Reality Check: Mar Edition
May 05, 2026
By Mark Noakes
Have you felt the shift in how people are buying lately?
March has started to show a pattern; behaviour is changing. Across accounts here at Dilate, we’re seeing the same thing in different forms. Demand is still there, just approached more cautiously.
It’s subtle, but it’s starting to impact how things perform.
Demand hasn't disappeared. It's become more selective.
It’s more deliberate. Instead of upgrading, buyers are opting to maintain or stay the same, until they feel confident in the outcome. It’s a pattern that tends to surface in more uncertain periods, but it also reinforces where real value sits.
This is where brands have an opportunity to stand out.
If the value isn’t clear, the cheaper option becomes much easier to justify.
Here’s a few patterns to pay attention to over the coming weeks:
- Price awareness is rising, even in premium segments
- Purchase journeys are becoming more deliberate
- “Nice to have” is being delayed, not cancelled
- Strong brand positioning is becoming an even greater advantage
Search is becoming the destination
Google is increasingly answering queries directly in search through AI Overviews.
More often than not, the answer is there before a user needs to click through to your website.
Search is becoming less about sending people elsewhere, and more about keeping them where they are.
So what does this mean?
- Ranking well isn’t enough on its own
- Visibility doesn’t always convert to visits
- Brand recall becomes more valuable than generic discovery
- SEO moves toward presence over pure traffic
- Search-reliant businesses will feel the pressure first
The bar for attention is rising
Here’s an interesting campaign that caught my attention this month: MCoBeauty built an escape room and turned it into a microdrama series for social.
It’s a good example of content designed for how it’s consumed, not just how it looks.
More brands are putting real time and structure into their work just to achieve the same level of attention. As feeds get more saturated, simply showing up isn’t enough.
The cost of attention is rising creatively, not just financially. Simpler campaigns are easier to ignore, and what once felt novel is now expected.
Attention is consolidating
That’s a clear signal of where attention now sits. Not spread across channels, but concentrated within a small number of platforms.
This changes how brands compete. Platform-native content matters more than distribution alone, and YouTube is becoming foundational to reach. As attention concentrates, older media strategies become less effective.
Visibility now depends on understanding how attention is actually consumed.
