Bensimon Byrne releases a study with Ipsos on focus in marketing: 91% of marketers surveyed say fewer priorities drives stronger returns, but only 21% put 80% or more of their budget behind them.
TORONTO, Sept. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Marketers overwhelmingly believe focus drives better results, but new research from Ipsos, conducted in collaboration with Bensimon Byrne, suggests that belief often dissolves when it’s time to make real decisions.
The study of senior marketers across the U.S. and Canada found that amongst those surveyed, 91% agree concentrating investment behind fewer priorities drives stronger returns, and 95% say their current marketing plans reflect that philosophy. Additionally, 64% of respondents say greater focus would have improved results either significantly or somewhat. But 89% say something stands in the way of focus, from channel complexity and competing opportunities, to evolving expectations and changing market conditions.
In other words, marketers know what focus looks like. The hard part is deciding what to give up.
“We’ve all seen the plan with 12 priorities. That’s not a plan, it’s a wish list,” says Laura Robinson, Managing Director, Bensimon Byrne. “Marketers don’t need a lecture on focus. They need justification to say no, and the evidence to back it up when they’re challenged.”
A New Kind of Agency for the Focus Problem
Bensimon Byrne has evolved into a creative intelligence company to help clients structure their marketing focus on the priorities that deliver results. The model brings together human insight, data and creativity to unlock what drives people to capture attention, shift behaviours and change minds to ultimately fuel growth.
That thinking is captured in the company’s new vision, Find Your People.
“Meaningful growth doesn’t come from reaching everyone,” says Robinson. “It comes from connecting deeply with the people who deliver outsized returns and ultimately, greater impact.”
This vision is a part of the greater transformation at Bensimon Byrne, which recently grew its senior leadership team with the addition of Tatiana Isaza, VP, Brand & Growth; Chelsea Thompson-O’Brian, VP, Strategy; and Charlie Glassman, Creative Director. The transformation also includes new service offerings and a completely reimagined brand identity.
“Insight and creativity have always been our starting point, but the brief has changed,” said Joseph Bonnici, Board Member and Chief Creative Officer, Tadiem. “We’ve taken this moment of change to evolve with new capabilities, new leadership, and new services to help our clients say no with confidence and stay focused.”
Full research findings are available at Bensimon Byrne.
About the Research
This study, commissioned by Bensimon Byrne and conducted by Ipsos in partnership with marketers across North America, set out to examine a critical question facing modern marketing organizations: Are marketers sacrificing focus in pursuit of growth?
The study was built on the hypothesis that growing pressure to deliver revenue, growth and business impact is causing many organizations to pursue more objectives, more audiences and more activity rather than making sharper strategic choices. While this “more is more” approach may appear to support growth ambitions, it may ultimately dilute effectiveness and make sustained focus more difficult.
To explore this question, Bensimon Byrne partnered on a quantitative study of more than 200 marketing decision-makers across North America: 108 in the U.S and 104 in Canada. In each market, marketers with responsibility for strategic marketing decisions participated. The sample was designed to reflect a broad cross-section of organizations, industries, levels of experience, company sizes and audience types.
Survey questions covered focus versus business performance, strategic clarity, budget alignment, beliefs, impact of priority, trade-offs and decision-making, comfort with trade-offs, evidence of impact and regional nuances in decision-making.
The findings are unweighted and reflect the opinions of survey respondents only.
About Bensimon Byrne
Bensimon Byrne is an independent creative intelligence company with a simple belief: the few fuel the many. We combine human insight, data and creativity to find the people who matter most, understand what moves them, and turn that insight into growth. We help clients identify new opportunities, sharpen their competitive advantage, express their brand, and show up where it counts. Bensimon Byrne has been helping brands find their people for more than 30 years. Bensimon Byrne is a division of Tadiem, a framework for forward thinking.
The End of Everything: The Focus Gap
A study by Ipsos and Bensimon Byrne
Fact Sheet
The Ipsos findings point to a consistent gap between what marketers believe and how they behave.
Focus isn’t the first instinct when pressure hits. When growth pressure emerges, 79% of surveyed participants say they continue to focus on all of their objectives rather than narrowing to a few. Yet 64% of participants acknowledge that greater focus would have improved their results over the past year.
The most common place they expand is their audience. Asked how they would pursue growth, marketers ranked increasing media spend and reach first, then expanding into new audiences and segments. Going deeper with the core audience ranked third, despite 94% of those surveyed agreeing that concentrating on a primary audience improves effectiveness.
They struggle to say no without evidence. Amongst marketers surveyed, 93% say they are comfortable making trade-offs in theory, while 60% report that existing priorities are only sometimes, rarely, or never deprioritized when new ones arrive. What would give them the confidence to say no? Stronger performance data linking focus to results (45% of those surveyed), greater confidence in strategic positioning (39% of those surveyed), and clearer success metrics (38% of those surveyed).
Sustaining focus is an organizational challenge. While 96% of marketers in the survey say their organization is clear on its primary audience and 91% on its most important objective, nearly half cite rapidly changing market conditions, and 41% cite competing growth opportunities as top barriers to a clear strategy. Comfort with trade-offs also varies by seniority: 70% of VPs surveyed say they are very comfortable saying no, compared with 43% of the C-suite surveyed, and 52% of directors surveyed.
Contact:
Daliah Hijazi Marsons
Narrative XPR
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1da53ef9-3bca-40b3-9bd2-959118e00ba7
