The Dilate Blog

Most businesses treat brand strategy like a project you “complete”. Workshop → deck → sign-off → move on In practice, brand strategies only work when you’ve got a continuous decision-making system.  Why? Markets move, competitors change, priorities shift. Brand documents don’t magically update themselves When that system stalls, campaigns start to drift. Messaging becomes inferred […]

Most businesses assume they lose deals to competitors. In reality, many of those deals don’t go anywhere at all. Research from The JOLT Effect by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna found that 40–60% of deals are lost not because a buyer chooses another option, but because they choose nothing. The decision gets delayed, pushed back, […]

If you’ve ever launched a campaign that should have worked-solid creative, proven channels, a sensible budget-but didn’t, the problem usually isn’t where you’re looking. Most businesses assume the problem sits in execution. The ads need tweaking. The copy needs sharpening. The platform has changed again. Something must be wrong in-market. But campaigns rarely fail at […]

Short-term tactics only take you so far. They deliver quick wins, then the curve flattens - CPAs go up, audiences shrink and optimisation becomes an expensive guessing game. Performance was never designed to carry the whole load. If you’re leaning on activation to fill the gaps left by brand, you’re running a half-finished system. One […]

Most businesses still talk about branding like it’s a channel decision. Should we try TV? Should we add billboards? Should we “do brand” this quarter? As if brand were a media placement. Something you toggle on once you’ve wrung every last drop out of your performance campaigns. Basically, if it doesn’t generate leads by Friday, […]

Let’s be clear from the outset: brand vs performance isn’t a debate. It’s not even a proper question. It’s a false “choice” created by people who don’t understand how marketing works and repeated endlessly by platforms that profit from keeping you addicted to short-term metrics. Every few weeks, someone inevitably asks me, “Isn’t brand marketing […]

“Drive for show, putt for dough.” It’s one of those old golf sayings that gets passed down like gospel - my dad taught it to me, and his dad before him. The idea behind it? You might look good smashing a drive off the tee, but it’s the final putt that wins you the money. […]

Still upping your marketing spend but wondering why results keep dipping? It’s not bad luck — the rules have changed. Ten years ago, I could throw up a few ads and watch the leads roll in. It sounds ridiculous to say that now, but that was the reality. The competition was lighter, the algorithms were […]

On any given day, Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity (you name it), hand out instant answers before a single blue link can load. If your brand isn’t baked into those AI answers, summaries, and snippets, you’re simply not in the conversation. Enter, Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO. Our team have been experimenting, testing, and learning about […]

We’ve got some exciting news to share. Mentor Marketing, one of WA’s most respected media and programmatic agencies, is officially part of Dilate. If you haven’t come across Mentor before, they’re a boutique media agency led by Amanda Reid. Mentor Marketing is known for their deep expertise in traditional and programmatic media buying, strategic campaign […]