By Nicky Marks, Managing Director
When we conducted Censuswide’s 2025 Voice of the UK CMO Report, one data point particularly stood out: CMOs are now focusing less on sales and more on brand awareness.
After years of watching marketing become increasingly centered on attribution, ROI, and hard numbers, this shift represents something meaningful — a recognition that brand is a critical business asset, not just a nice-to-have.
Understanding the Shift
For the past several years, CMOs have been under considerable pressure to deliver measurable growth. Performance marketing became highly valued in the C-suite because it provides tangible metrics and quick wins that can be directly linked to revenue. When you can point to a specific campaign and demonstrate concrete lead generation and revenue impact, it makes for straightforward reporting.
However, we’re learning that this singular focus may have left some opportunities on the table.
The reality is that only about 5% of your target market is actively looking for your product at any given time. What about the other 95%? If marketing efforts are concentrated solely on performance and immediate conversions, brands may not be visible to this larger group. And when they do enter that crucial 5% in-market window, they’ll naturally gravitate toward brands that are already familiar to them.
CMOs are increasingly aware of what we call the “dark funnel” — all those touchpoints and conversations that happen before someone ever fills out a form or clicks “buy now.” Most B2B purchase decisions, for instance, are substantially influenced by research that happens well before a prospect contacts a sales team. Being part of those early conversations is becoming recognized as essential.
The B2B and B2C Landscape
Interestingly, our data shows that B2B CMOs are somewhat more evenly split between prioritizing brand awareness and sales, whereas B2C has shifted more decisively toward brand building. This aligns with historical patterns where B2B typically adopts B2C trends, though often at a more measured pace.
The B2B buying journey also has unique characteristics. These aren’t impulse purchases — they involve buying committees, thoughtful evaluation processes, and significant financial commitments. In this environment, brand awareness works best when paired with demonstrated credibility and industry authority.
For B2C brands, awareness can translate more directly into action, especially as AI tools like ChatGPT become sources for product recommendations. As decision-making windows potentially shorten, brand awareness becomes even more valuable.
How Search Behaviour is Evolving
The way people search for solutions has evolved considerably. Rather than asking “what brand should I buy,” consumers are now asking deeper questions about specific brands they’ve already encountered. They’re comparing known entities, exploring brand reputations, and asking detailed questions like “how is Brand X better than Brand Y?”
This means awareness needs to exist before the search even begins. Brands can’t rely solely on being discovered through generic queries — they benefit from already being in the consideration set. This is where thoughtful brand building proves its value.
Building the Right Kind of Brand Awareness
Not all brand awareness delivers the same results. CMOs benefit from focusing on what I call desirable brand awareness — a combination of visibility and affinity with their target audience. Simply being known is helpful, but being known for the right things by the right people is what drives business results.
This requires something that can sometimes get deprioritized: comprehensive market research.
Building meaningful brand awareness works best when it’s grounded in genuine understanding rather than assumptions about what audiences value. CMOs need to truly understand their target market — what matters to them, what they care about, and how they make decisions.
At Censuswide, we see this opportunity consistently. CMOs often recognize the value of understanding their audience deeply, but competing priorities can make it challenging to invest in this foundational work. The most successful brand-building efforts we’ve seen start with thorough research that identifies not just who the audience is, but what they genuinely value and how they prefer to be engaged.
A Formula for Success
Effective brand awareness strategies combine brand value — strong positioning and clear differentiation — with newsworthiness. When brands can connect their core value to relevant conversations happening in the world, they benefit from amplified reach and relevance beyond what isolated campaigns typically achieve.
This is where research becomes particularly valuable: understanding what those conversations are, what matters to your audience, and how your brand can authentically contribute. Building these connections thoughtfully, based on real insight rather than assumptions, leads to more efficient use of marketing budgets.
Looking Ahead
The shift toward brand building as a top priority for 2026 isn’t necessarily about moving away from performance marketing — it’s about recognizing that the two work best together. Marketing conversations with CEOs and CFOs are evolving beyond attributing revenue to individual tactics. Instead, CMOs are articulating how brand building creates the conditions for all marketing activities to perform more effectively.
CMOs increasingly agree that investing in brand drives business results, and they recognize the long-term value, even while managing ongoing expectations for demonstrable short-term impact. The opportunity now is executing brand building in a way that’s strategic, measurable, and grounded in real customer insight.
That’s where proper market research moves from being simply helpful to becoming essential. It’s the foundation that transforms brand awareness from a broad objective into a precise, effective business strategy that CMOs can confidently pursue and measure.
