When brands play frogger.

It’s both a failure of navigation. And destination.

If you recall either the game or the Seinfeld episode that restored it to cultural glory, you'll understand the former: that being all over the street gets you nowhere but flattened

The latter, because, well, just because surviving all that traffic doesn't mean your brand is going anywhere fast. 

That, at least, was my first thought after reading a telling study from agency search consultant Steve Boehler, based on data from a top advertising industry advisory firm.

Their conclusion: clients are putting their trust, hope, faith and—most important—hard-earned coin into media and “performance” tactics. Not into creating high-velocity, highly persuasive brand messages that do a whole lot more than check off boxes on a digital spreadsheet.

What does that mean?

Brands, particularly those at defining moments of change, opportunity, or threat, need equally defining stories; the kind of unforgettable ideas that give people reasons to pay attention, become interested, care, and buy.

Media jammed up to the wazoo with dull and uninteresting content achieves none of that.

Neither do “performance” ads that pretend that an “action” — a view, a click, or a like — somehow means the message did its job. 

The data says it doesn’t and won’t.

Targeting can locate a prospect. It cannot give that prospect a reason to buy.

Optimization can improve efficiency. It cannot rescue an idea nobody notices.

Attribution can tell you where and when a response appeared. It won’t tell you why.

That’s the diagnostic error too many brands make: confusing message distribution with creating actual demand.

So, when growth stalls, they begin and end by looking at channels, formats, frequencies, and conversion rates.

Instead of asking the real questions that need urgent answering:

Can people quickly understand why your brand matters to them?

Does each execution build cohesion, consistency, and momentum, or does every new ad start again from frozen ground zero?

And does it reflect the truth that clarity is the new currency?

Not to get all deep and weedy, but if your brand is living life on the Frogger screen, here’s what I’d do:

Define the real problem with razor-sharp analytics.

Articulate the story that needs telling in terms grounded in individual insight and human understanding.

Build a unique creative platform that clears high hurdles over marketing and sales speed bumps by continuously building both momentum and desire.

At which point, you’re ready to tweak the tweak, peak the peak, and turn to performance tactics to plus out success.

In case it needs to be said, and okay, asking for the assignment is always something that needs to be said, this is precisely where we can help.

Cue the frogger sound.  Bet you can hear it right now.