Marketers Balance Efficiency and Effectiveness in a Fragmented Media Landscape

By: Juan Carlos Pedreira

New York, NY — At Advertising Week New York, marketing leaders from Butler-Till, Accenture Song, and Albertsons Media Collective discussed how brands can thrive in a media environment that offers infinite platforms but presents new challenges. The conversation focused on balancing efficiency and long-term brand-building, navigating fragmented technologies, and integrating human creativity with AI.

Why It Matters:

With thousands of media tools and platforms available, marketers must balance short-term ROI with long-term brand health. AI presents new opportunities to enhance performance, but achieving meaningful customer engagement requires the right mix of technology and human insights.

By the Numbers:

• 8,000 to 11,000 media technologies are currently used by marketing organizations, creating complexity and fragmentation.
• Incrementality testing was identified as the "ground truth" to measure campaign effectiveness and determine what truly drives business outcomes.

What They’re Saying:

Amanda DeVito, CMO of Butler-Till: “Efficiency without effectiveness is like hitting a bullseye on the wrong target.”

Tim Singh, Accenture Song: “We need artists and anthropologists alongside data scientists to understand emotional connections with consumers.”

Jeenu Gupta, Albertsons Media Collective: “Media outcomes are just leading indicators; business outcomes are the true measure of success.”

Key Takeaways:

• AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement: AI helps optimize media performance, but human creativity remains essential to emotional resonance and cultural insights. “AI amplifies, but doesn’t replace, human creativity.”
• Navigating Fragmentation with Holistic Platforms: WPP’s AI-powered platform connects tools across channels, enabling real-time optimization of media budgets and performance.
• Transparency and Collaboration: Marketers demand greater transparency from AI and tech partners to ensure data privacy and ethical practices. “We need to know exactly how data is collected, processed, and used.”
• Long-Term Brand Health Over Short-Term Gains: The panel emphasized effectiveness over efficiency. Incrementality testing is critical to understanding true campaign impact beyond media KPIs.

The Big Picture:

Marketers must move beyond focusing solely on media metrics and align their efforts with business outcomes. As tech solutions grow, brands need to adopt holistic measurement strategies and foster collaboration across teams to remain competitive.

What’s Next:

• AI-powered platforms will play an increasing role in simplifying fragmented media strategies, but brands must focus on building sustainable emotional connections with consumers.
• Marketers should test and learn continuously to understand what works and ensure their tools align with business goals.

The Bottom Line: Brands need to balance short-term efficiency with long-term effectiveness to build lasting connections with consumers. As Amanda DeVito summarized: “Effectiveness all day, every day.”