--- title: The Long and the Short of It — book | RGM® Glossary url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/the-long-and-the-short-of-it/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/the-long-and-the-short-of-it/ --- # The Long and the Short of It /ðə lɔŋ ənd ðə ʃɔɹt əv ɪt/proper noun Short-term wins you can measure, long-term growth you can't — until these two measured it. Authors : Les Binet & Peter Field Published : 2013, IPA Evidence : 996 IPA effectiveness cases Headline : ~60% brand / 40% activation ## Forms & parts of speech 60/40 · ratio (from the book) Its famous budget split. "We're at 90/10 activation — the **60/40** says we're eating the future." ## What the book says *The Long and the Short of It* analyzed 996 campaigns in the IPA's effectiveness databank and found two distinct mechanisms: sales activation (rational, targeted, immediate, decays in weeks) and brand building (emotional, broad-reach, slow, compounds for years). Activation spikes are visible in dashboards; brand effects are invisible short-term yet drive most long-term growth, pricing power, and the baseline that activation harvests. The famous synthesis: around 60% of budget to brand, 40% to activation, varying by category. ## The ideas people quote The sawtooth chart — activation spikes decaying to an unmoved baseline versus brand spend slowly raising the whole line; emotional campaigns out-performing rational ones on every long-term business metric; share of voice minus share of market (ESOV) as the growth predictor; and the warning that short-termism is self-reinforcing because the short works first and shows up in metrics. ## How to read it now It is the budget argument's referee. Performance dashboards systematically over-credit the short (it's measurable) and starve the long — this book is the evidence base for resisting that ratchet. The follow-ups (*Media in Focus*, *Effectiveness in Context*) tune the ratio by category and digital share; the mechanism finding is the durable part. Pair with attribution humility: the best growth teams read it as physics, not as an anti-performance pamphlet. **Worked example.** A DTC brand runs 95% performance spend; CAC creeps up every quarter as prospecting pools exhaust. The Binet-Field rebalance moves a third of budget into broad-reach brand video held for 18 months. The dashboard looks worse for two quarters — then branded search rises, CAC falls below the old baseline, and price promotions get less necessary. The long was doing the heavy lifting the dashboard couldn't see; the sawtooth finally got its rising floor. **Failure modes to watch.** Reading 60/40 as a universal law instead of a category-dependent starting point; judging brand spend on last-click windows it cannot win; and cutting brand in a downturn — the cases show that's when ESOV is cheapest. ## Synonyms & antonyms ### Synonyms The Long and the Short of It60/40 rule ## Origin & history Commissioned by the UK's Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and built on Binet and Field's earlier *Marketing in the Era of Accountability* (2007); published June 2013 as an IPA monograph analyzing 996 databank cases spanning three decades. Etymology: [source](https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/publications-reports/the-long-and-the-short-of-it-balancing-short-and-long-term-marketing-strategies). ## Usage trends Search interest for this term over the last five years: [View interest-over-time on Google Trends →](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=long%20and%20short%20of%20it%20binet%20field&date=today%205-y) ## Common questions Who wrote The Long and the Short of It? : Les Binet (adam&eveDDB) and Peter Field, published 2013 by the IPA from its effectiveness databank. What is the 60/40 rule? : Their finding that roughly 60% brand building / 40% activation maximizes long-term effectiveness, varying by category. What's the difference between the two mechanisms? : Activation converts existing demand now and decays fast; brand building creates future demand, pricing power, and compounds for years. ## Related tools & calculators - tool[CAC calculator](/tools/cac-calculator/) - tool[LTV-to-CAC ratio](/tools/ltv-to-cac-ratio-calculator/) ## Resources & people to follow - book*The Long and the Short of It* — Binet & Field (the subject) - book*Effectiveness in Context* — Binet & Field - referenceIPA — the effectiveness databank Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term. ## Related training - module[Growth marketing foundations](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/) ## Disciplines Areas of marketing where the long and the short of it is a core concern: [Content strategy](/training/content-marketing/)[Brand strategy](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/) ## Read next ## Related terms [Les Binet](/glossary/les-binet/)[Peter Field](/glossary/peter-field/)[Brand awareness](/glossary/brand-awareness/)[Mental availability](/glossary/mental-availability/)[How Brands Grow](/glossary/how-brands-grow/) ## Sources 1. trends[Google Trends — "long and short of it binet field"](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=long%20and%20short%20of%20it%20binet%20field&date=today%205-y)