Yep. I missed last Sunday, but I promise it was for a good reason. I took my nine-year-old to Berlin, Germany, to watch the Colts play the Falcons, in the middle of what is the most chaotic month of the year for the Lacy fam.

First off, lots of travel. I had just spent most of the week in Atlanta for the Docebo board meeting. I flew home Thursday night, and we left for Germany the next morning. 

Secondly, we’ve sold our house, bought a new one, and we are moving this weekend. By the time you’re reading this, we’ll be living somewhere else (in the same neighborhood ofc), surrounded by cardboard and searching for that ONE thing I packed because I thought, “Ha! There is no way I’m going to need this in the next week.” 

Spoiler alert: I needed it, and couldn’t find it. 

Stressed out yet? You should be. And in the middle of all of this, I decided to fly across an ocean with Caden for a football game. 

And I’m glad we did. 

He got to see an NFL game in another country. He got to sit next to me in a stadium with 72,000+ people from all over the world. He got to see what happens when strangers have one too many beers and forget how to walk. He got to learn the history of the Berlin Wall and the magic of the Jesse Owens saga in the Olympic Stadium. 

He witnessed the importance of being different. 

And I also got to experience all of those things, but with my kid. No distractions. 

I’m very aware of how lucky we are that my job and hard work make a trip like Berlin possible. Not everyone can hop on a plane to Europe for a football game. But that’s not the important part of the story; the most crucial part is that we decided to go. 

If you’ve been thinking about a one-on-one trip with your kid (an overnight an hour away, a day trip to a nearby city, or a plane ride over the ocean), here’s your friendly Sunday evening nudge. 

Do it while it still feels a little inconvenient. Do it when the timing isn’t perfect. Do it even if your calendar looks like it’s actively trying to drown you in paisley blue blocks. 

That window of time where your kid wants to sit next to you on a plane, hold your hand crossing a busy street in a foreign city, and scream about a touchdown in your ear? That window closes at some point. Make it count.

♥️ kyle

On Budgeting for Brand in 2026 (And How to Measure It)

Hey there! It’s budgeting season again. Aren’t we all lucky as hell? I know every marketing leader reading this right now is living in the same Google Sheet, organizing, defending, breaking (and reloading), justifying, and asking the same question: 

How the HELL do I allocate spend for brand… and how do I prove it worked? 

It’s hard when we’re supposed to: hit bigger pipeline and revenue targets… with fewer people… in a market that changes every damned day… and while AI “platforms” promise to do everything except join the budgeting call with your CFO… well even then… 

Robots FTW. 

Honestly, it’s always been an issue. Brand spend is usually the first thing questioned and cut because it’s hard to defend. It’s softer than pipeline because it’s harder to measure. 

And yet, every time things get tough, the company with the strong brand + product wins. 

So, this is my attempt at a practice guide to how I’m thinking about brand spend in 2026 and how we plan to measure it at Docebo.

But first, we need a truth bomb. 

Most execs or boards will nod when you say “brand matters,” because they don’t fully understand what the hell you are talking about. Then they look at your budget and ask two questions: 

1. How much pipeline does this drive?

2. How quickly does it appear in the forecast?

And you stumble over an answer which then limits your credibility because you look incompetent. And you stumble because these is tension…

• Brand impact is long-term. Your CEO and CFO are staring at short-term revenue.

• Brand influence is indirect. It changes how people buy, who shows up, and how fast deals move, but it very rarely gets last-touch credit.

• Brand investments don’t fit neatly into an attribution model. So they're treated as “nice to have” instead of a “must have.”

It’s not anyone’s fault but your own. Marketers have made it harder on ourselves. We’ve spent years championing this idea of “revenue-first.” I can say it, because I’m to blame. I’ve spent the last 10 years championing marketing’s need to own $$. I’ve put everything through the same measurement lens: CAC, MQL, opptys, last-touch attribution, pipeline and revenue. If it doesn’t fit neatly into the model, we kill it. 

Shame. 

Put a group of smart marketers in a room and tell them they must generate 2,000 MQLs at the lowest possible CAC? You’ll get an extremely optimized funnel (good job, snore) and the most boring creative work you’ve ever seen.

Shame. 

When measurement becomes the only language we speak, we optimize for what’s easiest to measure, not what actually moves people.

So we need a different way to think about investing in brand. We need a budget model that gives your team permission to invest in brand, and a measurement model that protects said “brand investment.” 

Let’s start with the money.

The 70/30 Rule for 2026

One of the most common questions I get is: “What’s the right investment balance between brand and demand? How much should I actually spend?”

There is never a perfect answer here, but I’ve always fallen back on a simple idea: 70/30 split across your entire marketing budget (headcount + programs).

• 70% of your budget is focused on direct demand: pipeline, bookings, revenue.

• 30% is dedicated to brand-building and experimentation: the things that differentiate you, make you memorable, and create future demand.

You pull that 30% to help with brand bets: 

• The direct mail that surprises and delights. 

• The brand campaign that doesn’t map cleanly to an opportunity goal. 

• The billboard or OOH concept that makes people text you a photo (or even better your CEO). 

• The event that feels more like a gathering of friends than a product pitch. 

Now here’s the most important part of this budgeting philosophy. You must earn that 30% by making sure the 70% is delivering (with attribution modeling) on the numbers the board or team truly care about: Hitting pipeline and revenue targets.

If the 70% is not delivering, nobody is going to give a shit about your 30% spend on brand. 

How the Split Evolves by Stage

The 70/30 rule is a starting point, not a religion. It changes with the company's stage.

• Early-stage (0–20M, roughly): 80/20

  • You skew heavier toward short-term growth.

  • You’re trying to prove product-market fit, not win a Cannes Lion.

  • Every dollar needs a reasonably clear line to revenue.
    

• Growth-stage (20–150M+): 70/30

  • You’ve got something that works.

  • The constraint becomes differentiation and category position.

  • You need brand to make all that paid and outbound spend more efficient over time.
    

• Established (later-stage / public): 60/40 (in some cases)

  • You already have some brand equity.

  • The battle is for market leadership, pricing power, and talent.

  • Brand becomes as much about defending your position as creating it.

The exact ratios will move, but the point stays the same: You need a formal, protected bucket of dollars for brand. If you don’t name it, the budget will quietly disappear into “more pipeline.”

Once you’ve figured out a spend ratio, it’s time to move to the hardest part of the conversation, measuring brand impact. 

“Should We Even Measure Brand?” (The Honest Answer)

Yes, you should, but it’s super difficult. And it’s really dependent on your ability to use the 70% to generate enough pipeline, hit your revenue targets, and keep the rest of the exec team’s anxiety at a healthy simmer.

You will usually earn the right to spend the rest on brand without an overused attribution model.

And that makes sense, because the 70% is the part that’s actually built to be measured. Demand, performance, and pipeline programs are comparatively easy to track and forecast. If that engine is working, everyone feels safer.

Brand is different. The thing that actually moves people isn’t the measurement of the idea. It’s the idea itself.

If you’re delivering on revenue and pipeline, most executives don’t actually care whether you can prove the positive impact of that billboard or event. They just want to know:

• That you have a point of view on brand

• That you’re doing meaningful, memorable things

• That those things aren’t putting the revenue number at risk

So yes, there is a time and place to measure brand:

• When you’re trying to protect or grow spend

• When the market tightens and every dollar is on trial

• When a board member inevitably asks, “What are we getting for this?”

But there’s a real risk on the other side: If you over-rotate into “brand measurement,” you can actually muddy the story, especially if you’re not hitting your pipeline and revenue goals.

Here’s a simpler decision tree: 

• No, you shouldn’t try to measure every brand touch. That will destroy your best ideas.

• Yes, you should measure brand enough that you can defend it when it’s questioned.

That’s where the Brand Score comes in.

The Six Pillars of Your Brand Score

Let’s preface this section with a truth bomb. This is fairly new to me and the Docebo marketing team. I can’t outright say it works perfectly but it’s a good way to blend internal performance and external perception across six areas:

Brand Awareness: How many people know you exist? Think: branded search, direct traffic, SOV vs competitors, aided/unaided recall (if you’re doing surveys).

Brand Trust & Reputation: Do customers and the market actually trust you? Think: NPS, CSAT, G2 / review sites, social sentiment, high-intent referrals.

Brand Differentiation: Do people understand why you’re different or do you sound like everyone else? Think: win/loss notes, message testing, competitive analysis, qualitative feedback from sales.

Brand Engagement: Are people willing to spend time with your content and experiences? Think: content engagement, time on key pages, video completion rates, event participation, community engagement.

Brand Consistency: Does your story show up the same way across website, sales decks, social, product, and people? Think: qualitative audits of assets, sales enablement materials, product UX, social profiles.

Brand Perceived Value: Do customers believe you are worth a premium? Think: pricing power, discounting trends, deal commentary (“we chose you because…”).

Now, the next step is applying a score. Keep it simple enough that you’ll actually use it. Score each pillar on a 1–10 scale: Use a mix of data and judgment.

• 1–3: weak

• 4–6: developing

• 7–8: strong

• 9–10: market-leading

Apply weights based on your strategy: Early stage? Heavier on awareness and engagement. Later stage? Heavier on differentiation, trust, and perceived value.

Calculate a final Brand Score out of 100: Multiply each pillar score by its weight. Sum it up. Report that number every quarter

Track progress over time: Quarter-over-quarter, year-over-year, by segment (industry, region, product line) if you’re fancy The real value is not the absolute number. It’s the trend and the conversation it forces, especially when talking to the financal outcomes.

Connecting Brand to Financial Outcomes (So Your CFO Cares)

A Brand Score is a good start, but you still need to speak finance. Your job is to connect the dots between brand strength and business outcomes, even if the connection isn’t perfect.

Here are three models I like using in budget conversations:

1. Branded CAC vs Non-Branded CAC

Compare two things:

• CAC for inbound leads that engaged with branded assets (search, content, events, community)

• CAC for leads driven by generic paid campaigns, outbound, or non-branded sources

Over time, a strong brand drives more inbound, shortens the path to opportunity creation, and reduces blended CAC

2. Sales Cycle Compression

Start here. Average sales cycle for accounts exposed to major brand campaigns, content, or events versus those that were not. If you are doing your job, those deals move faster, require fewer meetings, and (hopefully) face less pricing pressure. 

Faster cycles = better cash flow and higher sales productivity. CFOs understand that language.

3. Brand Awareness & Future Pipeline

You can start by tracking branded search volume, direct traffic, and engagement with your flagship brand content. Then, connect the trends in those metrics with demo requests, enterprise opportunities, and pipeline coming from your target accounts.

You probably won’t be able to prove causation, but as brand metrics rise, so does your pipeline. That’s enough to justify continued investment.

Let’s be real.

Brand is not a line item you sneak into the budget because “we should do some brand stuff. Brand is the system that makes:

• Your sales team’s job easier

• Your product story clearer

• Your demand dollars more efficient

• Your company harder to replace

So, marketing teams, it’s up to us to protect that meaningful slice of spend of brand, and measure it just enough to defend it and make better decisions. And even more so, to have enough room for big, slightly uncomfortable bets that can’t be fully justified on day 1 or 30.

People don’t fall in love with dashboards. They fall in love with the story. The story of hittin the number, hearing customers excited about the direction of the company, and seeing your brand show up more often in deals that move the needle. 

If the 70% engine is working, the brand ideas are often what tip you from “vendor” to “must-have partner.” That’s the real point.

Spending on brand next year isn’t about choosing between creativity and revenue. It’s about building a system where revenue is protected and brand is allowed to blow people’s minds.

That’s marketing.