If there’s one thing modern marketing has in common with a classic Looney Tunes reel, it’s this:
too many marketers are out here living like Wile E. Coyote, sprinting full‑speed after an illusion of certainty… only to find out the “tunnel” in front of them is just a high‑definition painting on the side of a brick wall.
And honestly?
It’s exhausting to watch.
And even more exhausting to live.
The Fantasy of Certainty in a Fragmented World
Marketing used to be (relatively) linear.
You had a few channels, a few moments of attention, and a buyer journey that behaved itself. You could track everything from initial media launch to sale, wrap it all in a bow, and present it at the board meeting. Because it tended to be a linear media launch with one TV ad, one radio ad and one magazine full-pager. You’d activate them in the order you wanted consumers to hear the sequential message. And then you’d check the effectiveness at the end.
Today?
Good luck.
Media is fragmented.
Attention is fractional.
Decision-making is decentralised.
Buyer journeys resemble conspiracy-theory corkboards.
And half the meaningful interactions happen off‑platform and offline.
Yet we’re all still out here, chasing perfect attribution like it’s that smug blue Road Runner sprinting away with a “meep meep.”
Modern marketers are burning out chasing something that simply does not exist anymore.
The More Attention Fragments, the Smaller the Strategy Becomes
Here’s the irony:
The more our audiences spread out, the more our strategies shrink.
Budgets get sliced into platform‑specific pots instead of customer‑specific objectives.
Content starts bending to the format instead of bending how the market wants or needs.
Messaging loses its coherence as each channel demands its own flavour and constant refreshes.
Campaigns become tactical patchworks held together with hope and a spreadsheet that definitely lies.
We build plans around where attention is happening, not what we want people to remember.
It’s kind of like Wile E. Coyote redesigning his strategy around whatever new gadget he just ordered instead of stepping back and admitting:
Maybe the gadgets aren’t the problem.
Fragmentation Doesn’t Interfere with the Fundamentals – It Makes Them More Important
Here’s the good news:
Marketing fundamentals haven’t died.
They’re not even injured.
If anything, fragmentation has made the basics more powerful than ever.
Distinctive brand cues still matter.
Early and often. Repeated and not refreshed even when you’re bored of saying them.
Consistency still matters.
Not platform consistency – mental availability consistency. Messaging consistency. Creative consistency. Brand positioning consistency.
Broad reach still matters.
Your future customers aren’t in your CRM yet.
Fragmentation spreads interactions thin.
Consistency binds them together.
The illusion many marketers fall for is that lots of tiny, fleeting impressions don’t add up to anything.
But when they all express one galvanising idea, one core theme, one unmistakable memory structure…
they compound!
Small moments create big brands.
We Don’t Need Marketing Plans Built Around Channels
Platforms change.
Algorithms mutate.
Attention shifts like sand storm in the American Southwest.
So why do so many marketing plans start with:
“Right, let’s decide our channels…”!?
Marketing should not be built around channels.
Marketing should be built around:
- What we want to be remembered for
- How we want the brand to live in the mind
- The distinctive assets we want to burn into memory
- The single idea that unifies everything, no matter the format
The plan should follow the brand, not the other way around.
Channels are distribution. Memory is strategy.
Stop Chasing the Unchaseable
We don’t need better attribution models.
We need better brand models.
We don’t need more certainty.
We need more coherence.
We don’t need more channels.
We need more clarity.
If we keep sprinting after perfect measurability, perfect tracking, or perfect control, we’ll end up like our old friend Wile E…
running headfirst into what looks like a tunnel…
but is actually just very convincing paint and a catastrophic lack of perspective.
Let’s stop chasing illusions.
Let’s build ideas that endure.
Let’s create brands that people remember – even when the journey is untraceable.
