“He's not going to sell much ice cream going at that speed, is he.”

Or… why the shopper journey doesn't move at your speed. It moves at theirs.

It's been the hottest May on record. By quite a margin.

Which is great if you're a fan of sitting in the garden with a beer. Less great if you're trying to get any actual work done.

So there I was at my desk yesterday, wilting slightly, when I heard it.

Faintly at first.

The unmistakable tinkle of an ice cream van growing steadily louder outside.

Before I'd even finished thinking "ooh, maybe…" it had gone.

Zipped past without so much as slowing down.

Which immediately brought to mind my all-time favourite Eric Morecambe gag: 

"He's not going to sell much ice cream going at that speed, is he."
(I still say it out loud every time I hear a siren. Every single time.)

Now, in fairness to the driver: it was 30 degrees, everyone in Britain was clearly desperate, and he could probably have parked at the end of the road and retired by teatime. But he didn't. He was somewhere else before anyone had a chance to reach for their wallet.

He wasn't just missing one sale. He was missing everyone on the street who was half-interested, vaguely peckish, or simply too hot to think straight. The "maybes." And in marketing, the maybes are where most of your growth lives.

It's a conversation we have a lot at Animo. We work with B2B and B2C brands across a pretty wide range of sectors, and the issue comes up more often than you'd think.

Not because clients don't believe in marketing. They do. But there's a persistent assumption that the path from "I've heard of them" to "take my money" happens quickly. It doesn't.

The average consumer now needs around 6 meaningful touchpoints before they reach for their wallet, and that number keeps rising as channels multiply and attention fragments.

For B2B buyers, McKinsey puts the figure at 10 interaction channels across a buying journey, up from just 5 in 2016.

That's not just a funnel. That's a long walk in record-breaking heat.

And yet the most common brief we receive still goes something like: "We need to post more on LinkedIn" or "Can we do a quick campaign for this launch?"

Which is fine. But it's also a bit like the van doing one pass down the road and wondering why the queue isn't forming.

The shopper journey (whether someone's buying a £3 Mr Whippy or a £300k piece of industrial kit) moves through distinct stages. Awareness, consideration, evaluation, purchase, advocacy. Each one needs a different message, a different tone, sometimes a different channel entirely. And none of it happens on your timeline. It happens on the buyer's.

The mistake most businesses make isn't spending too much on marketing. It's spending just enough to show up once, then going quiet and wondering why it didn't work.

Everyone is a consumer. Even the procurement director approving a six-figure software contract went home last night and bought something on Amazon based on a review they'd read three weeks ago, an ad they half-noticed last Tuesday, and a recommendation from someone at a conference. The mechanics are the same. The timescale is just longer and the committee is bigger.

If your brand isn't present at each stage of that journey.

If you're not consistent, memorable, or saying something worth saying…you're the van that already passed.

The good news? You don't need a massive budget to stay visible. You need a clear platform, a bit of patience, and the discipline to keep showing up.

Or, to put it another way…slow down…sell more ice cream. 🍦