Calm down, the funnel’s not dead. It’s just had a few drinks

Opinion

The marketing funnel isn’t perfect, but its fundamental logic still holds: people don’t buy things they’ve never heard of. Marketing is just evolving, as it always has.

Another day, another over-excited prediction that marketing as we know it is finished.

This time, it’s the marketing funnel declared obsolete, swept away by an era of content-led, end-to-end solutions where channel definitions crumble into irrelevance.

It’s a neat soundbite but, like most sweeping marketing pronouncements, it’s built on a shaky mix of truth, exaggeration and a fundamental misunderstanding of how marketing actually works.

Let’s get one thing straight: the marketing funnel was never perfect. But it was never supposed to be. It’s a model — a simplified way of thinking about how demand is created and captured. And, like all models, it is wrong, but useful.

The idea that people progress neatly from awareness to purchase in a predictable straight line has never reflected reality, but the fundamental logic still holds: people don’t buy things they’ve never heard of. They move through stages of decision-making, even if those stages are now messier, more fluid and influenced by a wider range of touchpoints.

Throwing the funnel out entirely because it isn’t a perfect representation of modern consumer behaviour is like ditching GPS because roads have changed. The process may be evolving, but the principles remain. As Electric Glue chairman Sir John Hegarty puts it: “Processes change, but principles remain.”

The future is funnel-less — adapt your ad strategies accordingly

False choice

Yet here we are, being told that marketers need to abandon their outdated “channel-centric” thinking in favour of a “content-led” approach.

It’s a false choice. Content and channels aren’t competing forces; they’re interdependent. A brilliant piece of content is worthless if no-one sees it; and where and how it appears fundamentally shapes its impact.

Take the same ad and put it on a YouTube pre-roll, a TikTok feed, a London Underground poster and a LinkedIn carousel. The creative execution might come from the same core idea, but it works differently in each context.

The audience’s mindset, level of attention and willingness to engage all shift depending on the environment. Saying that content will “come to the fore” at the expense of channels misunderstands how content actually works.

Brand-building still needed

And then there’s retail media, which is apparently rewriting the rulebook.

We’re told that because traditional advertising and retail are converging, marketers no longer need separate media plans for different objectives.

It sounds radical but, really, it’s just shopper marketing with better data. Shoppable TV, social commerce and ecommerce ad networks are all important new tools, but they don’t eliminate the need for brand-building and performance marketing to work together.

Sure, shoppable formats and retail partnerships will make transactions easier, but let’s not pretend that slapping a “Buy Now” button on everything is a substitute for actual brand-building.

Long-term growth still requires mental availability, distinctive assets and broad-reach advertising that creates demand before capturing it.

Collapsing everything into a single “end-to-end” approach might sound efficient but, in practice, it risks undermining both brand and activation by lumping them into the same tactical blender.

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Strong brands win

And, of course, no future-gazing marketing piece would be complete without the obligatory AI section.

We’re told that, by 2030, AI will revolutionise how consumers discover products, turning generative algorithms into the ultimate content curators. It’s a compelling idea — until you realise that AI will only amplify the importance of strong brands.

If AI-driven discovery becomes the norm, the brands that win won’t be the ones blindly chasing the latest algorithmic trend — they’ll be the ones with recognisable, distinctive, emotionally compelling identities that the AI actually recommends.

Because here’s the brutal truth: if your brand isn’t strong enough to be remembered by humans, it sure as hell won’t be remembered by the machines.

The principles remain

So, no, the marketing funnel isn’t dead. And, no, the future isn’t some utopian content-led universe where everything is seamlessly automated and brand-building is an outdated relic.

What’s happening is more straightforward: marketing is evolving, just as it always has. The tools we use may change, but the principles of how brands grow remain constant.

The smartest marketers won’t be the ones ripping up the rulebook. They’ll be the ones adapting it, blending new opportunities with the fundamentals that have always made brands successful.

So the funnel’s not dead. It’s just had a couple of pints, downloaded ChatGPT and learned how to use TikTok. But the basics still matter. And they always will.

Tim Bonney is strategy director at Electric Glue