Discovery Has Changed: Why Brands Need to Think Beyond Campaigns

One of the strongest themes to emerge from this year's MAD//Fest was that discovery has fundamentally changed.

For years, marketers have focused on owned channels, paid media and search as the primary routes to reaching customers. While those channels still matter, they are no longer where many purchasing journeys begin. Increasingly, people are discovering brands through creators, communities and recommendations, often before they've actively decided to buy anything at all.

Whether it's a product appearing in a creator's morning routine, a recommendation shared in a group chat or a discussion in the comments section of a TikTok, consumers are constantly building awareness of brands through the content they consume every day. By the time they land on a website or search for a product, much of the decision-making has already taken place.

Discovery is now an everyday behaviour

Many creator programmes are still built around campaign bursts. A product launches, creators publish their contracted content over a few weeks and then the partnership comes to an end until the next campaign rolls around. While this approach can generate impressive reach, it doesn't reflect the way people actually discover brands today.

Discovery is no longer something that happens at a single moment in time. Consumers don't stop scrolling because a campaign has finished, and they certainly don't stop looking for inspiration between product launches. Every day they're exposed to products through creators they follow, conversations they join and recommendations from people they trust. If a brand only appears during isolated campaign windows, it risks disappearing from these everyday moments where consideration is built.

Consistency creates familiarity

Rather than focusing solely on launching bigger campaigns, brands should be thinking about how they remain visible throughout the year.

That doesn't mean producing more content for the sake of it. It means building relationships that allow products and messages to appear naturally over time. As audiences repeatedly see a brand integrated into someone's lifestyle, familiarity grows, and with familiarity comes trust.

Peloton's long-standing partnership with fitness creator Candace is a great example. Instead of feeling like a series of sponsored posts, the relationship has become part of her personal fitness journey. Followers have watched milestones, achievements and everyday moments unfold over several years, making the brand feel like a genuine part of her life rather than a paid placement.

Closer to home, M&S has adopted a similar approach with its ambassador programme. Many of its creators don't simply post during campaign periods. They continue wearing the brand, attending events and referencing products naturally throughout the year, creating a much stronger sense of authenticity than a traditional campaign ever could.

Bigger isn't always better

One of the misconceptions around influencer marketing is that success comes from working with as many creators as possible. In reality, brands often see greater value from building deeper relationships with a smaller group of creators than continually recruiting new faces for one-off activations.

Long-term partnerships allow creators to become genuine advocates rather than temporary spokespeople. Audiences notice that difference, and they're far more likely to trust recommendations that feel like a natural extension of someone's lifestyle than content that clearly exists to fulfil a campaign brief.

For brands, the challenge is no longer simply finding creators with the biggest audiences. It's finding creators who genuinely fit the brand and giving those relationships the time to develop.

Discovery should be a brand strategy

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the discussion was that discoverability shouldn't sit solely within influencer marketing or social media teams. It's becoming a broader brand challenge.

Consumers move seamlessly between TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Reddit and countless other digital spaces, discovering brands through conversations rather than advertisements. The brands that stay front of mind are those that consistently show up in the places where these conversations are already happening.

Instead of asking, "How do we make our next campaign bigger?", marketers should be asking a different set of questions. Are we easy to discover outside our own channels? Are we investing in relationships rather than transactions? Are we building familiarity over time, rather than relying on short bursts of attention?

As consumer behaviour continues to evolve, discoverability is becoming less about individual campaigns and more about sustained relevance. The brands that embrace that shift will be the ones people remember when they're finally ready to buy.