It began creeping in with the increasingly loud promises of salvation from digital evangelists after the turn of the millennium. Hard on the heels of the forgotten dot-com bubble, an even deeper global economic crisis followed. Pressure from world stock markets to instantly smooth over the dents suffered swept a generation of managers to the top who accepted shareholder value as the sole metric of their success. Alongside purely defensive, brutal cost-cutting programs, marketing without decision-making authority was banished to the line or subordinated to sales. The motto: What is not (directly) measurably relevant to sales won't be done.

This was grist to the mill of the online, digital, or performance agencies crawling out of every corner, proclaiming salvation to unsettled marketing directors: achieve more (measurably) with less cost! And confirmation for their CEOs. Furthermore, most advertising agencies also chased the trend, lightheartedly throwing their previously fervently held creed regarding the importance of the brand overboard and tossing huge budgets into the jaws of a few multinational, uncontrollable platforms—instead of developing platforms and databases for customer care themselves or collectively.

The observation of "collective digital drunkenness" made by media manager Christoph Baron as early as 2016—which spoke to my very soul—is now visible at the latest in the sobering-up cell of a society that has spun out of control.

But it wouldn't have taken the pandemic to realize that something has fallen out of balance. No doubt, performance marketing has brought short-term success, but not in all sectors, and usually at far higher and constantly rising costs than originally promised. Because many, often wide-eyed, have lost the ground beneath their feet in a dangerous swamp of uniform and cheapest-priced products and services.

Disruption, the underlying mantra of digital marketing aimed exclusively at performance optimization, ultimately means that almost all companies would eventually be disrupted and thus disappear.

As much as consumers initially enjoyed playing along in this game as beneficiaries of "better, faster, bigger," they are increasingly longing for the "reliable" old, manageable world. Traditional values like reliability, trust, or respect are becoming more important again than "same day delivery" or "all you can eat." People long for relevant information instead of fake news. They don't want to be constantly interrupted by offers, stalked online, and "assaulted." They are longing again for strong brands they can trust.

Not that everything was good in the advertising stone age before "performance." And it is also clear that performance is an indispensable component of a complete marketing mix today. But good brands have meanwhile recognized what is important to people: that it is not just the final click of an online user in the customer journey that is crucial, but a multitude of variables in market communication. The pandemic has obviously only fueled this realization decisively.

Beyond short-term, measurable campaigns, there needs to be a comeback of great brand stories. Unlike in the past, with the recognizable intention of building an emotional relationship between brand and customer, and empathetically aligning with people's needs. Because with the vast volume of brand messages, it is hardly possible to establish differentiation through price alone.

The realization that brand marketing is the much more effective driver of sales is also causing global brands like Adidas to reweight their budgets and scrutinize more closely which advertising measures contribute, and how they contribute, to corporate success.

Brands no longer need to sensationally declare how good they are, but instead believably communicate across ALL channels why and how they can improve people's lives. Consumers are looking for a trustworthy, emotional brand story to create a certain brand magic, so that we continue to place our trust in a brand. As a foundation for purchase, repurchase, and recommendation.

It is no longer the KNOW-HOW that is decisive, but the KNOW-WHY.

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