We’ve all heard the phrase “less is more.” Yet in today’s marketing landscape, where audiences are flooded with targeted ads, campaigns, emails, and social content (just to name a few), that idea can feel disconnected from how brands actually behave. The pressure to stay visible often leads companies to assume that growth comes from saying more. In the process, meaningless content is created to maintain one’s presence rather than to deliver value to consumers.
And if you think you can get away with a templated message or copy-and-paste ad during a major drive period, just know that Pros see right through it.
Now, this isn’t to say that these consumers are opposed to hearing from brands around holidays or cultural observances. In fact, nearly 9 in 10 trades professionals say they’re open to it. But that receptivity comes with conditions. Messages resonate when they feel authentic and aligned with the brand. They quickly become noise when they feel generic or underthought.
In other words, the issue isn’t whether brands participate in these moments. It’s how.
Marketing selectivity can be defined by the deliberate choices a brand makes about what not to do. When a company chooses not to send a message simply because the calendar suggests it should, it signals confidence in its strategy and respect for the audience’s time.
In many ways, this comes back to a simple principle David Ogilvy emphasized decades ago: don’t count the people you reach, reach the people who count. In a world where brands can technically reach everyone, the challenge isn’t access. It’s judgment.
And from our more than forty years of experience working with Pros, the messages that resonate most tend to reflect the realities of their work. They’re raw, real, and rooted in how the workday unfolds. They acknowledge that the job doesn’t stop simply because the calendar marks a holiday.
So instead of asking how often to show up, brands should be asking whether the moment is worth showing up for at all.
