Tracksuit's James Hurman argues the brand to performance split is moving toward 50/50 for established brands, with new brands weighting harder to activation early. His new book Future Demand makes the case that years of short-term performance obsession have starved future demand. The number matters less than the discipline behind it.
The exact split is a distraction. The point is that performance spends the demand brand creates. Starve the brand and eventually there is nothing for performance to convert.
James Hurman, the Tracksuit co-founder and longtime brand strategist, is reframing the budget split most marketers quote without thinking. The old rule from Binet and Field was 60% to brand, 40% to performance. Hurman's read is that the balance is shifting toward 50/50 for established brands, with new brands weighting harder to activation in the first 12 to 18 months and tilting back to brand as the customer base grows.
His new book Future Demand, out in June 2026, makes the sharper argument underneath the number. Years of leaning on short-term performance marketing have left brands with no future demand to harvest. The activation works until there is nobody left who has heard of you.
Why it matters
Most Australian businesses do not run a 50/50 split or a 60/40 split. They run something closer to 90/10 toward performance, because performance is the part you can see working this week. That is the trap Hurman is naming. The brand spend looks like the soft, cuttable line right up until the pipeline dries.
Hurman's view of the brand to performance split for established brands, up from the long-quoted 60/40 weighting to brand
The businesses we see scoring well do not treat brand and performance as rivals fighting for the same dollar. They treat them as two halves of one machine. Performance harvests demand. Brand creates the demand to harvest. Cut one and you damage the other on a lag you will not notice for months.
What to do about it
Work out your real split before you argue about the ideal one. Most owners think they invest in brand and the numbers say otherwise. Look at where the money actually went last quarter.
Match the split to your stage. A new brand earning its first demand should weight to activation. A mature brand coasting on past awareness should be feeding the brand again before it fades.
Stop treating brand spend as the discretionary line. It is the line that makes next year's performance cheaper. Cutting it is borrowing from a future you will have to pay back.
Measure brand with something, not nothing. The reason brand loses the budget fight is that it feels unmeasurable. Track awareness and branded search so the investment has numbers on the board to defend it.
The argument is not 50/50 versus 60/40. The argument is whether you are building demand or only spending it. Spend it all and the cheapest customer you will ever buy is the one who already knew your name, and you stopped paying to make those.