Long vs Short Marketing Budget Calculator
A practical calculator to see whether your marketing budget is built for short-term performance or long-term growth — grounded in Binet & Field, System1 touchpoints, and real-world planning logic.
Most marketing budgets are optimised for speed, not sustainability
This Long vs Short Marketing Budget Calculator helps you see — instantly — whether your media mix is biased toward short-term sales or long-term brand growth, using evidence from:
- The Long and the Short of It (Binet & Field)
- The Creative Dividend (System1 / Andrew Tindall)
- A calculation model designed by Oliver JP Osborne, Director of Marketing at Fallsview Group
No dashboards. No econometrics.
Just a clear, evidence-based long vs short balance you can actually use.
What the Long & Short Marketing Calculator shows you
This tool translates your channel-level budget allocation into an estimated impact split between:
- Short-term activation (immediate sales, conversions, response)
- Long-term brand effects (mental availability, distinctiveness, pricing power)
Instead of treating every channel equally, the calculator reflects how different consumer touchpoints behave differently, based on large-scale effectiveness data.
In a few inputs, you can see whether your marketing plan is:
- Over-optimised for short-term performance
- Under-invested in brand building
- Balanced in a way that supports sustainable growthHow the calculator works
1. You enter your marketing or advertising budget
Add current or planned spend across major channels (TV, online video, paid social, search, display, OOH, in-store, etc.).
2. Channels are weighted by real effectiveness patterns
Behind the scenes, each channel is weighted using:
- Binet & Field’s long- vs short-term framework, including the principle that long-term effects work differently from short-term ones
- System1 / The Creative Dividend findings, which show how different touchpoints skew toward short-term impact, long-term brand building, or both
This avoids the common mistake of assuming “a euro is a euro” regardless of channel.
3. Osborne’s formula calculates your balance
The weighting logic and calculation model were created by Oliver JP Osborne, Director of Marketing at Fallsview Group.
The output is a percentage split that estimates how your current mix leans between:
- Short-term business effects
- Long-term brand effects
This gives you a directional planning signal, not a false promise of precision.
Long vs Short Marketing Budget Calculator
Your Media Mix
Enter your budget allocation for each channel below.
Why balancing long- and short-term marketing matters
Effectiveness research consistently shows that:
- Short-term activity can drive volume quickly, but often increases price sensitivity
- Long-term brand building takes time, but drives profit, margin and share
- Long-term growth is not the accumulation of short-term wins — it’s a different mechanism entirely
Brands that repeatedly over-invest in short-term activation often experience:
- Declining ROI over time
- Heavy promotional dependence
- Weak brand distinctiveness
This calculator helps you spot that risk early, before it shows up in your P&L.
Grounded in marketing effectiveness research
This tool is built on three complementary foundations:
Binet & Field — The Long and the Short of It
Analysis of nearly 1,000 campaigns from the IPA Databank shows how long-term brand effects and short-term sales effects operate on different timescales — and why most categories benefit from a brand-led investment bias over time.
System1 / Andrew Tindall — The Creative Dividend
Using System1’s emotional response data and Effie results, this research shows that consumer touchpoints materially change outcomes, and that some channels act as “brand accelerators” while others mainly harvest demand.
Oliver JP Osborne — calculation model
Oliver JP Osborne translated these principles into a practical formula that converts channel mix into impact mix, making the theory usable in real planning conversations.
How to use your long vs short result
Your output is best used as:
- A planning checkpoint before budgets are locked
- A conversation tool with leadership or finance
- A way to pressure-test whether performance marketing has crowded out brand investment
It works especially well when paired with:
- Brand tracking
- Creative testing (e.g. System1)
- Marketing strategy or positioning work
Frequently asked questions
Is this marketing budget calculator accurate?
It’s directionally accurate, not predictive. The calculator is grounded in large-scale effectiveness research, but it does not replace econometrics or MMM. Its value lies in revealing structural bias in your plan.
Does the 60:40 brand vs performance split always apply?
No. Research shows 60:40 is an average, not a rule. Categories, markets and brand maturity all influence the optimal balance. This tool highlights where you are, not where you must be.
Does the calculator account for creative quality?
No. It assumes average creative quality. High-emotion, well-branded creative can significantly amplify both long- and short-term effects. However, we will soon get back to this with another tool.
Can performance-heavy brands still grow?
In the short term, yes. Over time, evidence suggests performance-only strategies struggle to grow profit and pricing power sustainably.
Is this tool useful for small brands or challengers?
Yes — often more so. Challengers frequently under-invest in brand building and over-index on short-term channels, limiting long-term growth potential.
Does the long-vs-short budgeting calculator replace marketing mix modelling?
No. This tool helps you plan better inputs. MMM helps you measure outputs. They work best together.
Who should use this long-vs-short budgeting calculator?
CMOs, heads of marketing, founders, brand leaders, performance teams and agencies working on media or budget strategy.
Need help interpreting your result?
The calculator gives you the signal.
Strategy turns that signal into decisions.
We’re a senior-only brand and marketing strategy studio, helping teams apply effectiveness principles in the real world — from positioning and brand strategy to media and growth planning.
