Optimizing performance. Forgetting meaning

You might think that technology has never been more powerful.

And you are probably right.

Today, we can track every click, predict churn, and optimize media in real time. We have richer dashboards than ever before, and AI is accelerating decision-making at unprecedented speed. But something is missing, and I believe you can feel it too.

While we measure performance with extraordinary precision, we are forgetting to measure meaning with the same energy and importance. And without meaning, my friends, there is no brand.

Meaning is what makes someone choose a brand when price and product are comparable, and what sustains preference in uncertain times. It turns visibility into value. Over the past decade, many brands have tried to build meaning by aligning with social and environmental issues, and sustainability, inclusion, gender equity, climate action, etc., became campaign opportunities.

But they made a critical mistake, because when the problem is real and as profound as it is, communication is not enough. And the majority stopped before creating a platform for purpose and impact within the organization. Another mistake was measuring all these campaigns using only advertising metrics, and not impact metrics.

As a result, we now face a paradox. At the exact moment when technology allows us to measure almost everything, many brands are slowing down their social and environmental commitments, not necessarily because they stopped caring, but because they have no idea how to go deeper. And more importantly, they don't know how to measure it in a way that connects impact to growth.

The challenge is: if people don't perceive it, it cannot build equity. And what is hard to measure becomes easy to cut.

That's why, in moments like International Women's Day, we see campaigns, brand statements, content spikes. But we don't see consistent evidence of how these initiatives strengthen brand equity over time. And that is a measurement failure.

According to Kantar's Building Effective Sustainable Marketing in 2026, sustainability has the potential to contribute up to $2.7 trillion in brand value by 2040. But only if brands get it right.

Kantar's data also shows that advertising with environmental or social content increases Meaningfulness and Difference, the two core drivers of brand equity. These campaigns generate higher emotional engagement and distinctiveness.

But despite this potential, most marketing technology is still optimized for efficiency, not impact and brand transformation. So the challenge is not to measure more. It is to measure what drives long-term value.

That's why I believe we need to move from performance dashboards to impact systems. From campaign metrics to equity contribution. From short-term optimization to brand transformation.

The tools already exist, what is missing is integration and vision. 

And if we get that right, International Women's Day and every social and environmental milestone that follows will stop being campaign peaks and start becoming measurable drivers of brand equity.