Balancing brand versus performance spend

#287 Brand Marketing | In this episode, Matt is joined by Amrita Gurney, a veteran B2B marketing leader who has scaled some of Canada’s fastest-growing startups and now works as a fractional CMO. At Float, she led bold offline campaigns, from billboards and buses to TV spots, that helped the company stand out against major banks and build lasting brand recall.

Matt and Amrita cover:

• Why offline ads like billboards and transit campaigns are making a comeback in B2B marketing
• How creative choices — bold colors, emotional messaging, and relatable personas — can make or break brand campaigns
• What B2B marketers should know about budget allocation, measuring recall, and balancing brand vs. performance marketing

Whether you’re running your first brand campaign or rethinking your spend mix, this episode will give you fresh ideas on how to stand out in B2B marketing.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - – Intro
• (03:08) - – Amrita’s background and career journey
• (04:28) - – Why Float invested in offline ads
• (06:08) - – Launching their first billboard campaign
• (08:08) - – Taking bold risks with creative
• (10:08) - – Human-centered messaging vs. product copy
• (12:08) - – Expanding into buses, subways, and airports
• (15:08) - – Testing (or not testing) creative concepts
• (16:08) - – What brand recall really means in B2B
• (18:08) - – Measuring lift from offline campaigns
• (22:20) - – Balancing brand vs. performance spend
• (24:20) - – Lessons from consumer marketing in B2B
• (26:20) - – How they chose cities and placements
• (29:20) - – Budget breakdown and allocation
• (33:20) - – Tracking TV ad performance
• (35:20) - – How long to run campaigns for impact
• (36:20) - – Advice for marketers considering offline ads
• (38:20) - – Closing thoughts and takeaways

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