Last week was all about random acts of marketing and the dangers of relying on this approach. This week we’ll look at another potential marketing pitfall - what I call “drive-by marketing.”
This is when a brand shows up LOUDLY, once, and then simply vanishes. Disappears.
One direct mail piece.
One digital ad.
One burst of paid search.
One video.
One brief moment of marketing wonder, and then silence.
Marketing isn’t a moment, it’s a movement.
Branding is not a casual connection, but rather a long-term relationship.
So when there’s no marketing plan, no compass pointing true North, a common end result is “One and Done.”
Release a ‘message,’ then cross your fingers and hope that something good happens.
And when it doesn’t (and it won’t), the instinct is to blame the people who “don’t get it” instead of the lack of continuity.
What makes this even more revealing is that 2025 was a slow year for just about everyone, regardless of their size or industry. Nearly every leader I’ve talked to has repeated a version of, “The year is almost over and we’re not where we had hoped to be.”
They’re disappointed with the outcome, yet very few are evaluating the pattern that produced it. They fail to recognize that if you only show up once, your brand only exists once. Like a shooting star. And you know how seldom they appear in the sky.
To make matters worse, I can predict with near certainty that those same leaders will sit down in December and say, “But next year will be different. Better.”
Is that a strategy or just a new version of ‘hope?’ Let’s be clear that momentum isn’t built by mere optimism or hope. It is a direct result of being deliberate and consistent. There’s no magic multiplier effect in inconsistency.
Here’s the secret formula…
The market (consumers) rewards those brands/companies that stay in the conversation, not the ones that appear out of nowhere and then disappear.
Face it, drive-by marketing doesn’t build trust. It just burns budgets.
Next week we’ll be heading to the marketing kitchen, where every day has a new “special.”