During the pandemic, they famously cut their performance marketing spend by more than half, yet bookings rebounded strongly as travel reopened. Why? Because years of brand investment (\u201cBelong Anywhere\u201d) created resilience that performance spend alone could not deliver (CNBC, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. Plan for Attention, Not Just Reach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach still matters. But reach without attention is noise. And in a fragmented media landscape, noise is expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lumen\u2019s attention data has shown that creative context matters as much as media weight. A high-attention ad in a lean-in environment can outperform a low-attention ad in prime-time TV (Lumen, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means planning shouldn\u2019t just be about \u201cwhere can we reach the most people?\u201d but \u201cwhere can we earn the right to be noticed?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about Duolingo. Their TikTok presence doesn\u2019t just reach Gen Z, it captures<\/em> them through absurd, funny, consistent content. According to Adweek, Duolingo became one of the most downloaded apps among young people thanks in part to this strategy (Adweek, 2022). It wasn\u2019t about shouting louder. It was about holding attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2026, media planning will be less about buying spots and more about designing moments. The principle is simple: if no one notices you, you don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Plan Up and Down the Ladder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most damaging myths in marketing is the idea that brand and performance live in silos. In reality, the best work ladders up and down: from brand to action, and from action back to brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gymshark is a perfect case study. The brand began by working with fitness micro-influencers on Instagram, creating grassroots authenticity. Those same brand cues (community, aspiration, hustle) later scaled into global campaigns, outdoor formats, and sponsorships. The small-scale social assets didn\u2019t just drive sales, they created a brand platform strong enough to expand into traditional channels (The Drum, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning in 2026 has to reflect this ladder. Campaigns should be designed to move fluidly between awareness and conversion, between feed and screen. Success isn\u2019t a one-way funnel. It\u2019s a feedback loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So ask yourself: does your brand creative ladder up into something bigger than the moment? And does it ladder down into action that converts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. Plan for the Boardroom, Not Just the Market<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hardest sell for a CMO isn\u2019t the consumer. It\u2019s the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer Stuart\u2019s 2022 report found the average tenure of a CMO is just 40 months – the shortest of any C-suite role. The reason isn\u2019t lack of creativity, it\u2019s misalignment. Too many boards still see marketing as cost rather than investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning in 2026 means planning with the boardroom in mind. That means translating marketing metrics into business impact: share of market, pricing power, margin protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at how P&G reframed its investment story. Instead of talking about GRPs or reach, it began talking about \u201cconstructive disruption\u201d and how marketing spend fuels innovation and shareholder value (Forbes, 2019). That\u2019s language the board understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning to win isn\u2019t just about what\u2019s in the market. It\u2019s about what travels upstairs. The CMO\u2019s job isn\u2019t just to get buy-in once a year. It\u2019s to continually narrate the link between brand, media, and growth in terms that reassure investors and executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Call to 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brands that thrive in 2026 won\u2019t be the ones who simply outspend competitors. They\u2019ll be the ones who outplan them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Balance now and later, treating brand and performance as one engine.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Plan for attention, not just reach.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Ladder their creative up and down the funnel, creating a feedback loop of growth.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Build plans that persuade the board as much as they persuade consumers.
    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Because growth isn\u2019t about media spend alone. It\u2019s about the courage to plan differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Don\u2019t just spend. Plan to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    Need a partner who thinks like a start-up but plans like a strategist? Let\u2019s talk<\/em> : +44 (0)20 7257 2600 or hello@smithfieldagency.co.uk (https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/contact\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Every January, budgets get signed off, targets are set, and marketers are told the same thing: \u201cSpend wisely. Deliver growth.\u201d But here\u2019s the uncomfortable truth: most brands don\u2019t fail because they didn\u2019t spend enough. They fail because they didn\u2019t plan to win. Planning is more than allocating budget lines and booking channels. Planning is deciding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":226761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,194,149,148,195],"class_list":["post-226759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","tag-marketingstrategy-2","tag-cmo","tag-media-buying","tag-media-planning","tag-planning-principles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226763,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226759\/revisions\/226763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithfieldagency.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}