A recent article in Fast Company, “Traditional Marketing Is Dead. Almost.,” by Madison Logic CEO Keith Turco, makes a compelling case for redefining performance marketing:
“[Performance Marketing is] not about chasing clicks. It’s about driving business outcomes using data to make smarter decisions, engaging accounts with the right message at the right time, and constantly refining the approach based on what’s working and what’s not.”
This isn’t just a semantic shift, it’s a recognition that brand and performance aren’t opposites; they’re interdependent. Turco rightly points out that performance marketing should deliver results while building the brand.
They’re so mystified by the MarTech silver bullet products promising big data will save the day, that somewhere along the way, they forgot the customer is actually a human.
But here’s where the conversation misses the mark: not once in the entire piece is the word “creative” mentioned. And that’s the problem.
Let’s pause on that. We’re talking about engaging the right audience, delivering the right message, and refining strategy based on outcomes and yet we’re not really talking about the actual content being delivered.
Yes, “the right message” is part of creative. But it’s only a small piece. You can have the most on-point message in the world – clear, targeted, even data-driven but, if it’s not compelling, it won’t cut through.
And compelling isn’t just about what you say, it’s about how you say it and where you say it. Was the creative tailored to the medium? Did it make the most of the platform’s strengths? Did it visually and emotionally stand out in a way that stops someone mid-scroll? Did it adapt to the unique context of that placement so it felt native, not generic?
The media placement may put your message in front of the right person, and the data may tell you when to serve it. But it’s the creative; shaped for the platform, designed to grab attention, and built to resonate that determines whether they stop, whether they feel something, whether they remember it, and ultimately, whether they act.
According to Nielsen’s own analysis, creative is responsible for 47% of a campaign’s sales contribution; more than media, targeting, and brand combined. Other studies have found even higher figures. It’s not just a variable. It’s the variable. And you don’t have to look far for proof: brands like HBO, NBA, Nike, and Glossier have built cult-level devotion not because of their media buys, but because of world-class creative work. Creative that carefully considers design, storytelling, and messaging ensuring consistent and meaningful connections.
Yet even in otherwise forward-thinking thought leadership within the marketing world, creative gets treated as a silent partner. This omission reveals something deeper: brands aren’t factoring creative execution into their success when it comes to short and/or long term results. They’re so mystified by the MarTech silver bullet products promising big data will save the day, that somewhere along the way, they forgot the customer is actually a human. And that human is never going to see your bid strategy, attribution models, or psychographic targeting.
What they’re going to see is your creative.
The Headline.
The Imagery.
The Story.
And what they’ll feel and hold onto is:
The Tone.
The Emotion.
The Brand Equity.
That’s what connects. That’s what drives trust. And that’s what builds long-term memory structures that ultimately fuel the brand whether or not it results in an immediate conversion.
What We’re Doing at TVGla: Brand-Building Creative That Performs
This belief is core to how we operate at TVGla.
We build performance-focused creative that drives down costs, improves click-through rates, and delivers immediate results — always with the brand in mind. And we don’t believe those two things are in conflict. In fact, they work better together.
By grounding performance creative in brand values, design systems, and emotional storytelling, we create campaigns that don’t just convert once – they build affinity over time. That’s how modern marketing should work.
We don’t treat creative as an endpoint; we treat it as a throughline. It shapes strategy from the beginning and evolves with performance data over time.
We also believe in giving creative teams access to performance data so they can see what’s resonating, adapt quickly, and contribute to the ongoing success of a campaign.
Turco’s article is an important contribution to the continuous evolution of marketing language and strategy. But if we want to truly transform performance marketing into something more balanced, sustainable, and brand-focused — then creative has to be at the center of that conversation.
Let’s stop treating creative like an afterthought and start recognizing it for what it is: the foundation of performance.