The backwards Marketing Funnel

Why Culture Now Moves from the Few to the Many

Matter's latest intelligence report states it plainly: "To achieve momentum today, brands must start with the few, not the many." After a decade building brand experiences across Switzerland, this isn't just accurate. It describes the entire landscape we're navigating. The traditional marketing funnel has become not just ineffective but irrelevant to how people actually discover and advocate for brands.

When the Internet Became Embarrassing

The data tells a story many in marketing are still reluctant to acknowledge. A 26-year-old consumer told Matter's researchers: "Doomscrolling makes me feel more unhealthy than eating junk food." Another, 19 years old, stated: "No one posts anymore. Posting on Instagram is embarrassing."

The New Yorker reported in 2025 that it had become "cool to have no followers." A complete inversion of the social capital that defined the previous decade. This isn't teenagers being contrarian. This is a generation recognizing these platforms have become fundamentally unhealthy spaces.

The data confirms it: 68% of consumers are dissatisfied with sponsored content, 66% find information quality deteriorating, 67% miss the "pre-plugged-in" era, and 80% of Gen Z acknowledge an unhealthy relationship with their phones.

Algorithms have created the perception that culture is stuck and plagued by sameness. When everything is optimized for engagement, nothing feels authentic.

The Surprising Return of Friction

What emerged wasn't a rejection of technology, but a rediscovery of value in experiences requiring effort, intention, and physical presence. Friction (which the technology industry spent decades eliminating) has become a signifier of authenticity.

The goal of big tech was the wholesale removal of friction from our lives online, but in exchange it took away all of our agency. Too little friction makes you passive, you lose your imagination, you become a pure consumer.

But, if you want friends, if you want community, you actually have to inconvenience yourself. You actually have to have some friction.

The inconvenience has transformed from barrier to feature. Friction signals that something matters.

From Mass to Momentum

The new model inverts the funnel entirely. Rather than starting with mass awareness hoping some percentage converts, effective brand building now starts with hyper-local communities. Once resonance exists, the community amplifies. Algorithms then push content broader. Scale emerges as an outcome of community momentum rather than starting strategy.

Matter describes this as "less a funnel, more a cultural momentum wave."

On Running's tennis Clubhouse Nights in Paris create intimate local events specific to Parisian tennis culture. Supreme's ongoing collaboration with Hajji's deli in Harlem roots a global brand in hyper-local culture. Lacoste's "no actors, no filters, just NYC" campaign rejected polished global imagery for raw local authenticity.

The pattern? Start local. Build authentic. Let community amplify.

We've been applying this approach at Campbell & Jones for years. It works especially well for brands without massive budgets or new market entrants who need traction without burning capital on broad campaigns.

Why Local Works

Data shows localized content delivers over 50% higher ROI than global creative. BCG and Highsnobiety found 80% of luxury consumers appreciate subtle cultural references in marketing, versus just 40% who even notice advertising.

Local beats global. Community beats campaign. Friction beats seamlessness.

HOKA's "Together We Fly Higher" campaign asked running communities across European cities (London, Berlin, Milan, Paris) what they would do to improve local running with €50,000 funding. Then HOKA actually funded those priorities. This builds genuine goodwill beyond marketing objectives.

What This Means for Brands

At Campbell & Jones, we've been building from these principles for years. Fourth spaces (hybrid environments blending work, wellness, social, and brand experience) work precisely because they offer what digital cannot: friction, locality, tangibility, genuine community.

The brands asking "how do we go viral?" are asking the wrong question. The brands asking "how do we build communities that actually want to show up?" are thinking correctly.

The shift from broadcast to community requires fundamentally different strategy. It requires patience with results that compound slowly. It requires trusting communities to co-create meaning. It requires measuring community health over conversion rates.

The Path Forward

The evidence is clear: localized content delivers higher ROI, community-driven amplification creates sustainable momentum, friction signals value, physical experiences build lasting relationships. Starting with the few reaches the many more effectively than mass awareness.

Yet most brands continue the old strategies because organizational structures remain aligned with the outdated model.

The brands winning the next decade are identifying local cultural leaders, building experiences that genuinely benefit communities, letting algorithms amplify what works, and embracing friction as strategic feature.

After ten years building brand experiences across Europe, the pattern is undeniable. The future belongs to brands that make people feel something real in physical spaces, then let those people tell others. Everything else is noise younger generations have learned to tune out.