Milena Traikovich stands at the forefront of demand generation, helping brands bridge the gap between complex data and actionable lead-nurturing strategies. As an expert in performance optimization, she has spent her career dissecting how analytics can transform a cluttered media plan into a high-performance engine. Our conversation focuses on the shifting sands of consumer behavior, specifically how the collapse of the traditional linear funnel into a flexible, state-based model is redefining the relationship between screens, distractions, and the ultimate decision to buy.
Many shoppers now describe their path to purchase as almost random, frequently switching digital activities throughout the day. How should brands adapt when the journey from discovery to transaction can happen in just ten minutes?
The reality is that the traditional marketing funnel, which assumed a slow and steady progression from awareness to conversion, is largely a relic of the past. When 87 percent of consumers are switching between digital activities at least once every hour, brands can no longer rely on a long-term nurturing sequence to hold a lead’s attention. We are seeing cases where the entire customer journey is compressed into a 10-minute window, meaning every touchpoint must be treated as a potential closing opportunity. To survive this, advertisers need to stop thinking in terms of weeks and days and start thinking in terms of immediate relevance. It is less about moving someone through a series of stages and more about being present with a frictionless experience the moment a consumer decides to move from curiosity to action.
Recent data suggests that people are often watching, browsing, and buying simultaneously. How can marketers effectively message someone who is navigating these overlapping states within a single thirty-minute window?
It is fascinating to look at the data showing that in any given 30-minute period, 43 percent of consumers are watching content while 34 percent are already actively buying. This overlap means that the consumer’s brain is essentially operating in multiple modes at once, creating a fluid state that defies standard segmentation. Because 23 percent of people are also browsing during that same window, the challenge is to create a cohesive narrative that follows them across these micro-shifts. Marketers must leverage unified data frameworks to ensure that an ad seen while watching content on a big screen is immediately reinforced by a relevant prompt when that person shifts to browsing on their phone. If your messaging is siloed by channel, you will lose the consumer in the gaps between these rapid transitions.
With nearly all consumers using a second device while watching television, what does the concept of passive moments mean for modern brand discovery?
We have entered an era where the couch has effectively become the new storefront, largely because 91 percent of consumers are using a second screen while the television is on. This environment creates incredibly powerful passive moments where a person might not be actively looking for a product, yet 69 percent of shoppers say they discover new brands in these exact situations. These moments are sensory and relaxed, allowing a brand to slip into a consumer’s consciousness without the friction of a hard sell. By using programmatic tools to sync television exposure with mobile browsing, brands can turn a fleeting background impression into a tangible lead. It is about capturing that split second when a consumer looks down at their phone during a commercial break and providing them with a path to explore what they just saw.
Social commerce and artificial intelligence are clearly accelerating these behaviors, especially among younger demographics. What are the implications for brands when discovery and the final transaction happen within the same social environment?
The shift is undeniable, particularly when you consider that 72 percent of consumers under the age of 34 have already completed a purchase entirely within a social app without leaving the platform. This signifies a move toward walled garden commerce where the friction of leaving an app to visit a traditional website is being eliminated entirely. When you add the fact that 45 percent of consumers are now using artificial intelligence tools to assist their shopping, the speed of decision-making increases exponentially. Brands need to realize that their social presence is no longer just a top-of-funnel awareness play; it is a full-service retail floor. If you aren’t optimizing for in-app transactions and AI-driven search, you are essentially ignoring the preferred shopping habits of the most active consumer segment.
Despite these shifts, a majority of marketers admit they struggle to measure performance accurately across fragmented channels. How can organizations close this gap and regain confidence in their campaign data?
It is a significant concern that only 43 percent of marketers feel confident in their ability to measure campaign performance in this fragmented environment. The primary hurdle is that 71 percent of consumers report being distracted during the research phase, which makes traditional retargeting feel like a shot in the dark. To overcome this, organizations must move away from rigid, siloed measurement and toward more flexible, state-based models that account for real-time behavior across 700 trillion data signals. By using platforms that connect planning and activation across 53 million households, brands can finally see the connective tissue between a CTV ad and a mobile purchase. Confidence comes from having a unified view that accounts for the reality of human distraction rather than ignoring it.
What is your forecast for the evolution of the customer journey over the next few years?
I believe we will see the total disappearance of the linear journey as we know it, replaced by a permanent state of always-on commerce. As AI becomes more integrated into the 700 trillion signals we track, the time between a consumer feeling a need and completing a purchase will continue to shrink from hours to mere seconds. We will reach a point where every digital interaction—whether you are watching a movie or chatting with a friend—is shoppable and personalized in real time. Marketers who continue to cling to the old funnel will find themselves shouting into a void, while those who embrace flexible, cross-screen engagement will see the kind of triple-digit conversion improvements we are already starting to observe in certain categories. The future belongs to those who can move as fast as the consumer’s thumb on a screen.
