Traditional Advertising Is Dead: Human Connection Wins

Traditional advertising spending fell by 2% to $403.86 billion globally in 2023, while digital and alternative marketing crossed a historic threshold—claiming 50.6% of overall marketing budgets. Marketers can’t ignore that this shift in spending signals a fundamental transformation in how consumers discover and choose products.

“When you really look at what’s being disrupted here, it’s traditional advertising,” explains impact.com CEO David Yovanno. “Despite the trillion dollars spent globally, it’s losing its effectiveness because people no longer trust what brands themselves are saying.”

New research from impact.com and EMARKETER reveals a stark reality: while 69.3% of consumers discover new products weekly, they rarely make immediate purchases. Instead, they research products at least three separate times before deciding to buy.

In the first episode of The Partnership Economy podcast Season 6, impact.com’s CEO Dave Yovanno and Co-founder & VP of Strategic Initiatives Todd Crawford unpack this seismic shift in consumer behavior and what it means for brands in 2025. Their insights, combined with new research from impact.com and EMARKETER, reveal the challenges and opportunities facing marketers today.

The trust crisis: Understanding today’s consumer journey

“When was the last time you made a purchase without seeking a third party opinion?” asks Yovanno. This question cuts to the heart of modern consumer behavior, where trust has shifted dramatically from brands to people (friends, creators, publishers, and reviewers) who share authentic experiences and insights.

“Consumers aren’t stupid,” Crawford explains. “They want to make a smart buying decision and they want to learn from somebody who’s already done it.”

Today’s consumer journey reveals a complex web of touchpoints spanning digital and physical channels. While 83.8% of retail dollars are still spent in-store, the discovery and research phases happen predominantly online. This creates “the attribution challenge”—understanding how digital discovery translates to physical purchases.

According to Vogue Business and youth culture agency Archrival, 51% of Gen Z believes social media influencers create new trends, compared to just 36% of millenials. While Amazon leads as the primary product search destination for 56% of consumers, research happens across multiple platforms, including search engines (42%), retailer websites, and social platforms.

Research patterns by consumer segment

The research with impact.com and EMARKETER reveals distinct patterns across different consumer segments:

By product type (% spending 2+ weeks researching):

High-price/high-consideration: 20.7%
High-price/low-consideration: 11.7%
Low-price/high-consideration: 6.7%
Low-price/low-consideration: 5.9%

Income impact:

60.2% of consumers earning $250,000+ research products 5+ times before purchasing
22.8% of all customers research products 5+ times before buying

Text highlighting that 60.2% of consumers earning over $250,000 research products five or more times before buying.

The depth of research varies significantly by product category and price point, with higher-income consumers showing particularly thorough research habits. This complexity in consumer behavior signals a clear need for a new approach to marketing—one that acknowledges and embraces the multi-touch nature of modern purchasing decisions.

Building trust through authentic partnerships

With traditional advertising losing effectiveness and consumer research becoming more complex, brands need a new approach.

“Brands need to be drawing alliances with these people who are already talking about their products and form partnerships with them,” emphasizes Yovanno. “There’s no other option. Brands need strong advocates to share their brand messaging in these online spaces that consumers are already spending time in.”

But where exactly are these spaces? And how should brands show up in each one? The answer lies in understanding the unique role each platform plays in the consumer journey.

The multi-platform strategy

Each platform serves a distinct purpose in the consumer journey, requiring unique approaches and content strategies:

YouTube: The search and education platform

Recognized for powerful search functionality
Ideal for evergreen content
Enables detailed, long-form product explanations
Creates lasting value through educational content
Serves as a key research destination for considered purchases

Instagram: Visual storytelling hub

Best for visual storytelling
Connects well with millennial audiences
Excels at high-quality visual narratives
Builds brand aesthetic and lifestyle association
Drives discovery through visual inspiration

TikTok: Authenticity engine

Prioritizes authenticity
Strong Gen Z engagement
Behind-the-scenes content often outperforms polished material
Drives trends and viral product moments
Facilitates organic product discovery

Optimizing content for different platforms

The key to success is understanding how to optimize content for each platform. As Crawford shares, “The best creators mock up their shoot. They know they’re going to shoot content for three or four different platforms. Then they’ve got to go and edit it.”

Successful creators plan their content strategy with multiple platforms in mind, understanding that each platform requires different approaches:

Content length and format varies by platform
Visual style needs to match platform expectations
Messaging should be tailored to platform audience
Calls-to-action differ based on platform behavior

Building long-term partnership success

“Brands don’t want to be working with a lot of different creators. They’d rather work with fewer creators over a longer period of time. And guess what? Creators want the same thing,” explains Yovanno. “It takes time to invest in each other, to understand each other, to speak authentically, to get the deep knowledge and insight on products, to speak intelligently about it.”

When it comes to working with creators, Crawford emphasizes the importance of authenticity:

“When a brand thinks about guidelines for creators, the best way to think of them is that they’re there to help them understand your product so that they can be authentic. It’s not telling them what to do. It’s just helping them to understand what you want said or how you see your products and services and then let them be authentic in their voice.”

The shift to partnership-based marketing requires a fundamental change in how brands approach collaborations. Both brands and creators benefit from longer-term relationships:

Deep product knowledge develops over time
Authentic voice and messaging evolve naturally
Consistent brand representation builds trust
Multiple touchpoints create stronger impact
ROI improves with relationship longevity

Actionable steps for brands

With consumer trust shifting so dramatically, brands need a clear roadmap for success. Based on our research and insights from industry leaders, here are three key areas where brands should focus their efforts:

Build authentic partnerships
- Identify where your customers naturally seek information
- Partner with creators who genuinely align with your brand values
- Allow creative freedom while providing clear guidelines
- Focus on long-term relationships over one-off campaigns
- Invest in relationship building and creator education
Optimize for multiple platforms
- YouTube: Leverage search functionality and evergreen content
- Instagram: Focus on visual storytelling for millennial audiences
- TikTok: Emphasize authenticity for Gen Z engagement
- Adapt content format and style for each platform
- Maintain consistent brand message across channels
Measure and adapt
- Track platform-specific performance metrics
- Monitor conversion patterns across channels
- Analyze research-to-purchase journey
- Adjust strategy based on data insights
- Test and optimize content approaches

The future of brand-consumer relationships

“Communities are the new demographics,” as TikTok puts it, and this insight reaches far beyond social media. The brands that thrive in this new era will be those that embrace this fundamental shift in consumer behavior.

As traditional advertising continues to decline in effectiveness, success will depend not on how much you spend, but on how authentically you can integrate into the communities where your customers already gather, learn, and make decisions.

“Social commerce information is everywhere today and consumers are leveraging it before they make that purchase,” Yovanno observes. “They’re turning to reviews, TikTok unboxing, YouTube demonstrations and word-of-mouth recommendations.”

The end of traditional advertising: Why human connection is the new currency in marketing