With the rise of digital media, advertisers seem to focus less on communicating to potential buyers during the middle stages of their journey -- the education and consideration stages -- and more on the awareness and purchase stages.

Marketing guru Seth Godin said the formula for building brands with TV was simple:  “Find a large market niche that’s growing and not yet dominated.  Build a factory.  Buy a lot of TV ads.  The ads will lead to retail distribution and sales.  The sales will keep the factory busy and create profits.”  The profits, of course, went to buying more ads.

Television has long been considered an effective vehicle for brand marketing and a core part of the marketing funnel. Today, we know the linear construct of the funnel doesn’t accurately represent the behavior of multi-screen, always-connected consumers.  Almost 280 million people (85% of the U.S. population) will use the internet at least once a month this year, according to eMarketer.  Sixteen percent of U.S. internet users will go online using only mobile devices, and that number will grow to 19% by 2022.  Eighty-two percent of U.S. internet users will regularly watch digital video, with many young people shifting their attention from cable to YouTube or streaming platforms like Netflix.