2026 Agenda

 

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The Hidden Half of the Customer Journey: Your Growth Is Hiding in Plain Sight

Melissa Bouma  (Chief Growth Officer and Partner, Manifest)
Joe Cassidy  (Sr Director of Data Intelligence, Manifest)
Location: Four Seasons Ballroom 2
Date: Monday, October 5
Time: 1:30 pm - 1:50 pm
Pass Type: All Access - Get your pass now!
Session Type: Sponsored Session
Track: Summit | Science & Magic
Vault Recording: Video
Melissa Bouma
Joe Cassidy

Marketers obsess over the beginning and the end of the customer journey. We optimize for awareness. We relentlessly analyze conversion.
Then we overinvest in both.


But what if the industry's biggest growth opportunity isn't at the top or bottom of the funnel? What if it's been hiding in the middle all along? As recently reported by WARC*high-growth companies have 2Xs more robust mid funnels.


Set out to answer those questions, Manifest conducted a significant proprietary research initiative across 250 CMOs & senior marketing leaders/decision-makers, pairing those insights together with full-funnel customer journey analysis from more than 40 household-name brands.


In this first look at their findings, Melissa Bouma and Joe Cassidy will reveal what Manifest's research uncovered about where customer decision criteria are truly formed and influenced, why marketers consistently underestimate the impact of the middle journey, and what the highest-performing brands are doing differently to shape preference and drive growth.


They'll separate perception from reality, uncover the patterns emerging across industries, and identify where orchestrated content has the greatest power to reduce friction, influence customer choice and accelerate growth.


*2026 WARC, The ROAS Paradox by Billy Grace

Takeaway

  • Gain exclusive insights from Manifest's proprietary research into how the middle journey influences customer decision-making
  • Learn where customer decision criteria are formed and influenced
  • Understand how to build content that shapes preference before customers are ready to buy
  • Walk away with practical strategies for identifying overlooked opportunities in the middle journey and translating them into measurable impact