In 2008, Procter & Gamble announced the death of the traditional marketing model, along with a new way of “Store Back” thinking and the famous “First Moment of Truth.”

At the heart of P&G’s industry challenge was the deep disconnect between marketing and sales and, in particular, the systemic industry lack of understanding of “the store” as both a part of the marketing plan, and critically, its most important touchpoint.

Yet, for every Cannes award-winning brand campaign that failed to drive sales, there was also a sales team-driven promotional strategy that was slowly eating away at the brand’s hard-won equity in return for a succession of short-lived sales bumps. The industry was caught in an either/or world that had to choose between building brands or building short-term sales.

Over a decade later, it’s clear this challenge was both deeply prescient, and actually fell short of the actual commerce revolution that was to come. What started as a provocative industry critique has evolved into a full reckoning for brands, retailers and agencies that has led industry leaders to embrace a new philosophy for marketing planning: total commerce thinking.

Here are five tactics that brands, retailers and agencies need to follow to embrace total commerce thinking:

Understand it’s about winning moments that matter

At the heart of total commerce thinking is how marketers need to consider customer journeys.

Today’s brands and retailers need to think in terms of winning moments that matter. These are the times when you have the opportunity to surprise, delight and, most importantly, drive conversion along an integrated end-to-end customer journey. This happens online and offline as consumers live, plan, shop and share from home to store and back again.

Erase siloed thinking

Marketing planning should have moved from a 1990s world of “above the line” vs. “below the line” siloed thinking that defined budgets, agency rosters and touchpoint planning. Building a seamless journey-based plan that creates relevant omnichannel consumer connections in today’s world means marketers need to remove the barriers in their planning, ways of working, and budgeting.

It’s time to erase “the line” permanently from the industry lexicon.

Rethink the store in a world of retail media networks

P&G’s more than decade-old mantra, “if it doesn’t work in-store, it doesn’t work,” remains true today, but with a difference.

Today we need to think of the store as both an online and offline entity and understand the totality of the retail environments where shoppers make purchase decisions along their customer journey. This includes both the digital and physical shelf and, of course, the broader world of retail media networks. The $50 billion-plus step change in brand advertising spend expected to be dropped into retailer media networks in 2022 is a sign of a fundamental change in how brands are re-thinking the store.

Be results-driven

David Ogilvy said, “We sell or else” to describe the fundamental importance of commercial results for any agency creative campaign. It was a call to action that many venerable blue-chip brands and agencies have failed to heed.

Total commerce thinking finally heeds this call. It is, at its heart, all about systemically aligning creative thinking with real world selling in all marketing activity (and understanding that one cannot exist without the other for long).

Evolve your measurement

How many brands can truly answer the hard questions about the effectiveness of their marketing spend?

The concept of total commerce thinking forces marketers to rethink their approach to measurement and marketing mix planning. In an omnichannel world based around customer journeys, a flood of new digital, shopper and media data is driving a new view of true marketing effectiveness. This helps develop a deeper understanding of how different journey touchpoints and moments contribute to purchase conversion and provides more definitive guidance to make the right marketing investment decisions.

Thinking about where the industry has come from since P&G’s 2008 industry challenge, it would benefit brands, retailers and agencies to remember that the next generation of total commerce will, undoubtedly, be just as dramatic. But those who take the necessary steps to plan and evolve will come out on top.