Advertising is like exercise.

Here’s what the ROI guys don’t understand about advertising. They think you can advertise today and measure the results tomorrow.

It doesn’t work like that.

If you're not used to running, and you run five miles today, you will not be stronger, healthier or feel better tomorrow. You may even feel like crap. But if you run 5 miles every day, next year, you will be stronger, healthier, and feel better.

That's also how brand advertising works. If you advertise today, your business is not going to suddenly be successful tomorrow or next week. But if you advertise every day, over the next few years your business probably will get better, healthier, and stronger.

This extract is from Bob Hoffman's book; The Three Word Brief, one of the best books I’ve read on advertising, he says the things most aren’t willing to say.

As an industry, we’re often hooked on the short-term. We chase efficiency, cheap reach, and metrics that make us feel productive but, in reality, lead us nowhere.

We flood the internet with low-cost impressions, optimising for what’s easy to measure rather than what actually works.

We treat advertising like a vending machine, put money in, and expect instant results. When in reality, it’s more like planting a tree, or training for that marathon.

The obsession with the short term puts us in a race to the bottom, where we value quantity over quality, price over impact, and efficiency over effectiveness.

We buy more impressions but make less of one.

We optimise for the click, not the connection. And then we wonder why brand loyalty erodes, why customers become indifferent, and why advertising ‘doesn’t work like it used to.’

In our quest for cheap reach, we’ve lost sight of what actually builds brands.

Consistency, creativity, and patience.

Advertising isn’t an expense, it’s an investment. And just like exercise, the results don’t come overnight. But when they do, they last.