We are living in the discovery era. But what does discovery actually mean? Strategy VP Lydia Hinchliff outlines our definition of discovery and the key points you need to understand in order to master today’s new terrain.

What we mean by discovery

We made the decision to become a discovery-oriented growth partner after countless conversations with marketing leaders with one common, fast-developing fear: that the evolving customer journey would leave them behind. We live in a world where search has fragmented, AI sits between brands and buyers, and the customer journey crosses dozens of paid, organic and human touchpoints. Being visible is not the same as being discovered. Visibility is about being seen. Discovery is the underlying behavior. It happens when someone is trying to make sense of a choice in a category they care about, with constraints they cannot always articulate, across whatever surfaces happen to be in front of them. It is not search alone. It is not AI alone. It is not Paid Media alone. It is the sum of every place a brand is shaping, or failing to shape, from the buyer’s perspective. People discover brands everywhere now. They search through Google, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, Amazon, AI assistants, and comparison sites. They browse aisles, social feeds, podcasts, creator content, and the press. Brands are recommended by friends, reviews, and algorithms. They notice the billboard on the way to work, the packaging on a colleague’s desk, and the mention in a group chat. The behavior is the same, even when the platform changes: someone is trying to make sense of a choice. None of that sits neatly inside a PPC report, an SEO dashboard, a brand tracker or a Paid Media plan. It is all discovery behavior, and it cannot be optimized inside the silos that created it. Our work is built around three things a brand has to engineer to own discovery: to be found, to be understood, and to be chosen.

How did the Discovery System come to light?

In 2025, we saw a pattern emerging. Our clients were doing everything that was “right” - running ads, creating lots of rich content, investing across a range of channels - but it was becoming more challenging to be chosen. They were still operating according to the traditional linear customer journey, but it was getting more competitive, more expensive and ultimately tougher to drive growth. After all, it was last year when worldwide ad spending surpassed the $1 trillion mark, making attention more expensive and competition for discovery more intense than ever. It wasn’t that their product offering was less valuable or there was a lower amount of resource going into their marketing efforts; it was just that their audience had changed. The way people and consumers are finding and choosing brands has completely changed over the last 12 months, and a lot of the marketing world hasn’t kept up.

What has actually changed?

We had been using this outdated idea of a marketing funnel, assuming people move neatly from awareness to purchase. For those who have heard me talk about this before, the idea that you watch a beautiful TV ad, and then immediately hop onto Google just isn’t how people move anymore. We can see it clearly in the data. The modern journey is incredibly messy:

Someone might see you on TikTok
Then Google you a few hours later
Then check reviews
Then get distracted and completely forget about you
Then remember you, seemingly out of nowhere, a week later

There is no clear path through awareness into action. You’re either showing up in the right moments, or you’re not. It really is as simple as that. That being said, one thing that has not changed is that the customer hasn’t suddenly become a different person. People still want a brand they can trust, and they want to know that they’re making the right choice when deciding to buy from you. What has changed is everything in-between. Every decision now runs through channels like Google, Instagram, Amazon and AI. Being a good option means nothing if you aren’t showing up in a meaningful way in these environments. If you don’t, you won’t even be in the conversation.

How is the Discovery System structured?

The system is built upon three pillars with the goal of driving growth for brands. And this is relevant no matter the channel. Those channels should never sit in separate buckets; it’s about understanding these three pillars simultaneously and understanding what actions are required to boost your performance across all three. Whether that’s in Organic Media or Paid Media for instance doesn’t matter - you need to connect the dots that drive discovery:

Presence: Are you showing up in the moments on the right platforms for your brand to even be encountered? Are you interacting with them using their favorite creator on TikTok or appearing at the right moment using broad match with smart bidding?
Interpretation: When your brand is showing up, do both people and algorithms truly understand it? Are you landing coverage in the niche publication that your audience respects above all others or being cited in ChatGPT for the right reasons?
Momentum: Does that activity stick or build over time? Momentum is all about compounding impact. Ask yourself what your audience is doing after passing through one touchpoint, and once you acquire a customer, how can you keep them? Are you sustaining familiarity with the same distinctive creative assets being leveraged correctly on different surfaces or doing all you can to boost your TrustPilot score?

Many brands will often only focus on the first pillar and disregard the other two.

Why do we call it a system?

Imagine a mechanical watch. You can’t see it, but you know that behind the face are cogs intertwined with each other pushing forward for it to function correctly. That is much like the Discovery System when it’s firing properly. The components of the system depend on each other to work smoothly:

Low presence will reduce the impact of interpretation
Weak interpretation will stop visibility from converting into demand
Momentum will turn your marketing spend into a sound investment whose return only accelerates when both presence and interpretation give it the foundation to do so

Strong performance for one pillar is contingent on the performance of the other two, and your weakest layer is the bottleneck that controls everything.

How do we measure discovery?

We use our proprietary Relative Discovery Score (RDS) to measure the three pillars to examine how they work together as a system. By combining them into one score, RDS shows whether the conditions that drive growth are strengthening or weakening over time. Measuring over 100 touchpoints across different platforms from social media to your physical footprint, RDS functions as a diagnostic scan- the necessary health check before brands can take their discoverability to the next level.

How does thinking this way benefit my brand?

Adopting the discovery school of thought gives your marketing activity structure in what is a very unstructured environment. Below are a few of the many different benefits you’ll experience:

It reduces the risk of wasted spend: Honing in on the channels, platforms and touchpoints that will genuinely make you discoverable means that you can invest in the areas truly driving growth, while pulling back budget where it’s not needed
It uncovers opportunity: Considering the whole system holistically will likely uncover surfaces that have previously been obscured by siloed channel thinking
It measures future growth: So much of our industry is still transfixed by what has been, not by what is to come. Discovery measurement focuses on whether your trajectory is leading to stronger demand signals over time - not a snapshot.

Where do I start?

Think systems, not channels: While you don’t necessarily need a deeply specialised view of every channel, you need to keep that holistic view of how the system functions. If you catch yourself saying “the answer is demand gen,” stop. The answer may actually be a wider strategic play of “we need to broaden our presence using a scaling element”. Connect individual disciplines to presence, interpretation and momentum: While you may not think in channels, it’s likely that you’re working with specialists who work in channels. You may need to challenge them to be holistic thinkers even if they are naturally inclined to stay in their lane. Identify who you need to implement the system: Your brand may not have resources in the right areas to secure success in the discovery world. So it’s about judging what tweaks are necessary to drive compounding growth from the talent you have at your disposal. Review how you report: While individual channel ROAS may be surging for one channel, it might be diminishing in another. Understand how you can optimize for the whole system.

The GTA effect: What's your move?

Brand Discovery Index 2026: US