If your brand can’t hold a consumer’s focus for eight seconds, what makes you think you deserve nine?
We are here at Forrester CX Summit 2025 in Nashville, TN and hearing all about the latest insights and ideas for brands to create better experiences for their customers.
Agility isn’t speed for speed’s sake; it’s the discipline of staying useful while everything—and everyone—spins. In an era when consumers swipe away in milliseconds, an agile brand has to win attention before the next notification does.
Today we’re unpacking how to win and retain the distracted consumer with Kelsey Chickering, Principal Analyst at Forrester.
About Kelsey Chickering
Kelsey is a principal analyst at Forrester, focused on media as it relates to marketing strategy. She brings strategic thinking grounded in a deep understanding of the media and advertising ecosystem to clients. Her research uncovers best practices, emerging trends, and critical shifts in consumer behavior that impact how brands should behave in an ever-evolving media landscape. Her consumer-first thinking is underpinned by a communications planning backbone, emphasizing the interplay between media touchpoints across the consumer journey that work together to drive growth for B2C marketing executives.
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Transcript
Greg Kihlstrom (00:00)
If your brand can’t hold a consumer’s focus for eight seconds, what makes you think you deserve nine? We’re here at Forester CX in Nashville, Tennessee, and hearing all about the latest insights and ideas for brands to create better experiences for their customers. Agility isn’t speed for speed’s sake. It’s the discipline of staying useful while everything and everyone spins. In an era when consumers swipe away in milliseconds, an agile brand has to win attention before the next notification does.
Today we’re unpacking how to win and retain the distracted consumer with Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester. Kelsey, welcome to the show. Yeah, looking forward to talking about this with you and a great job this morning with your keynote. Thank you. Definitely. It’s always exciting to do these interviews here on site at events. There’s just kind of a different energy. So I want to start, actually, before we dive in, why don’t you give a little bit on your background and the focus of your work at Forrester. Sure.
Kelsey Chickering (00:34)
Thank you, happy to be here.
Like I I’m Kelsey. I’ve been at Forrester for about three years now, but I actually come from an agency background. So I was at creative and media agencies before this as a comms planner. So really connecting creative and media together. So a lot of the work that I do with our clients at Forrester is that helping them sort of have that marketing blueprint in place and really land their jobs to be done as an organization. Outside of that, I also cover social media strategy, the creator economy.
I’m actually kicking off a report very soon on how marketers can really take advantage of gaming environments. So a variety of different topics related to media and consumer that I cover.
Greg Kihlstrom (01:31)
Nice, nice. Yeah, we’ll have to talk about the gaming thing at a later date. But yeah, that’s great. So yeah, let’s have, and we’re going to talk about a few things here, but just, you know, I know we’re pretty early on in the conference, but you know, we’re here at Forrester CX. What’s the most insightful thing that you’ve heard so far, or maybe since we’re so early on, what are you looking forward to most? I’ll either one.
Kelsey Chickering (01:52)
I you both, actually. I would say in Depanjan’s talk, he talked just after me about the total experience score, which is something that we’re revealing here at Forrester today at the conference. And what I think was incredible about that when I heard about it was just how much you can grow your brand and actually grow revenue by combining and bringing together your BX and your CX. It’s not just lip service where we say, you guys should work together. It is proven with data and math that if you do this, you will grow your business. And I think that’s really powerful. And especially any people who are trying to fight the good fight of bringing these things together, you now have information and data to bring to your leadership team and say, here’s why, here’s why this matters. We have an opportunity here. So I think that was definitely a great moment and a big moment. And I’m quite excited, actually, on the last day of the conference. And Lena is going to be talking about
different CX metrics and PS, which as a marketer is not something that I spend a ton of time thinking about. But I’m excited, I think, for everyone to hear just how she sort of breaks down where those metrics are breaking down for us. And this idea of chasing a metric for the sake of it is, I think, something that many people can relate to, whether you’re in a marketing org, a CX org, wherever you are, where you have this North Star that you’ve sort of lost the path and even why it’s the North Star anymore.
So I think that’s another big insight and exciting talk we’re going to hear later in the week.
Greg Kihlstrom (03:16)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great, great insights. And yeah, I think the for the first piece you said, I mean, I know a lot of CX professionals that they do struggle to tie the ROI component of that, you know, and there’s ways to do it. And, you know, certainly, but definitely excited to hear more about the total experience score and all that. So definitely exciting news today.
So I want to talk about one of the things that you talked about this morning, and that’s the distracted consumer. Consumers face 35,000 decisions a day, according to some research. So practically speaking, what is that cognitive overload, whatever you want to call it, what does that look like in a typical brand interaction?
Kelsey Chickering (03:56)
You know, I think even if you think about your own life and the number of times that you are probably switching devices and multitasking and going from one task to the next thing, you know, it’s not even just what you’re thinking about, but then physically you are met with so many distractions at all times. Like I shared in the keynote earlier, so many, I think it was 70 % or sorry, 40 % in our online community said that they were constantly multitasking, you know, while they’re consuming media. So you think about as a brand, your opportunity, your window to get in their brain is not long. So I think frequency plays a role here too where you can’t necessarily think about it as like we’re going to have this one moment, this one perfect piece of content that’s going to land for everybody. Because first of all, you’re going to be lucky if they even noticed it. And you need to have more and more to reinforce it. It’s not the same thing. But how are you thinking about all those different channels and places where you can actually meet the consumer there?
And even through different people, like I cover the creator economy and creators have had a bigger and bigger role in doing this for brands where it’s not even just about getting your product in the hands of creators, but it’s co-creating with them. It’s creating product that is more relevant to the people that you’re speaking to. So I just think that the way we think about marketing and messaging has to change based on the way that consumers are living their everyday lives.
Greg Kihlstrom (05:16)
Yeah, yeah. that’s, you know, I know I’ve read plenty of research on multitasking and how, I mean, depends on who you ask, but it’s not really a thing. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they try. But your brain can only, you know, our brains are good, but they’re not that good.
Kelsey Chickering (05:25)
is that actually possible to multiply? Yeah.
I try.
I said this to my husband all the time, he’s like, I’m just really good at multitasking when he’s on his phone. He’s like, you’re not, no one is good at multitasking. But we’re just constantly divided.
Greg Kihlstrom (05:41)
Yeah, and some people are better at switching, speed of switching, but it’s still switching. It’s not like actually concurrent. Thoughts, you know, that plus the journey itself is not so linear. You know, we’re taught like in college, like the marketing funnel or whatever. I’m sure they teach it out, you know, in other places too. But it’s like, I remember seeing that like back in the day and
It’s not linear. know, it’s a nice way to visualize it, but it’s so it can be so disconnected, whether it’s devices or channels or just other touch points from what you’re seeing brands do. What’s it? What’s an underused tactic that brands can use to make sense of this chaos, for lack of a better term, without resorting to just some crazy spaghetti like journey map?
Kelsey Chickering (06:26)
Well, I also think that the reality is that we are living in a crazy spaghetti journey, Right, right. Because consumers are just sort of dropped in to an interaction. You know, like you said, it’s not like you can… It’s pretty hard to guarantee that they’re going to see this message and then that message and then this interaction and then have this interaction with you. But what you can do is make sure that you’re planning all of those interactions so that they are consistent with your brand and the customer experience that you want, which comes back to that total experience that we talked about.
As far as tactics, so I talked about the creator economy earlier and I think creators are actually a really helpful way to make sense of this in some ways because being able to get your brand message through a different voice and to communities that you might not otherwise found or realized were important to you. I think that’s really powerful and especially if you’re choosing creators who know you and actually like you and can authentically talk about you’re opening yourself up to share who you are in a really different way. And it’s not just about, here’s the things that we say at people, but here’s the things we can say through people from their own real experiences. So I think that that’s something we’re gonna continue to see. We’re certainly seeing a lot of, and we’ll see more and more of. I think we’ll see a lot of bad executions. Sure.
Greg Kihlstrom (07:39)
But I think to that point, the fact that you’re a good brand could be executed and realized through a bunch of creators with their own voice and things speaks to the strength of the brand, right? Of course.
Kelsey Chickering (07:53)
And it requires also a level of letting go, which is really hard for brands. In some of our research, which I published around best practices for creative marketing, one of the things that we found was one of the biggest pitfalls that brands have is over direction with creators. And they try to micromanage and say, must say this thing exactly in this way. of course, you have to have parameters in place. Like if certain things are not appropriate for your brand, vet this creator properly.
You can’t control every message or else what’s the point? Like that is not the point of it. But to go back to your original question about like the spaghetti mess, I do think that getting your brand in many different touch points through different voices is one way to break through.
Greg Kihlstrom (08:31)
And so on the inside of an org, mean, lot of the work that I do is with large companies with, know, silos is a cliche, but it’s real. It’s cliche for a reason. What does this look like when it’s done well in terms of how different parts of an org work with one another?
Kelsey Chickering (08:47)
Let’s talk about actually one example of where this breaks down a lot. And that’s, I cover social media and social care and customer service is something that’s been coming up more and more. Actually, my colleague Christina McAllister and I are working and Colleen Fazio are working on a report right now about this for this reason, because we get these calls from customers who it’s either the marketing team or the service team. And one of them comes to us and they’re like, okay.
We’re trying to figure out how to collaborate better, how to make sure that we’re better connected. And there’s the beginnings of connectivity happening where some of the tools and technology are making it easier for you to collaborate. But it requires you to talk to each other and to break down some of those silos. And I hear so often where the customer service team is like, well, marketing never told us when they had a big campaign launching or they had an influencer market. And then we get barraged with.
comments, right? Or the product team never told the social media team that something new was being launched and they’re actually getting some bad feedback about it. So you should be ready on social media. there’s this level of triaging that people need to get better at that will ultimately allow you to really bring that brand and customer experience together.
Greg Kihlstrom (09:56)
Yeah, so mean, even just a heads up of like, hey, this thing is happening, right?
Kelsey Chickering (10:01)
And that is one small step you can take to, hey, maybe on a monthly basis, we should let them know what our calendar is. Or we are getting a ton of questions about this one thing via our call center. Maybe we should let the social media team know. These small little things, add up to something bigger.
Greg Kihlstrom (10:18)
Definitely. And so then for those organizations that are maybe a little further along on some of the connectedness, talking about personalization, there’s a fine line between being personalized and helpful. And it could be too helpful. could be, some people call it creepy. As a marketer, I tend to not call it creepy, but I’ll use that word anyway.
How do brands find that line from, you’re trying to connect with someone who is distracted, who is on 10 different devices at the same time, or thinking they are at least, and you’re trying to reach through and break through, but how do you find that line between being personalized right time, right moment, right channel, and wow, this is a little like, they watching?
Kelsey Chickering (10:58)
Oh, totally. I mean, we’ve all had that experience, right? Were they listening? I think they were listening. They had been listening. Yeah, it’s a good question. And tactically, one of those things is frequency management, where, of course, you want to get in front of somebody enough times for them to make a decision. But that comes back to variety. Like I talked to you earlier, it doesn’t have to be frequency of the same exact thing all the time. How can you make sure you’re getting in front of them in a lot of different ways? So I think that’s one place where it’s not like this constant barrage where they’re like, okay, now this is getting really creepy that you’re following me. But I think it’s a good point for you to balance how much is too much. And let’s ask our customers, let’s test this, let’s see what works and doesn’t work to make some decisions around them.
Greg Kihlstrom (11:39)
And then when there is that right mix of right time, right place, right channel, right customer even, let’s say, a lot of the experience, it’s not always, some of the experience is rather mundane moments. Let’s be honest, how can a brand turn some of those things, like do you have maybe an example or just some guidance for an organization of like, how do you turn something that could be looked at as a mundane, like just automated and kind of forget it into something that could be more valuable and could actually make someone more loyal in the long run.
Kelsey Chickering (12:13)
Hmm, this is a good question. I actually talked earlier during my speech about USAA, which actually has a very, very high total experience score. I think they’re really good at turning those Monday moments into good moments because of how relevant that they are and how tailored their interactions are to their members. So they’re dedicated to military service members and their families. And you see that when they are guiding them toward resources and information that are right for their life event. They are anticipating when a life event is likely going to happen based on data signals and they can turn that moment into something that is helpful and useful and moving them forward versus here’s another product.
Greg Kihlstrom (12:52)
Yeah, and I think I had somebody from USAA on the show a couple years ago and they talked about one of their, one of the parts of their process. And there’s a few other companies that do this as well as like your first couple of weeks there. I want to say like you’re like actually taking the customer service requests and like you’re on the front, no matter what your job is, you you’re on the kind of the front lines there. And I feel like that’s a good way to build like even, I mean, everybody generally needs insurance and needs the things that USAA provides. But I think that you know, having to like deal directly with the customers gives you a different perspective, right?
Kelsey Chickering (13:24)
Absolutely, I worked on a lot of the big QSR brands with service restaurant brands. And there’s been a couple that I’ve worked with and it was actually both QSR. I remember asking the question, I was on the social media team, the marketing team. Then I would say, hey, can you get me, what are some of the most frequently asked questions, the top customer service? What are you hearing from customers right now on the customer service side to guide content creation? Not just because we are getting, like I wasn’t community managing, but just to guide content.
It was so hard to get that information. I’m like, why is this so hard to get this information? We should all be looking at the voice of the customer to make decisions around what content we need to make, how we need to reach them better, like all of that. that so often doesn’t happen where you actually read and see that information in front of you.
Greg Kihlstrom (14:08)
Yeah, yeah, mean, it’s that, you know, to kind of go back to the, it’s that holistic, you know, the total experience thing, you know, where it’s not just a point of the journey, it’s not just trying to sell stuff to people, it’s every touch point, every interaction.
Kelsey Chickering (14:22)
I shouldn’t say anyone can sell. But a lot of people can sell something. But can you do the thing? And I think that’s where the breakdown happens all the time.
Greg Kihlstrom (14:31)
Absolutely. Well, Kelsey, thanks so much for joining today. And yeah, great to see you here at Forrester CX. One last question for you before we wrap up. What do do to stay agile in your role, and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Kelsey Chickering (14:42)
I listen a lot. And by listen, I mean I listen to lot of podcasts. That’s sort of my being able to stay up on things consistently, like whether I’m working out, I’m walking, driving. I live in Miami, I do a lot of driving. That’s one way I’m able to actually stay up on it all because especially covering what I cover, social media, it is changing constantly. Yeah. So another big podcast listener.
