“Small thinking” is killing advertising warn Les Binet and Will Davis

In Go Big or Go Home, Les Binet, Author, Consultant and Visiting Professor at Ravensbourne University, and Will Davis, Chief Data Officer and Co-Owner of Medialab, outline the state of marketing effectiveness today, identifying where they think the key problems holding it back lie and offering practical solutions designed to restore long-term growth. The report expands on research they first presented at the IPA Effectiveness Conference in October 2025.

According to their analysis, research and case studies contained within the report, the industry is too focused on efficiency at the expense of effectiveness. Binet and Davis argue that businesses are damaging profits by prioritising the wrong metrics, ignoring valuable customers, underestimating the importance of budget-setting and missing major media opportunities. They also warn that inefficient creative approaches mean many campaigns fail to deliver sufficient return.

At the centre of the report their clear argument is that advertising has started “thinking too small”.

To counter these issues and to ensure brand growth, the authors recommend that the industry should:

Focus on budget-setting

Rather than optimising for short-term ROI alone, the authors urge marketers to focus on market share growth, margins, profits and shareholder value. They argue that advertising’s greatest strength remains its ability to generate mass exposure at scale, making budget-setting the single most important marketing decision.

Improve economies of scale

Alongside their analysis, the authors also address one of the industry’s most pressing operational challenges of how to reconcile the need for multiple channels and assets with the pressure to keep fixed costs under control. The report outlines five ways advertisers can improve economies of scale while still delivering effective, broad-reach campaigns.

Collaborate and train

The authors call for stronger collaboration between marketing, finance and sales teams, better training in commercial and financial thinking, and more research into the long-term effects of advertising, including pricing power, emotion, memory, attention and broader stakeholder influence.

Invest in larger media with broader reach and bolder creative

Binet and Davis also advocate for larger media investments, broader reach across channels and bold creative campaigns capable of building fame over time.

Learn from the work that connects with people and pays back

The report authors conclude with a challenge to the wider industry including agencies, clients, industry bodies and the marketing press, to celebrate work that genuinely connects with the public, rather than advertising designed primarily to impress other marketers.

Commenting on the findings:

Says Les Binet, Author, Consultant and Visiting Professor at Ravensbourne University:

“We need to stop gazing at our navels and our dashboards. We need to get out there and make waves. We need to create emotion at scale. We need do things that make the public laugh or cry or gasp. We need to make things that people will remember all their lives. We need to go big or go home.”

Says Will Davis, Chief Data Officer and Co-Owner of Medialab:

“The shift from ‘small thinking’ to ‘big media’ isn’t born of nostalgia; it’s born of forensic necessity. Medialab was founded 21 years ago as performance marketing specialists, built specifically to prove how every marketing pound worked. We have observed a consistent, undeniable pattern: the ‘performance ceiling.’ Even the most aggressively optimised campaigns eventually plateau. When Costs Per Acquisition (CPAs) begin to climb and performance peaks, the data tells us that efficiency has hit its limit. At that point, you don’t need more optimisation; you need to go broader.”

Says Laurence Green, Director of Effectiveness, IPA:

“Les and Will’s work is a timely reminder that budgets matter and that chasing short term ROI is often fool’s gold. It’s an inconvenient but inescapable truth that media investment makes its most profitable contribution when a competitive and consistent idea is distributed at scale, over time.”