#700: Winning and retaining the distracted consumer with Kelsey Chickering, Forrester

Summary

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Podcast Summary

The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

Episode #700: Winning and Retaining the Distracted Consumer
Guest: Kelsey Chickering, Principal Analyst at Forrester
Date: July 7, 2025
Location: Forrester CX, Nashville, TN

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Episode Overview

In this milestone 700th episode, host Greg Kihlström sits down with Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering at the Forrester CX conference in Nashville to explore the challenges—and opportunities—brands face when marketing to today’s highly distracted consumers. The conversation dives deep into the reality of cognitive overload, the “spaghetti” nature of the modern customer journey, the power and pitfalls of creator-driven marketing, and strategies for organizations to create brand experiences that are relevant, personal, and consistent across touchpoints.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Distracted Consumer & Cognitive Overload

[05:09–07:19]

• Reality Check: Today’s consumers confront roughly 35,000 decisions daily, constantly multitasking and switching devices.
• Kelsey’s Insight: “You think about as a brand, your opportunity, your window to get in their brain is not long. …You’re going to be lucky if they even noticed it.” (Kelsey Chickering, 05:56)
• Brands must embrace the fact that their window to capture attention is fleeting, requiring frequency and strategic omnichannel reinforcement—“It’s not just [about having] one perfect piece of content.”

2. Multitasking: Myth vs. Reality

[07:19–07:46]

• Busted: Both agree that true multitasking is a myth—people simply switch focus rapidly, not truly process multiple streams at once.
• Kelsey jokes: “My husband’s like, ‘I’m just really good at multitasking.’ … Like, you’re not. No one is good at multitasking. But we’re just constantly divided, right?” (07:39)

3. The Non-Linear (“Spaghetti”) Customer Journey

[07:46–10:56]

• Classic marketing funnels no longer fit; consumers drop in and out of brand interactions unpredictably across channels.
• Underrated Tactic: Using creators to reach consumers through voices they trust, widening reach and making messaging more authentic and adaptable.
  • “Being able to get your brand message through a different voice and to communities that you might not have otherwise found … you’re opening yourself up to share who you are in a really different way.” (Kelsey Chickering, 08:35)
• Pitfall for Brands: Over-directing creators stifles authenticity—brands must “let go” for effective creator partnerships.
  • “The biggest pitfalls that brands have is over direction with creators…You can’t control every message or else what’s the point?” (Kelsey Chickering, 10:09)

4. Breaking Down Silos—Internal Collaboration

[10:56–12:53]

• Communication failures between marketing, customer service, and product teams lead to missed opportunities and crises (e.g., unprepared social teams facing product backlash).
• Kelsey’s Example: Consistent knowledge-sharing, even as simple as regular cross-team updates, makes a significant impact.
  • “Maybe on a monthly basis we should let them know what our calendar is.” (Kelsey Chickering, 12:35)
  • “We are getting a ton of questions about this one thing via our call center. Maybe we should let the social media team know.” (Kelsey Chickering, 12:42)

5. Personalization vs. “Creepy”

[12:53–14:29]

• Brands walk a fine line between relevant, tailored messaging and over-personalization that can unsettle (“creep out”) customers.
• Tactic: Manage frequency and diversify touchpoints to reduce the “creepy” factor—don’t barrage consumers with the same message.
  • “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?” (Kelsey Chickering, 13:43)

6. Making Mundane Moments Meaningful

[14:29–16:26]

• Brands like USAA excel at transforming routine customer interactions into relevant, value-adding experiences using data and a deep understanding of customer lifecycle events.
  • “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.” (Kelsey Chickering, 15:06)
• Greg’s Highlight: USAA’s practice of having all new employees handle customer service inquiries firsthand fosters deeper empathy and understanding.

7. The Total Experience Approach

[03:38–05:09; 17:13–17:27]

• Forrester’s new “total experience score” connects brand (BX) and customer (CX) experiences, with research-backed proof that aligned, integrated experiences drive revenue growth.
  • “It is proven with data and math that if you do this, you will grow your business.” (Kelsey Chickering, 03:38)
• Chasing metrics (like NPS) just for the sake of it leads to lost purpose; brands need to continually reassess which measurements truly indicate experience quality.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Attention Span Reality Check:
  “If your brand can’t hold a consumer’s focus for eight seconds, what makes you think you deserve nine?”
  (Greg Kihlström, 01:40)

• Multitasking Myth:
  “No one is good at multitasking. But we’re just constantly divided, right?”
  (Kelsey Chickering, 07:39)

• Letting Creators Lead:
  “You can’t control every message or else what’s the point? That is not the point of it.”
  (Kelsey Chickering, 10:09)

• Internal Silos:
  “[Customer service says,] ‘Marketing never told us when they had a big campaign launching … And then we get barraged with comments.’”
  (Kelsey Chickering, 11:14)

• Personalization Balance:
  “We’ve all had that experience, right? Were they listening? I think they were listening. They had to have been listening.”
  (Kelsey Chickering, 13:43)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening and Episode Theme – [01:40]
• Kelsey’s Background & Current Work – [02:36]
• Most Insightful Conference Moment / Total Experience Score – [03:38]
• Cognitive Overload in Brand Interactions – [05:09]
• Multitasking Discussion – [07:19]
• Non-Linear Customer Journeys & Creator Economy – [07:46–10:56]
• Internal Collaboration and Silo Busting – [10:56–12:53]
• Personalization: Helpful or Creepy? – [12:53]
• Making Mundane Customer Moments Matter – [14:29]
• Total Experience Revisited & Closing Thoughts – [17:13–17:27]
• Kelsey’s Personal Agility Routine – [17:52]

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How Kelsey Stays Agile

[17:52]

• “I listen a lot. And by listen I mean I listen to a lot of podcasts. … Especially covering what I cover, social media, it is changing constantly.” (Kelsey Chickering, 17:52)

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Conclusion

This episode provides a timely, strategic look at how marketing leaders can adapt to an age of extreme consumer distraction—blending internal alignment, creator partnerships, and data-driven personalization (without crossing the “creepy” line). Through practical examples and research-based insights, Greg and Kelsey deliver actionable guidance for brands striving to build connection, value, and loyalty into every interaction.

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Transcript

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[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

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[Kelsey Chickering]

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[The Agile Brand Promoter]

the Agile Brand.

[Greg Kilstrom (Podcast Host Closing)]

Welcome to Season seven of the Agile Brand where we discuss the trends and topics marketing leaders need to know. Stay curious, stay agile and join the top enterprise brands and martech platforms as we explore marketing technology, AI, E commerce, and whatever's next for the omnichannel customer experience. Together we'll discover what it takes to create an agile brand built for today and tomorrow and built for customers, employees and continued business growth. I'm your host, Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on martech, AI and marketing operations. To make sure you always get the latest episodes, please hit subscribe on the app you listen to podcasts on and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. Now onto the show.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

If your brand can't hold a consumer's focus for eight seconds, what makes you think you deserve nine? We're here at Forrester 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.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Thank you. Happy to be here.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah. Looking forward to talking about this with you and a great job this morning with your keynote.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Definitely. It's always exciting to do these interviews here. On site 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?

[Kelsey Chickering]

Sure. Like I said, I'm Kelsey, I've. 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, 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.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Nice. Nice. Yeah, we'll have to talk about the gaming thing at a later date, so. Yeah, that's great. So, yeah, let's dive in and we're going to talk about a few things here. But just, I know we're pretty early on in the conference, but 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?

[Kelsey Chickering]

I gave you both, actually. So I would say in Depondin'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, you know, I think that's, that's really powerful. And especially, you know, 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. You know, we have an opportunity here. So I think that was definitely a great moment and a big moment and I'm quite excited, actually. In the last day of the conference, Angelina is going to be talking about different metrics and nps, 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.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. Great insights. And yeah, I think the, for the first piece you said, I know a lot of professionals that they do struggle to tie the ROI component of that and there's ways to do it certainly. But I'm 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. And 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]

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, it's not even just what you're thinking about, but then physically you are met with so many distractions at all times. I shared in the keynote earlier, so many, I think it was 70% or, sorry, 40% in our online community said that they are constantly multitasking, you know, while they're, 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 whether they, 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, 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.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah, yeah. And that's you know. I know. I've read plenty of research on multitasking and how. I mean, it depends on who you ask, but it's not really a thing.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Oh, it's not actually possible to multitask.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, they try.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Everyone's trying.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Exactly. But. But your brain can only, you know, it's. Our br are good, but they're not that good. Right.

[Kelsey Chickering]

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, like, you're not. No one is good at multitasking. But we're just constantly divided, right?

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah. And some people are better at switching, like, sure. Speed of switching, but it's still switching. It's not like actually concurrent thoughts, which, you know, that plus the journey itself is not so linear. You know, we're taught like in, in college, like the marketing funnel or whatever. It's. 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. You know, it's. 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 a. 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]

Well, I also think that the reality is that we are living in a crazy spaghetti journey, Matt, 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. 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 have other 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. You're opening yourself up to share, like, 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 going to 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.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Sure.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

But I think to that, to that point, the. The fact that you're a good brand could be executed and realized through a bunch of creators with their own, you know, kind of voice and things speaks to the strength of the brand. Right.

[Pura Brand Announcer]

Of course.

[Kelsey Chickering]

And it requires also a level of letting go.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Which is really hard for brands. Like in some of our research, which I published around best practices for creator marketing, you know, 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, you must say this thing exactly in this way. And of course, you have to have parameters in place, like if certain things are not appropriate for your brand, vet this created properly. But you can't control every message or else what's the point? That is not the point of it. But to go back to your original question about the spaghetti mess, I do think that getting your brand in many different touch points through different voices is one way to break through.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

And so on the inside of an org, I mean, a lot of the work that I do is with large companies with, you know, silos is a cliche, but it's real. Like it's a cliche for a reason. What does this look like when it's done? Well, in terms of, you know, how different parts of an org work with

[Kelsey Chickering]

one another, I'll talk about wanting, 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, you know, I hear so often where the customer service team is like, oh, 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. So there's this level of, like, triaging that needs to get. People need to get better at that will ultimately allow you to really bring that brand and customer experience together.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah. So, I mean, even. Even just a heads up of like, hey, this thing is happening, right? Yeah, even that.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Like, that is one small step you can take to, hey, maybe on a monthly basis we should let them know what our calendar is.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Right.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Or like, we are getting a ton of questions about this one thing via our call center. Maybe we should let the social media team know. Yeah, these small little things, they add up to something bigger.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And so then for those organizations that are maybe a little further along on some of the connectedness, talking about personalization, you know, there's a fine line between, you know, being personal, being personalized and helpful. And, you know, it could be too helpful. It 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 know, you're trying to connect with someone who is distracted, who is on, you know, 10 different devices at the same time, or thinking they are at least, and you're trying to reach through and break through. But you know what, how do you find that line between, like, being personalized right time, right moment, right channel, and, wow, this is a little like, are they watching me?

[Kelsey Chickering]

Absolutely. I mean, we've all had that experience, right? Were they listening? I think they were listening. They had to have been listening. Yeah, it's a good. It's a good question. You know, and tactically, one of those things is like 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 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, like, 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, that you're following me. But I think it's a good point for you to balance, you know, how, 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 that.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

And, and then, you know, when, when there is that right mix of, you know, right time, right place, right channel, right customer, even, let's say, a lot of the experience. It's not always some, some of the experiences, rather mundane moments. Let's, you know, let's, let's be honest. How can a brand turn some of those things? Like you have maybe an example or just some guidance for, 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]

Hmm. This is a good question. I actually talked, I talked earlier during my, my speech about usaa, which actually has a very, very high total experience score. And they, 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, you know, 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, you know, helpful and useful and moving them forward versus, you know, here's another product.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

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 is like your first couple 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 know, 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 USA provides. But I think that, you know, having to like, deal directly with the customers gives you a different perspective, right?

[Kelsey Chickering]

Absolutely. Like, I, I, I worked on a lot of, like, 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, mid marketing team. Then I would say, hey, can you get me what are some of the most frequently asked questions the top customer service? Like, what are you hearing from customers right now on the customer service side? To guide content creation. Not just because we were getting like, I wasn't community managing, but just to guide content. And 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 a customer to make decisions around what content we need to make, how we need to reach them better. Like all of that. But that so often doesn't happen where you actually read and see that. That information in front of you.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's that, you know, to kind of go back to the. It's. It's that holistic, you know, the total experience thing, you know, where it's, it's not just a point in the journey. It's not just trying to sell stuff to people. It's every touch point, every interaction.

[Kelsey Chickering]

Anyone. I shouldn't say anyone can sell, but a lot of people can sell something. But can you do the thing right? And I think that's where the breakdown happens all the time.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah, 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 you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?

[Kelsey Chickering]

I listen a lot. And by listen I mean I listen to a 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.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Yeah.

[Kelsey Chickering]

So another big podcast listener.

[Podcast Host (Greg Kilstrom)]

Nice. Love it. Well, again, I'd like to thank Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester, for joining the show here at Forrester CX in Nashville, Tennessee. To learn more about Kelsey and Forrester, you can follow the links in the show notes.

[Greg Kilstrom (Podcast Host Closing)]

Thanks again for listening to the Agile brand. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to subscribe and leave us a rating so that others can find the show as well. You can access more episodes of the [e-mail] that's the agile brand. And contact me if you're interested in consulting or advisory services or are looking for a speaker for your next event, go to www.gregkilstrom.com. that's G R E G K I H L S t r o m.com the Agile brand is produced by Missing Link, a Latina owned, strategy driven, creatively fueled production co. Op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Until next time, stay curious and stay agile.

[The Agile Brand Promoter]

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