The ‘phygital’ maze: Moving from fragmented insights to smarter activations

For marketers, the “last mile of marketing” has expanded into a complex and “channel-less” puzzle. The customer journey is no longer linear, but a web of online research, in-store browsing, and AI-driven search. While 88% of retail transactions still happen offline, brands are struggling to bridge the gap between digital engagement and real-world business outcomes – not just in measurement, but in planning and activation.

This challenge of turning fragmented insights into smarter campaigns was the central theme at a recent MARKETING-INTERACTIVE roundtable hosted in partnership with Locala. Leaders from across the automotive, CPG, retail, finance, music and QSR industries gathered to dissect the “phygital” consumer.

The insight and planning gap

The first hurdle identified was not just measuring the end result, but having the right insights to plan effectively. Speaking from the perspective of the coffee retail sector, Peilin Lee, head of marketing at Nespresso, encapsulated the core problem of planning in the dark.

“We’re seeing the performance drop ... clicks are dropping ... bounce rates are going up,” she said.

And now with AI, people are not going directly to sites for first-hand information. “This is a black box with the blind leading the blind ... even agency partners can’t give absolute solutions as this is new to them as well.”

This lack of visibility makes budget allocation a high-stakes gamble across various sectors. In B2B finance, for example, participants noted that sales cycles can last 12 to 18 months, making it difficult to determine where marketing input is actually driving consideration over such a long period. The areas of attribution remain “grey”, with marketers struggling to prove their worth in a relationship-heavy sales process.

In the complex world of global travel retail, the planning challenge is geographical. One attendee highlighted the difficulty of never knowing if marketing targeted in a source market such as Thailand actually works to drive sales in a destination such as New York. While marketing mix models help get a “rough idea”, they often cannot pinpoint exactly which channel deserves the budget.

Similarly, for FMCG giants, where the majority of transactions occur in physical stores, attribution remains the industry’s toughest question. The consensus was that linking an offline purchase all the way back to an upper-funnel digital exposure such as a TikTok video remains a complex challenge that few have fully cracked.

The activation disconnect

Even when insights exist, organisational silos often prevent smarter, seamless activation. Vincent Pang, managing director for APAC at Locala, defined the modern path as “loop zigzags and spirals”, where consumers move fluidly between offline and online touchpoints.

However, activation strategies often fail to mirror this fluidity. Kenneth Lau, global digital commerce marketing lead at Mondelēz International, revealed how siloed structures hinder omnichannel executions.

“We spend a majority of our media on awareness,” he said. “We get people to click and go to a website and then they sometimes disappear.”

He added that in the FMCG space, clicks don’t always connect to a commerce outcome – a function of how brands sometimes remain siloed. This leads to media ineffectiveness, particularly in high-consideration categories such as automotive.

Neri Miclaus, managing director at Piaggio Asia Pacific, argued that a generic social media activation is often not worth the spend if it fails to bridge the gap to the showroom.

Meanwhile, Petromil Petkov, head of the innovation hub at Volkswagen Group Singapore, shared a strategy to tighten this activation loop. By linking its digital “car configurator” to physical showroom visits, it is “able to connect these dots in a meaningful way”, ensuring the digital interest is captured and activated in the real world.

Smarter engagement and community

With the traditional funnel breaking down, leaders are looking for smarter ways to activate budgets that drive the most consideration. For the fast-paced QSR (quick-service restaurant) sector, Jayss Rajoo, head of marketing and food innovation at Pizza Hut, noted this means moving beyond a broad reach to precision timing.

“Moments are the new media channel. When the old funnel collapses, what matters is the micro intent – the right message, at the right craving, at the right moment,” Rajoo said.

“AI will help enable such interactions – it can get us about 70% of the way by spotting patterns, but the final 30% still comes from understanding people, culture, emotions. Tech can predict behaviour, but it cannot manufacture desire. That’s why the best work comes at the intersection of AI precision and human intuition.”

For Cassandra Tan, vice president, strategy, CRM and eCommerce, Southeast Asia and Korea from Universal Music Group, smarter activations means translating digital fandom into tangible products. Speaking on the broader music ecosystem, she noted that fans are co-creators and community drivers.

While music is intangible, she explained there is a continued desire from fans to hold onto tangible products – memorabilia from an experience – which can lead to sales wins in merchandising when activated correctly.

As the discussion concluded, the conversation turned to the future of intelligent advertising. Pierre Padiou, chief operating officer of Locala, emphasised that the solution lies in smarter planning and activation before a dollar is even spent.

“You need to have access to the whole inventory to be able to target the right people at the right place on the right device,” he explained.

He noted that by combining online and offline signals, brands can gain the visibility needed to focus budgets where they need consideration the most, bridging the gap between raw insights and effective, real-world activation.

This roundtable and article were made possible by our partner, Locala, the leading location-based omnichannel advertising platform that helps brands bridge the gap between digital marketing and real-world business outcomes by solving the omnichannel planning, activation, and attribution challenges.

By unifying online and offline signals, Locala helps marketers to zoom in on a brand’s local context, assess audience relevance, and deploy tailored and scalable campaigns without media waste.

To learn more about how Locala can help you increase engagement with your customers, go to asklocala.com.

To request for a demo, click here: https://asklocala.com/en/request-a-demo/