In 2021, my colleague (and fellow cinephile), Dylan Simon, saw me put a “sales funnel” in a slide deck and he laughed at me. I asked why and he said it’s an incredibly outdated concept.
Mr. Simon had former experience working as a political consultant — something I’m deeply fascinated by, in particular, he shared an anecdote about how lower-income areas (in the same city) had a different temperature of (sometimes) 5 degrees. The reason being fewer trees, poorer infrastructure, worse air quality, among many other things.
In any case, I acknowledged it was old, but simple; easily understood. He relented.
Fast forward to 2025, MozCon, Paul Norris’ talk is still haunting me.
The funnel is fragmented and people use platforms differently:
- TikTok | Awareness | Scrolling
- Ex: I’m bored and open to discovery
- YouTube | Consideration | Streaming
- Ex: I’m dedicating time to learn/be entertained
- Google | Action | Searching
- Ex: I need an answer now
We’re not talking “queries” anymore. We’re talking platforms for different stages.
And we’re now into 2026, with Rand Fishkin (and AMANDA NATIVIDAD — and don’t you forget it damnit)’s Zero Click Marketing where last-click attribution is crap — again, I’m paraphrasing.
But billboards and posters and commercials and product placements in movies — all these things work and they’re not measuring “last-click”, but we KNOW they increase visibility and brand awareness. And I agree with all that.
And that’s what brings me to the pachinko.
Nevermind the fact that as a 7yo child, my grandfather handed me a 2×4, a fistful of nails, a hammer and some marbles and said, “go at it, tiger,” — i.e. build my own pachinko.
And contrary to what it could be misconstrued as — i.e. a crippling gambling addiction to reflect a nihilistic attribution system of a dying marketing discipline.
What it actually is, is an answer to Dylan Simon telling me in 2021 that the sales funnel is pretty outdated.
Cus I agree.
Here’s my better answer.