Screen-based marketing is louder than it’s ever been, but all that noise is only causing audiences to tune it out. In an effort to keep up with shrinking attention spans, brands flood inboxes and overload social feeds. The irony is, however, that reach doesn’t guarantee resonance. In fact, it often does the opposite.

According to a 2025 report by Optimove, 70% of consumers unsubscribed from at least three brands in the past three months due to overwhelming messaging.

Ad fatigue is a real, measurable effect of oversaturation, and it’s so prevalent that there’s a growing science behind it. When it comes to answering the question of why consumers become desensitized to advertising, there are four leading theories:

1. We tend to like things we’ve seen before—even if we don’t consciously notice them. That’s the core idea behind the mere exposure effect, and it helps explain why repeated ads can initially boost brand recognition. But there’s a limit. According to the two-factor theory of repetition, those early exposures build familiarity, but repetition starts to work against you after a certain point. What once felt recognizable starts to feel repetitive or, worse, annoying. During the positive phase, it reinforces positive associations, at least until the negative phase begins. Once marketing has overstayed its welcome, what was once familiar and trustworthy can start to feel irritating and pushy.
2. Users develop banner blindness, meaning that they unconsciously ignore banner-like information on websites. Now that we’re several decades into the digital age and people are accustomed to the layout of web pages, they learn to overlook areas where ads are typically placed.
3. The annoyance factor refers to instances when ads employ deliberate annoyance stimuli– loud sounds, repetitive jingles, etc.– to make the message more memorable. It might initially capture attention but also causes outright avoidance once it overstays its welcome. it may lead to increased irritation and ad avoidance over time, contributing to ad fatigue.
4. The attention as a commodity theory posits that our attention spans are a scarce resource, and brands have to compete with a lot of different stimuli for a chance to get noticed. However, they have to walk an incredibly fine line because when too many demands are placed on our cognitive systems at once, our brains start to shut out non-essential inputs. We scroll, but we’re not really retaining anything. This is where digital marketing tends to run into diminishing returns. It’s competing in an unfiltered, over-saturated space where the more brands push, the more audiences retreat due to overwhelm.

The Power of Physical Marketing in a Digital World

When attention is stretched thin, physical marketing offers something digital campaigns rarely can: sustained presence. Ads disappear after a few seconds, but promotional products remain in view and often in use. You’re claiming a piece of that hot commodity called human attention and holding onto it day after day.

There’s also a neurological explanation for why this approach is effective. When someone touches or uses an object, they activate multiple sensory pathways in the brain—particularly those involved in emotional processing and memory storage. Research in sensory marketing has found that these physical interactions lead to stronger brand recall than visual exposure alone. In other words, handling a branded physical marketing item builds a memory that scrolling past a digital ad often does not.

This difference becomes even more important when considering how repetition functions in each setting. In digital spaces, repeated exposure often leads to disengagement. With physical marketing, repetition is tied to utility. Every time someone uses the item, it reinforces a natural but not intrusive connection to your brand.

• A Moleskine-style journal stays on hand for project briefs and brainstorming sessions and turns your name into a valuable part of someone’s decision-making process.
• A braided nylon charging cable with USB-C, Lightning, and Micro USB ends becomes a staple in tech backpacks and carry-on bags, solving the dead battery problem before it starts.
• A double-walled steel bottle sits beside someone’s laptop through long presentations and cross-country flights.
• A low-profile aluminum phone stand with adjustable tilt puts your logo in the frame during Zoom calls and client demos.
• A windproof umbrella earns a permanent place in someone’s front hall or backseat—remembered not for the branding but for showing up when it mattered.

These branded items can easily become part of someone’s daily routine, which means that your brand becomes a part of their daily routine, with no need for follow-ups or reminders. Physical marketing gives you the power to create sustained, repeated interactions tied to tasks people already care about: staying charged during travel, taking notes during meetings, and shielding themselves from rain on the way to work.

This kind of marketing works because it aligns with how people actually behave. People don’t want urgency and gimmicks; they want a helping hand when good timing and utility matter more than clever messaging. When it comes down to it, a product that consistently performs its function sends a message about the company behind it: that it pays attention to detail, understands its audience, and doesn’t cut corners.