Only 28% of Brand Equity Comes From Paid Media, New JKR and Kantar Study Finds

Jun. 25, 2026

Global branding agency JKR and the world's leading marketing data and analytics business, Kantar, have launched a new report titled Be Distinctive Everywhere. The Experience Edition. Bringing together Kantar's Meaningfully Different Experiences (MDX) research and proprietary data, and JKR's expertise in delivering distinctive brands and experiences, the report gives brand owners, marketers and creatives a clearer picture of how experience shapes brand equity and a practical framework for acting on it.

Kantar's data shows that only 28% of brand equity is built via paid touchpoints, with direct and indirect experience touchpoints accounting for the rest. This poses a direct challenge to how most CMOs currently prioritise their budgets.

The data goes further. Brands that improve their customer experience and amplify it are 2.5x more likely to significantly grow their market share. We know difference is a significant driver of brand growth. And when it comes to what drives difference, distinctiveness and experience touchpoints combined rank ahead of communication, and every other variable tested. These findings are drawn from some of the world's best-performing brands, as ranked by Kantar’s Most Valuable Global Brands 2026 study. 

Mark Chamberlain, Global Managing Director, Customer Experience, Kantar said:

"For too long, experience has been the underfunded, undermeasured side of brand building. We have clear evidence of not just how much experience contributes to brand equity, but which touchpoints carry the greatest weight. That gives marketers something they have never had before: the intelligence to make confident, data-backed decisions about where to invest in experience to drive meaningful brand growth. That’s fundamental when trying to influence both people’s and agents’ interactions with brands."

 

The findings point to a fundamental misalignment in how most brands are currently operating. With experience touchpoints accounting for the majority of brand equity built, and LLMs increasingly forming their understanding of brands through those same touchpoints, the stakes for getting experience right have never been higher.

Lee Rolston, Global Chief Growth Officer at JKR said:

"Knowing which touchpoints drive equity is only half the equation. The other half is building the creative and strategic infrastructure to act on it consistently. With JKR's Distinctive Experience Cycle, we give brands the system to coordinate every expression and experience around a single belief and be distinctive everywhere."

 

In response to these findings, JKR introduces the Distinctive Experience Cycle, a three-part framework designed to help brands deliver growth across the entire brand experience:

• Distinctive Position: Basing the brand on a belief that is true to its DNA and shared by its audience.
• Distinctive Expression: Developing a distinctive brand expression that motivates people to participate through a shared belief.
• Distinctive Experience: Delivering experiences that consistently reinforce that belief with the audience.