In the week before the second meetup of the London FlipMyFunnel circle, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook’s COO) took the stage at the DMEXCO conference in Cologne, to tell the gathered AdTech industry audience:
“The marketing funnel itself is collapsing. It used to take time to go from research to discovery to awareness all the way to a purchase. But now you have digital and mobile that is happening faster than ever, and that is for the largest brands to the small corner shop to non-profits… The way you work on your brand and the way you communicate who you are has never been more important.”
This comment (which, unsurprisingly, suggests Facebook to be the answer to the problem) was very timely for September’s meetup. The theme for September was around reach and personal brand, so this news story – and the excellent article Mark Ritson contributed to Marketing Week (Spreadsheet Jockeys are misunderstanding the marketing funnel) – were perfectly timed to spark an interesting discussion.