The consumer journey is so changing these days that the marketing funnel should be made of rubber. According to the MiQ Sigma “From Funnel to Flexibility” report, 86% of people switch digital activities at least once an hour, and 42% say their path to purchase is random.
This type of behavior makes the funnel an unreliable planning model. It also reduces lead times, with some purchases completed in as little as 10 minutes, limiting the influence that organized campaigns can have.
What replaces the funnel is a set of overlapping behaviors. People move from viewing, browsing, and purchasing in quick bursts, often within the same session, which means intent forms and resolves faster than most campaigns are designed to handle.
This shift changes the way marketing should be structured. Instead of planning around sequences, they need to identify moments of intent and ensure campaigns can respond when those moments happen, even if they only last a few seconds.
Exposure and action can be almost simultaneous
Compression is easy to see in the data. In a 30-minute window, a large portion of consumers are viewing, browsing, and purchasing, and moving between these states rather than progressing through them.
This has direct implications for media planning. Instead of spacing messages between stages, the priority becomes coverage and responsiveness as activity increases.
The behavior of the device reinforces this pattern. The report shows that 91% of consumers use a second device when watching TV, meaning exposure and action can happen at almost the same time.
This changes the way the channels work together. A single impression can trigger immediate cross-channel behavior. Campaigns therefore need to be coordinated across platforms rather than managed in isolation.
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Be present wherever interest begins
Social platforms grow where demand can begin. More than 50% of consumers use them for multiple purposes on the same day, and this figure exceeds 80% among younger audiences, creating more entry points into the decision process.
This makes discovery less predictable and more distributed. Brands no longer guide entry into the funnel. They compete to be present wherever interest begins.
AI accelerates the next step in this process. More than 45% of consumers use AI tools to compare products, summarize reviews and get recommendations, reducing the time from evaluation to decision.
This has implications for creation and content. Messages must be clear and structured enough to be interpreted and presented by AI systems as part of the decision-making process.
Speed and flexibility are required
The measurement is also affected. When interactions occur simultaneously across multiple channels, stage-based attribution models become less reliable and more difficult to apply. This means using models that focus on signals and outcomes rather than steps. It also requires better integration between data, media and analytics systems.
Execution becomes the limiting factor. When decisions are made quickly, delays in launching campaigns or updating creatives reduce the likelihood of influencing the outcome.
Change is practical. Marketing works best when it is designed to respond to behavior as it occurs, rather than trying to guide it along a predefined path.
The full report can be found here. (Registration required)
