The marketing blind spot killing sales
5 ways to win in the final mile of marketing
Most brands do the hard work of strategy, planning, media buys, and then stumble right before the finish line. But this ‘final mile’, where shoppers actually choose what to buy, is where marketing either converts or collapses. Smart marketers build strategy with sales and real-life shopper moments in mind from the start. Here’s how to turn real-world moments into real ROI, in five steps.
Marketing may talk omnichannel, but in practice, it’s often some-ni-channel, heavily weighted toward digital, while the final mile of the customer journey is often forgotten about. The final mile is where decisions happen: during the festival, at the bar, in the store, at the restaurant, where money changes hands. Yet despite the boom in retail media and real-world touchpoints, brands keep missing this moment. Why is it such a blind spot? But more importantly, how do we fix it?
From funnel to free-for-all
The funnel is dead, the customer journey’s scattered, and brands are struggling to keep up. As consumers pinball between channels, nudged by impulse, influence, and emotion, the path to purchase has collapsed into a chaos of touchpoints. But many marketers still treat it like a neat funnel, overinvesting in digital and underestimating the authentic power of in-person experiences.
Too often, the final mile is where the disconnect between sales and marketing becomes painfully clear. “We see brands showing up, but it often involves sales teams jamming square pegs into round holes: pushing hyper-local, real-time relevance into generic brand plans built for someone else. The result? Wasted effort, missed impact, and lost money.” says Thomas Barker, chief executive of creative brand to demand agency, Green House.
Thomas Barker, Chief Executive Officer
Even the strongest brand strategy can break down at the point of purchase. Too often, sales and marketing teams operate in silos, focusing on either long-term brand perception or short-term sales. Meanwhile, customers fluidly move between both worlds. Attribution becomes fragmented, and the most important, mood-driven moments – like the decision from shelf to basket or menu to mouth – are still overlooked.
So, in this sense, CX falls flat just when it matters most: traditional marketers invest heavily in upstream engagement, only to drop the customer at the most critical juncture – the final mile - where decisions are made and loyalty is won or lost.
When touch beats tech
And this neglect of the final, in-person mile is happening just as consumers are craving more authentic, human connection in reaction to their increasingly tech-driven, distracting world. Seventy-eight per cent prefer in-person experiences to digital ones, according to a recent ‘Return of Touch’ Harris Poll. And 78% value brands that seamlessly blend digital and physical experiences.
Building brand love in the Rockies: Topo Chico teams unite at Brand Camp 2023 at The Thompson in Denver to spark loyalty, culture, and 2024 momentum.
Take drink brands, for example. Most purchase decisions are made by customers when they’re standing in front of the bar, where digital ads can’t close the sale. The real influencer here is the bartender. When a customer tries a drink in a bar or restaurant, that experience often sparks future purchases online or in stores. ‘On-premise’ wins drive ‘off-premise’ momentum. But internal silos, misaligned KPIs, and cultural divides break that link, turning what should be a seamless journey into a fragmented funnel.
The new ‘brand to demand’ playbook
The lesson for brands? “Success comes from showing up with emotional intelligence and relevance in the final mile, where real-time decisions are made,” says Barker.
“It’s not about ditching paid media. It’s about amplifying its impact where it matters most.”
Thomas Barker, chief executive of creative brand to demand agency, Green House.
"The smartest marketers are moving seamlessly between channels and metrics – because they know that’s what their customers do. So the real question is: how do we close the gap between sales and marketing, bring siloed teams together, and create shared KPIs within the final mile?”
Brand to demand (B2D) agencies are enabling marketers to do just that. Their playbook starts where most agencies stop – the final mile to the point of purchase. They connect the dots between paid, owned, earned, and shared channels, building campaigns with data, visibility, and repeatability at every step. Their specialty is creating standout but simple brand moments that cut through the noise of busy bars, crowded store aisles, or competitive social feeds. And because the final mile is where customer experience peaks, B2D is CX in action - turning brand love into real-world conversion.
Celebrating community and craft in NOLA during Tales of the Cocktail 2025. Where industry leaders connect, share stories, and shape the future together.
So, how do they operate? They leverage hyper-local intelligence by tapping into micro-cultures, communities, and peer groups that influence consumer decisions. By empowering industry professionals like bartenders, artists and local entrepreneurs to advocate for brands, they create trusted voices in environments where personal recommendations matter most. It’s an approach that links brand storytelling to real-time consumer engagement.
How leading brands break into the final mile
The most effective brands know that winning within the final mile means going beyond awareness to convert real-world affinity into action, through frontline marketing and advocacy, and seamless integration across the path to purchase.
Green House is a leading agency in this B2D space, partnering with iconic alcoholic, non-alcoholic and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands looking to redefine their route to market and to the consumer.
Take for instance, its work with Topo Chico which built brand awareness within the artistic and bartender community, and standardized the brand’s KPIs across marketing and sales. This resulted in an estimated 250,000 new customers – potentially equating to $6.5m incremental revenue.
Massive retail presence at Giant Fairless Hills, PA: An impressive display of 4,320 bottles of vitaminwater drives vibrant visibility and sustained impact for over two months.
Meanwhile, Deep Eddy Vodka teamed up with Green House to evolve its field marketing into frontline market advocacy. By building deep, on-premise love that flows into off-premise demand, the brand unlocked a 4x ROI.
No matter the brand, winning in the final mile comes down to three B2D power plays: bold physical branding that goes way beyond sampling, strategic influencer and channel tactics that outperform but complement digital campaigns, and competitive retail strategies built on personal and professional relationships that make brands unforgettable, findable, and buyable.
Measuring the final mile - how to capture ROI
The key to winning here? Make this real-world moment as measurable and accountable as digital media.
“It’s not just about paid impressions. It’s about defining ROI through measurable earned media impact, which can often reach millions in value... ”
Thomas Barker, chief executive of creative brand to demand agency, Green House.
“Using projected sales lift and recruitment data from IRL activations, we directly connect brand investments to bottom-line results, giving marketers clear, quantifiable proof of potential impact.” v
In this sense, brand to demand agencies act as translators between brand teams and frontline sales. They help marketers convert traditional metrics like samples or displays into brand-building results such as velocity, loyalty, and incremental revenue.
Take bartenders. Like influencers, bartenders drive brand affinity and conversions, with measurable upsell impact and advocacy power. And, like influencers, bartenders vary in reach, influence, and conversion power based on their venue type, personal brand, and engagement style. So their impact should be measured like online creators’. By measuring bartender brand loyalty as a predictive metric, brands can forecast long-term brand growth, ensuring that their advocacy consistently drives customer action over time.
What marketers need to do now
The new, 5-step B2D playbook
1
Show up where it counts
Don’t let your campaign end on a screen – and don’t treat customer experience as an afterthought. Your brand needs to show up authentically at the moment of purchase, whether that’s in a bar, store, or restaurant. That’s where B2D agencies come in: as CX partners who turn brand promise into action. In the final mile, perception becomes behavior – and B2D makes the connection that converts.
2
Make the frontline your front door
The real challenge for CMOs isn’t media metrics or targeting personas: it’s winning the moments that matter with real people. Equip your bartenders, retailers, and reps like you would digital influencers. They're not just your frontline: they’re the spark that turns first impressions into lasting customer relationships in the channels that matter most to your P&L.
3
Activate hyper-locally, scale nationally
Create emotionally resonant activations that start local but scale into national brand love, then measure them like performance media.
Take Green House’s year-round Pride activations for Deep Eddy Vodka which focused on grassroots, human connectivity, and community-driven programs. These included local events like sponsoring neighborhood sports leagues, LGBTQ district takeovers, cook-offs and birthday samplings – all of which positioned the brand as a trusted partner, prompting larger activations as demand grew.
4
Close the brand to demand gap with data
Map where your brand value drops off, then activate your creative commerce response with precision. For example, Green House combines real-time field insights with local market data and brand tracking to create a full performance picture.
“By blending brand engagement metrics with real-time, frontline feedback, you turn field teams into live ethnographers, without the burden of formal research,” says Barker: “That’s how you shift frontline marketing from a cost-center to a profit center.”
5
Measure what paid media can’t
Every activation, retail placement, and bartender recommendation should have a direct, measurable impact on revenue. Track advocacy, shelf presence and conversion triggers the same way you track digital impressions. Treat the frontline like a media channel, and watch it deliver brand-to-demand ROI.
Get in touch
For more advice on how to show up more meaningfully in the final mile, please contact Green House.
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