Stop planning small: Why media needs to think big again
Stop planning small: Why media needs to think big again
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Marketing has never looked leaner. Campaigns are optimised, automated, and hyper-targeted – yet somehow, they’re less effective.
The latest data from the IPA paints a clear picture: advertising is becoming more efficient while generating less profit. ROI is creeping up, but the incremental profit brands make from advertising is falling. As an industry, we’re getting better at squeezing performance out of media, but we’re doing it on smaller and smaller scales.
It’s not that marketers have stopped caring about results, far from it. The marketers I speak to every day are absolutely focused on results. The problem is that we’re living in an age of small thinking. Smaller budgets. Smaller audiences. Smaller ambitions. And nowhere is that clearer than in media planning.
Budgets are the single biggest driver of effectiveness; around eight times more influential than ROI itself. Yet too often, the budget is treated as a constraint, not a strategic decision. Campaigns get built backwards, starting with what’s left in the pot, rather than what’s needed to deliver growth.
We see the impact of that all the time. When budgets tighten, plans narrow. Brands chase short-term metrics at the expense of long-term momentum. It might feel efficient in the moment, but it’s not effective. Efficiency without scale just leads to smaller results – faster.
Good media planning isn’t about slicing the pie thinner; it’s about making sure the pie is big enough in the first place, then using every slice well. Reach still matters. The media mix still matters. Combining online and offline still builds broader, stronger results.
Yet fewer than half of CMOs now plan for maximum reach, and 90% don’t cap frequency, according to Medialab’s 2025 CMO Survey and Apollo research. That’s not precision, that’s inefficiency disguised as control.
The brands seeing real results are the ones that plan for scale. They invest confidently, test and learn, and give creative ideas enough exposure to work.
When campaigns have the right level of investment and duration, impact compounds, driving both short-term sales and long-term profit.
Thinking big doesn’t mean spending recklessly. It means planning properly, setting budgets based on ambition, not last year’s spreadsheet, and giving great creative the space to breathe.
At Hello Starling, we believe in media planning that’s bold, results-led, and built for impact. That’s why we ask the tough questions: Is the budget enough to make a dent? Is the audience wide enough to matter? Are we planning for growth, or just for efficiency?
Because if your plan isn’t built to go big, it’s already going home.
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