Are today's marketers watching the whole field, or just the scoreboard?

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Watching the USA take down Paraguay was incredible. But the commentary about Christian Pulisic after he did not play in the 2nd half got me thinking.

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The announcers were fixating on his scoring slump leading up to the tournament because his individual goal count was down. Pulisic pushed back, and he was completely right. People were only watching the final touch. They missed his field generalship. They missed how he dictates pace, pulls defenders out of position, and creates the space that lets his teammates score.

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That is exactly the trap too many brands are falling into with digital media right now, including CTV.

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Everyone is obsessing over the last click, immediate conversions, and short-term outcomes. (By the way, if that is how you are being sold, ask those sellers to explicitly define those metrics and how they are derived).

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I get it: you have to capture the intent that is in-market today. But last-click attribution isn't the consumer journey. It's just the final and sometimes easiest step.

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Look at legal advertising. When someone gets into an accident, you want your firm to have immediate share of mind. After they call their loved ones, your firm should be next. If they Google your firm a few minutes later, that click reflects the sum of all parts that influenced the call, not the search engine.

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When you focus exclusively on harvesting existing demand, you stop creating new demand. You stop inviting people into the top of the funnel. Eventually, no matter how good your conversion rate is, you simply run out of people to convert.

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Even the best finisher on the planet can't score if nobody is building the play from midfield.

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Balance the field. Capture today's demand, but never stop creating tomorrow's.

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Great video at the end of this post, ANA Brand Masters session with Joe McCambley (Saatva’s CMO) and the Tatari team is an absolute masterclass in full-funnel media strategy. It perfectly illustrates exactly what happens when a brand stops looking at channels in silos and starts measuring the "halo effect" of video impressions.

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