What does it really mean to master the modern marketing equation? For the leaders of My/Mochi, Tilebar, and Every Man Jack, the answer wasn’t found in media mix models or attribution dashboards. It was found in what no longer works and what still might.

At Lead Summit, three seasoned marketers gathered on stage to unpack the reality of performance plateaus, measurement fatigue, and the growing need to justify spend in a softening market. Each faced different customer journeys and verticals but the challenges rhymed.

When ROAS Isn’t the Point

The conversation opened with a candid acknowledgment: consumer behavior is still shifting, and the pressure to prove value has never been higher. Whether it’s grocery shoppers under economic strain or homeowners scrutinizing large purchases, what brands must now deliver isn’t just performance, it’s reassurance.

That shift is straining old models. The group agreed that the industry's fixation on channel-level metrics has led to misread decisions particularly around upper-funnel investment. When every tactic is judged by short-term efficiency, brand activity appears expensive and underperforming, even when it's doing the long-term work of driving awareness and search volume.

There was broad consensus: what matters now is incrementality understanding what media actually influenced a sale, and what would have happened anyway. As teams move toward this model, many are using tools and vendors that can isolate organic lift from paid conversion, especially in search-heavy environments.

Platforms like Fospha were quietly validated in this context not for attribution in the traditional sense, but for helping leadership understand impact, not just cost.

Budgeting for Uncertainty Not Control

One recurring theme was how to fund new ideas without breaking what works. The solution wasn’t endless agility or big swings. It was discipline.

Rather than spreading tests thinly across a dozen channels, the advice was to protect a defined experimentation budget then treat each test like a serious line item. A failed experiment is fine. A poorly executed one isn’t. Leadership needs to understand that iteration is not a luxury; it's a requirement. But it has to be resourced to work.

Some channels, like podcasting, emerged as quiet winners. For My/Mochi, audio offered a rare combination: national reach, low creative overhead, and credibility through trusted voices. Unlike performance clicks, these moments don’t always convert instantly but their influence was visible in store-level velocity. That was enough.

Agencies as Pressure Tests, Not Just Capacity Extenders

On the in-house vs. agency debate, no one argued for extremes. The internal team owns the brand’s heartbeat. But agencies, when well-integrated, serve a different purpose: pattern disruption.

Several panelists described agency partners as necessary counterpoints to internal habits. Not just execution arms but outside voices with the proximity to spot cultural relevance and platform shifts early. The best ones help teams zoom out especially when brand messaging becomes too insular or tactical.

Still, success comes down to alignment. Without shared KPIs and honest budget expectations, agency relationships quickly drift into transactional territory.

The Next Chapter Isn’t Channel-Based

Looking ahead, all three leaders expressed cautious optimism. There was excitement about platform changes Google’s updates, new targeting logic but also concern that democratized tools could flatten differentiation.

The real challenge, they noted, isn’t media selection. It’s narrative consistency. With shrinking consumer attention and rising expectations, brands can’t afford fragmented messaging across touchpoints. It doesn’t matter whether the discovery happens on a podcast, in a search result, or via influencer video, what matters is what the brand means in that moment.

That, they agreed, is the new marketing equation. Not paid vs. organic. Not in-house vs. agency. But clarity vs. noise. Focus vs. distraction. And impact, finally, over activity.

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division