For Context: Evolution of the marketing funnel

We’re starting our journey in 1898.

Brands like Pepsi, Kellogg’s, and Vicks were just emerging. So was the AIDA model (Awareness, interest, desire, action), which was created by advertising pioneer Elias St. Elmo Lewis. That model led to the invention of the marketing funnel in the early twentieth century.

Before the funnel, there was no formula for people’s path to purchase, which meant those fledgling brands like Pepsi, Kellogg’s and Vicks had no way of knowing if their marketing budget was driving sales. The funnel offered a roadmap from discovery to the moment when a customer bought that soda, cereal or salve.

But after more than a century as the go-to marketing model, the tried and tested funnel seems out of date. Credit the rise of the internet with driving this change.

On this episode of For Context, we break down how the funnel is evolving to keep up with the lightspeed nature of the world, where people can explore and buy products anytime, anywhere. And those dynamics are leading marketing executives like ADT EVP and CMO DeLu Jackson to redefine the funnel in different terms.

“People are gathering information pre, during, even after they purchase,” Jackson said on The Current Podcast. “They continue to gather information, reaffirm and optimize their choices. It’s not a funnel that goes to the bottom and people stop. I think people continue to consume information and insights. So, I think we have to be always on and omnipresent to meet those needs.”

Watch the full video to see how retail media and commerce networks are playing a major role in accelerating marketers’ goals to serve the right ad to the right consumer, and how they’re changing the very dynamics of the shopping experience.

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.