Moving on from the traditional marketing funnel and embracing a more connected ecosystem that powers culturally relevant campaigns could be the key to driving brand growth.
That’s the view of Rachel Coffey, chief strategy officer at Initiative, who hosted a fascinating session about the alchemy of brand growth at Campaign’s Media360 in Brighton. She was joined by Russell Jackson-Pugh, head of media at Deliveroo, and Tim Pearson, chief revenue officer at LADbible Group, to explore how brands can take advantage of the changing ecosystem to connect with people and culture and drive commercial momentum and customer loyalty.
The messy middle
The funnel model was created over 125 years ago, by US advertising guru Elias St. Elmo Lewis. “It was invented in a world where you’d have a press ad or a billboard and then a personal door-to-door salesman would come and sell you something,” Coffey said. “I don’t think it necessarily works in our modern ecosystem.”
Pearson said that young adults are “the canary down the mine” when it comes to advertising, and their actions point towards a changing ecosystem. “They’re largely ignoring the funnel in many ways now, so we will start to see it collapse.”
Pearson said that because young adults often don’t see what’s happening at the top of the funnel and filter out the bottom of the funnel, this creates an opportunity for brands to invest in what Google calls the messy middle. “The funnel is like a sandwich without a filling,” he said. “The middle of the funnel is where you can really make people care, but it’s under-invested. We think investing in the mid-funnel will do a better job across the whole ecosystem, albeit it’s not the easiest thing to tackle.”
Jackson-Pugh said that Deliveroo is tackling it, but it’s an evolution not a revolution. Initially, Deliveroo focused on the bottom half of the funnel to drive its audience, before placing more emphasis on the top of the funnel to grow awareness. “It was very much Church and State to start with; very separate,” he said. “But over time, particularly in some of our bigger campaigns, we’re trying to bring those two together.
“We understand that our customers don’t necessarily come into Deliveroo or into a category in a nice and neat way at the top of the funnel, so we try to ensure all aspects of the funnel are considered so that it doesn’t feel disjointed.”
Driving cultural relevance
Coffey asked what a more connected ecosystem looks like in practice. “We’re trying to focus on missions and moments as opposed to targeting customers at various stages of the funnel,” said Jackson-Pugh. “Understanding the relationship between how our consumers intersect with the app and integrate in different media channels helps us build the missions and be relevant at the right moments.”
These missions and moments are most successful when culturally relevant, said Pearson. He referenced Kantar research that found that culturally relevant brands are six times more likely to grow than brands that have low levels of cultural relevance. Coffey pointed to Deliveroo’s summer 2024 campaign with Mob Kitchen, which Initiative worked on, as an example of content that successfully struck a cultural chord across the entire ecosystem. “It’s one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of true end-to-end brand awareness, conversion, straight into performance,” she said. “Off the back of seeing a nice recipe on TikTok you were able to fill out your Deliveroo basket and then have that food at your door within 20 minutes.”
To create culturally relevant campaigns, Pearson said brands should pay more attention to what the algorithms tell them. “I find it surprising that the industry doesn’t talk about the craft of algorithms from a content creation perspective,” he said. “There’s a whole science and art to it that doesn’t really get discussed, and that means a lot of content is just hoping for the best with algorithms.”
The creator economy
The panel cited creator and influencer content as an effective way of authentically tapping into culturally relevant moments. Coffey asked how brands can successfully balance maintaining a strong brand voice with giving creators the freedom to create something that might go viral.
“We generally trust the experts,” said Jackson-Pugh. “I know that sounds simplistic but so often the success can come down to something as simple as nailing the brief. We sometimes have a bit of a back and forth with how we measure it but ultimately we are hands off and we let the experts show the best way forward.”
Pearson agreed that it’s all about trust. “I know for some clients the creator and influencer world can seem like the Wild West, but it’s becoming more professional,” he said. “We give them the freedom to create content that is natural to them, but has the brand’s style woven into it. If there’s too much imposed on them it won’t feel authentic to the feed, and won’t work.”
For more information from Initiative on how to navigate this changing ecosystem get in touch with Initiative.