By Sonal Gandhi
Chief Content Officer at The Lead
When we interviewed marketing executives for The Lead’s list one line stuck with me. David Oksman (VP of Brand & Digital Excellence at Samsonite) said it best:
This rings true. Consumers are inundated with content. Culture moves faster than most marketing calendars. Discovery is shifting from traditional search toward TikTok, Reddit and AI-generated answers. And consumers have become very good at tuning out brands that feel like they’re trying too hard to get their attention.
So I went back through our conversations to find what others said about building relevance. Here’s what the people actually building relevant brands are doing differently.
More than one exec basically described their job as “chief culture officer,” constantly watching where culture is headed and showing up before the ask, not after.
If you’re only paying attention to your own category, you’re already behind.
The shift here is from selling to belonging. If your brand feels like a community or a moment people were part of, that beats a well-targeted ad every time.
Basically: relevance = trust, not impressions.
Brands are literally watching Reddit sentiment because AI models pull from it when someone asks ChatGPT or whatever for a recommendation.
If your product info isn’t structured to show up inside an AI answer, you’re invisible to a growing chunk of discovery. Wild, but true.
Giving people a seat at the table beats blasting them with another campaign.
One exec’s brand started showing up at concerts and major cultural events. This had nothing to do with the actual product on paper, but it matched how customers emotionally connect with the brand.
Sometimes the best move is leaving your lane entirely.
Quick sales and long-term relevance aren’t the same thing, and a few execs were adamant about avoiding heavy discounts, because relying on markdowns instead of real meaning eventually erodes everything except price point.
Great storytelling can’t save a product that isn’t ready.
Leaders emphasized that marketing and cultural buzz only amplify what is already true about your brand. They can’t invent it out of thin air.
A few leaders cautioned against mistaking quick reactions for real relevance. Jumping on every single trend or platform without a clear strategy just adds noise.
The leaders who stay truly ahead are moving deliberately, not just reactively.
Reach doesn’t cost a whole lot right now. Relevance is earned by actually being where culture is, letting people in, and not cutting corners on the product or the story.
Every brand doing this well right now is doing some combination of all of these things.
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Relevance Is the New Reach. Here’s How the Best Brands Are Building It Based on executive interviews conducted for The Lead’s Direct 60 and Impact 50 Lists By Sonal GandhiChief Content Officer at The Lead When we interviewed marketing executives for The Lead’s list one line stuck with
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