The Dilate Blog

It’s one of the most common questions in marketing, and it’s usually asked the wrong way. Because the answer isn’t emotional or rational. It’s actually about context. Decades of marketing effectiveness research show a clear pattern. Emotional creative is more effective at building brands over time. It affects how we shape memory, meaning and preference […]

Have you felt the shift in how people are buying lately? March has started to show a pattern; behaviour is changing. Across accounts here at Dilate, we’re seeing the same thing in different forms. Demand is still there, just approached more cautiously. It’s subtle, but it’s starting to impact how things perform. Demand hasn't disappeared. […]

Most creative does what it’s meant to do. It gets produced. It goes live. It’s optimised, refined, tested, and iterated. In many cases, it even performs. Clicks come in. Metrics move. Dashboards light up. And then… nothing really changes. Brands are producing more creative than ever before. Performance teams squeeze efficiency out of it. Designers […]

Most marketing conversations seem to still start with the same question: what channel should we spend on? The better question is: what are you trying to achieve? Because most businesses are juggling two very different pressures:  Short-term revenue targets Long-term growth ambition And the conflict between these is where the brand vs performance debate shows […]

As the Head of Strategy here at Dilate, I’m sharing a monthly update, stepping back from the noise and looking at what’s actually shifting in our industry. This won’t be a roundup of headlines. There’s enough of that already. Instead, you’ll get a considered look at what changes mean for how brands grow, compete, and […]

Brand awareness has a reputation problem and it’s about time that we start talking about it.  For many businesses, brand is treated as a “nice to have”. Valuable in theory, but the first thing cut when budgets tighten. Performance marketing has changed expectations. Clicks, conversions and CPA appear in dashboards within hours. But brand doesn’t […]

Brand doesn’t show up nearly in a last-click report. It doesn’t get the same credit as performance. It’s scrutinised more because no one can figure out if it’s working.  Here’s the thing, it can be measured. Most businesses are just looking in the wrong places.  But if you can’t measure it, you can’t defend it. […]

People rarely buy the way we like to imagine they do. In theory, your customers compare options, weigh things up, and make a considered call. In practice, most decisions are formed much earlier. When a need pops up, we reach for what feels familiar. The brands we already recognise tend to surface first (sometimes without […]

We’ve retained our Google Premier Partner status. On paper, that places Dilate in the top tier of agencies in Australia, part of the top 3% recognised by Google for performance, client growth, and product expertise. That’s something we’re proud of. But it’s also something that needs context. Because badges don’t grow businesses. Execution does. And […]

On paper, AI has made marketing easier than ever.  You’re likely hearing it from your boss, your clients, and your team. The tools are better. The platforms are smarter. In turn, marketing is more accessible than ever. And yet, expectations have never been higher.  The industry is noisier than ever. Marketing managers are being asked […]