Building Trust Before Buying Attention with Alexis Luerssen

Brand and performance spent years being treated like two different jobs. Alexis Luerssen spent two decades proving they work better as one. In this conversation, Greg Wise sits down with longtime Match Group marketing leader Alexis Luerssen to unpack what more than 20 years of building brands taught her about connecting brand investment to business growth. From helping Match normalize online dating to launching community-focused brands like BLK and Chispa, Alexis has watched the marketing pendulum swing from mass-reach brand building to performance obsession and back toward a more integrated approach. Greg and Alexis also dig into why brand and performance shouldn’t live in separate worlds, how out-of-home creates a halo across the rest of the media mix, and why building trust with a community requires more than buying impressions. For Alexis, every marketing dollar should drive something, but measuring channels in isolation can cause marketers to miss how the entire system works together. **Key Takeaways:** - **Why brand and performance** can work toward the same growth goal instead of competing for budget - **How out-of-home, events, digital, and influencer marketing** can create a halo that makes the entire media mix work harder - **Why understanding the community you’re trying to reach** is essential to building the trust that drives long-term brand growth If you’re still measuring brand and performance like they belong in separate scorecards, this episode makes the case for seeing the bigger picture. **Highlights:** (00:00) Meet Alexis Luerssen (01:37) Reacting to Barbie’s iconic billboard (06:36) How Match helped normalize online dating (14:11) Why brand and performance belong together (19:35) What Gen Z expects from brands (21:02) How influencers reshaped the media mix (23:30) Using OOH to drive measurable lift (29:00) Building brands for specific communities (31:47) Why community trust comes before growth (34:25) What 20 years taught Alexis about brand **Resources:** Alexis Luerssen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisferraro/ Check out Match Group: https://mtch.com/ Beyond the Billboard: Barbie Movie Follow Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/ Follow OneScreen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/ Subscribe to OneScreen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/