Unlikely Connections: What a Quiet Month Revealed About High-Intent Moments

Marketers love a pattern. Spend big in November, scale back in January, follow the same flight plan year after year.  Because hey, it works… right?

Well, maybe.

At Digilant, we’ve learned something powerful: growth doesn’t always follow the obvious path.

In fact, some of the biggest wins we’ve helped clients achieve have come from the places they weren’t looking — off-season sales spikes, overlooked audience behavior, and underutilized channels.

We call these Unlikely Connections. The unexpected overlaps between media strategy, consumer behavior, and business outcomes open new doors for brands. And this is the first in a new blog series that brings them to life.

The Valley That Was Actually a Peak

One client came to us with a clear challenge: they were investing heavily during their “known” sales seasons for durable goods like power tools and home improvement supplies, typically spring and early summer. But performance wasn’t lining up the way it used to.

So we asked a different question:

What if your biggest missed opportunities aren’t during the highs… but the lulls?

Using our proprietary planning framework, we audited historical media spend alongside product-level and regional sales data. What we found was a disconnect. The brand was pouring budget into big “expected” months, but real demand was peaking in pockets they weren’t even watching — like early February in the Northeast or late September in the South.

Armed with this insight, we built a predictive model to identify these micro-surges in consumer intent. We refined audience segments based on behavior, search trends, and purchase patterns, tailoring messaging to meet customers during those overlooked windows. Then we reallocated spend across paid search, paid social, and programmatic. leaning into high-intent behaviors, not historical habits.

What Changed

• We prioritized placements that were underutilized but high-performing. Think niche YouTube creators, late-night TV apps, and low-competition local search.
• We pulled back on default “peak season” buys that weren’t delivering returns.
• And we helped the client shift their calendar from a rigid flight plan to a flexible, data-led discovery tool.
  

The result? They found new customers in places they weren’t looking and saw a meaningful uptick in ROAS by aligning spend with real, measurable demand.

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The Bigger Lesson

This wasn’t just a scheduling tweak.

It was a mindset shift.

One that helped the brand move from reactive planning to proactive performance. Because media strategy shouldn’t be driven by habit. It should be driven by insight.

And sometimes, that insight comes from connecting dots that don’t look like they belong together — like a slow sales month and a spike in high-intent DIY search behavior.

That’s what Unlikely Connections is all about.

And we’re just getting started.

Want to uncover what your media calendar might be missing?

Let’s find your next unlikely connection. [Get in touch →]