Celebrating 20 Years of Campaigns, Yet Marketing Fundamentals Matter Most

2026 marks the 20th anniversary of M+C Saatchi Performance. Back in 2006, the agency was known as Inside Mobile, with just three staff, one client, and one office in Clerkenwell, London.

In 2018, Inside Mobile became part of M+C Saatchi Group and was renamed M+C Saatchi Performance. We’re still proudly independent, though a little larger than in 2006, with more than 400 employees working with hundreds of clients across 12 offices globally.

Why Do Marketing Fundamentals Matter More Than Ever?

Speak to anyone in media at any time, and they are likely to comment on how quickly the digital landscape changes. It’s true, of course. Over the past two decades, marketing has undergone fundamental changes, and in 2026 the speed of change is like lightning, with AI tearing up media planning & buying playbooks, channels becoming black boxes, capturing consumer attention getting harder, measurement more fractured, etc.

Back in April, we took a moment to reflect on 20 years of working with clients to enable their growth. Rather than looking back, we asked some of our leadership team to discuss what has endured. Why? With all this change happening, with all the AI noise and news, it seems that marketing fundamentals are more important than ever. The result is ‘20 Years of Timeless Marketing Fundamentals’, a series of ’roundtable’ videos, all of which are available to watch here.

Our aim was to reflect on some of the areas we believe are fundamental truths for marketers, as well as the challenges CMOs continue to pose after all these years. This is a summary of the discussion; the full video of the debate is available here.

• Truth #1: Not All KPIs Deserve to Exist
• Truth #2: Measurement Shapes Marketing Decisions
• Truth #3: Scaling Requires a System
• Truth #4: Where Growth Really Comes From
• Truth #5: Marketing Begins with the Consumer
• Truth #6: Ads Have a Responsibility to Be Relevant
• Truth #7: Attention Is the Only Currency That Matters
• Full Roundtable Discussion

Taking part in the discussion:

• Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO
• Roshat Adnani, MD APAC
• Lavinea Morris, MD EMEA
• Jim Hamilton, MD North America
• Chris Steedman, CRO
• Moderator: Turan Kasimova, Global Media Operations Director

Truth #1: Not all KPIs deserve to exist.

CAC, LTV, ROAS, ROI, CPM, CPA, CPC, CTR, etc. KPIs and their associated acronyms are rife in performance marketing, but are they all useful? 

“It depends on the brand and their specific KPIs; each one has its own value,” says Lavinea Morris.

This is fundamental: KPIs are not ‘one-size-fits-all’ and never have been; each brand will have different metrics that are important to its specific focus areas, and these may change over time. 

However, the importance of engagement metrics has increased because they indicate at least some level of intent, not just reach. “In this age where there is so much divided attention, an impression may not mean anything. What is more important when people are distracted is the engagement of a view. Cost per impression or cost per view was important in the past, but now engagement is a more important metric for many brands.” Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO.

Truth #2: Measurement Shapes Marketing Decisions

Data drives measurement, and measurement drives decisions; performance marketers know this fundamental truth. They also know the underlying fact that measurement is becoming increasingly difficult. Changes in privacy regulations, walled gardens, data silos, etc., make getting measurement clarity on what is really driving growth harder than ever.

What is the role of an agency in media measurement?

How are agencies expected to operate in regard to managing media measurement? “The role of the agency is to be that consultant and have a unique position to sit across all platforms, approaches, markets, etc., to understand what is the best way to measure each bespoke client requirement,” Chris Steedman, CRO.

Now more than ever, it is important to combine experienced minds with tools and technology to uncover meaningful insights, even when AI is building dashboards or developing narratives. For example, what happens when imperfect measurements are used to make important decisions? Data becomes dirty quickly, which can lead to poor decisions.

How Do You Build a Single Source of Truth for Marketing Data?

“There is a belief system that if people see data on a dashboard, it must be true, but this must always be taken with a pinch of salt. An understanding of correlation and causation is vital. Each measurement approach on its own is imperfect, so to get to a single source of truth, these parts must be brought together with people operating the machines, so we built M+C Saatchi OneView, which takes attribution, incrementality, and Media Mix Modeling to provide one source of truth.”

Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO

Roshat Adnani, MD, APAC added, “The job of measurement is a correlation perspective; attribution is causality. A click on an ad could lead to a purchase; that is a cause and effect.”

Why Analysis Paralysis Risks Marketing Growth?

At the same time, ‘paralysis by analysis’ is a real risk to growth, causing hesitation in decision-making. “The last 20 years have caused complexity, which is why having one source of truth is more essential than ever; measurement is tricky and evolving all the time. If you go back 50 years, MMM was the measurement method, and 20 years later we have gone full circle on the role of MMM in effective measurement.” Chris Steedman, CRO

Why Are CFOs Joining the Marketing Table?

This need for clarity has not changed; “We have interesting conversations with CMOs and now CFOs as companies are taking marketing investment as an ROI and expecting revenue to come immediately. We’re now working with CFOs to understand marketing data better to enable long-term decision-making.” Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO.

Truth #3: Scaling Requires a System

“Performance marketing has never been as measurable, and yet growth is harder than ever. Efficiency does not always equate to success, and more budget does not always mean growth either.” Turan Kasimova, Global Media Operations Director.

What is needed is a system that will deliver growth opportunities, for example, an approach to test, learn, build, and scale, because, truth is, even the best campaigns plateau. Even performance marketers who approach everything with a data mindset realize marketing is a systematic combination of art and science. 

Why Are Demand KPIs Stalling Your Campaign Growth?

“There is an art to performance planning, and if you focus too much on demand KPIs, which will become exhausted, campaign performance will plateau. You must generate more demand, which is an art form.”

Lavinea Morris, MD EMEA

Every great idea runs out of steam, so you have to always be innovating to prevent diminishing returns. The best brands in the world know this and focus on testing, learning, and innovation.

How to balance performance marketing with brand awareness?

“Performance marketing is essentially going after audiences that are in market and ready to buy, yet you must also plan for those that are not in market, and this is an art form. Advertisers must also be there when people are ready to buy, but also build for the long term with awareness,” agreed Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO.

Of course, understanding your audience is a marketing fundamental. “Everything starts with people and what they care about, even with all the technology available to us. To be successful, we have to understand what customers want and desire. Then you layer on the data, the tools, and the tech,” said Jim Hamilton, MD, N America.

Why Creative Needs to Scale Like a System?

One key element of the marketing playbook is creative, giving brands the opportunity like no other to really stand out and appeal to their customers. In 2026, with an advertising system hungrier than ever before for a volume of creative assets, creative has to be systematized to enable scale. “Creative is one of the strongest tools to bring your advertising to life, and you have to tailor your creative according to the channel, from TikTok to Meta, from format to placement. It’s not as simple as putting a creative to run across all platforms. Chris Steedman, CRO

Truth #4: Where Growth Really Comes from

Marketers have many ‘levers’ at their fingertips; how do they choose what will make the difference for growth? Between creative, data, channel mix, measurement, attribution, etc., what actually drives growth at scale? One fundamental truth lies in the quality, desirability, and functionality of the product. 

Roshat Adnani said, “A large part of brand success depends on the product, and that is where we like to work with our clients. We give recommendations for product changes that can exponentially enable growth.”

From creative to data, from measurement to product, many marketing fundamentals must come together to deliver long-lasting growth. These have endured over time and will continue to do so, but more than ever, creative is the key to capturing attention.

What has evolved over the past 20 years is the role of the agency, as Lavinea Morris, MD, EMEA, pointed out: “The role of the agency has changed and developed a lot over the past few years. We are now consultants on every part of the marketing funnel. From media to measurement, expectations of an agency have evolved and shifted over time.” This often makes the agency-client relationship more than just transactional; the strongest, highest-performing, longest-lasting client relationships are those where we are viewed as an extension of the internal team and a trusted partner.

Truth #5: Marketing Begins with the Consumer

“Steve Jobs said that the consumer doesn’t know what he wants. 99% of companies succeed when they know who their consumer is and what they want. The job of marketing is simple: to know who the consumer is and understand what they want. One of the best ways to gain this understanding is through first-party data.” Roshat Adnani, MD APAC. As discussed above, deep customer understanding and access to high-quality data are marketing fundamentals, but Lavinea argues that many brands either don’t have their own first-party data or the data they do have is of poor quality. In these instances, they can still deliver growth. 

“For clients without first-party data, or if the data hygiene is dirty and ineffective, you can still survive without it and create highly effective campaigns.” This is where you need experienced, creative media planners and buyers on hand to build successful campaigns in instances where there is a lack of first-party, high-quality data. 

Fundamentally, the quality of the data is vitally important, and data should be used to benefit the customer to make their lives simpler.

Truth #6: Ads have the responsibility to be relevant

With so much data at your fingertips, it is a responsibility to ensure ads are as relevant as possible to those that they target. One marketing fundamental that has not changed over time is that irrelevant advertising risks not only irritating potential customers and perhaps even building negative sentiment towards a brand, but also being costly and resulting in budget wastage.

“With the capability to personalize, we have the responsibility to be relevant. Ads have to be interesting, entertaining, informative, etc. so audiences laugh, cry, educate, or inspire. If we can’t do that, we let clients down.” Jim Hamilton, MD, North America.

Truth #7: Attention is the only currency that matters.

Is attention the new currency that matters most, or is it just another metric? Customer behavior has changed; there is a scarcity of attention from users, and since the introduction of AI, the shift has brought another layer of attention deficit. 

“20 years ago, brands could buy attention; you might be spending millions of dollars, but it was possible. Now, if a brand is not interesting enough, it will not win. Brands have to be interesting; this is something that has clearly changed.”

Kabeer Chaudhary, CEO

However, Roshat also argued that in some instances attention is getting longer; “Movies are getting longer, many people go to see a 3-hour movie or binge-watch a 10-hour TV series. So rather than attention spans coming down, advertisers have to be interesting enough for a customer to pick you over the competition. There are so many options now, so the benchmark of quality for brand and product has changed.”

Another change was highlighted by Chris Steedman: “The optimization to attention is significant; the platforms have built their feeds and algorithms exactly to keep your attention and keep you on the platform. People now stay on the platform, and brands have to evolve to gain attention.”

Jim Hamilton pointed out this is where creators and influencers can impact growth. “Consumers are overwhelmed, yet creators have broken through because they have trust. Brands can earn trust by working with these trusted partners, but they gain trust through the right content, product, and message, which is so essential. Attention is hard to earn.”

In Summary

Twenty years ago, what is now M+C Saatchi Performance was a small startup agency built to harness mobile advertising (remember, the iPhone was released in 2007). In many ways, the agency’s mobile heritage is more relevant now than even back in 2006. The business has grown up thinking mobile-first rather than moving sideways into digital; this heritage remains at the heart of what we do, enabling us to find and engage audiences where they spend time.

We’ve evolved alongside customer behavior, seeking trends, moving at a pace, and adopting, sometimes failing, but then trying again. Nothing is guaranteed, and marketing today is faster, more fragmented, and far less forgiving than it ever has been before. People jump from channel to channel and from device to device, behaving in unpredictable ways. Despite this, many marketing fundamentals remain tried and tested, so we remain rooted in what we do best, combining people, data, and tech to deliver campaigns that enable our clients to grow.