Brandience VP says the middle of the marketing funnel is shrinking

September 5, 2026 · mediapost.com

On September 4, 2026, MediaPost republished a Marketing Insider column by Danyelle Horrillo, vice president of digital and programmatic media at Brandience, arguing that the classic marketing funnel no longer describes how people buy. Horrillo writes that shoppers can discover a brand, research it, validate it through reviews, compare competitors and complete a purchase in minutes, drawing on search engines, social platforms, review sites, comparison tools and AI assistants along the way. Much of that research now happens before a brand knows a given consumer exists, she says, which shrinks the middle of the funnel even though it keeps functioning. She also identifies the postpurchase period as a growing source of demand: buyers write reviews, publish social content and make recommendations that shape the next round of purchases. "Today's customers power tomorrow's awareness," she writes.

Campaigns built around a fixed sequence of awareness, consideration and conversion risk targeting moments that already happened, since much of the research and comparison shopping that used to fill the middle funnel now takes place before a media plan reaches the consumer. Horrillo's postpurchase argument carries similar weight for budget owners: reviews, recommendations and social content created after a sale increasingly generate the next wave of demand, so measurement and creative should account for that stage too. Marketers who use the funnel as a flexible planning tool, updating messaging and channel mix as buying journeys compress and loop back through advocacy, keep pace with how people actually shop.