José Varela Castelo, Head of Intelligent Digital Experience at Link by Linkroad
Original Article PT: Marketeer
In last month’s article, we ended with an uncomfortable question: if everyone knows that experiences outperform primitive stimuli, why do we keep throwing bananas? And I raised an even more troubling possibility: what if the chimpanzees are right?
Let’s get into it.
-The Tyranny of the Quarter
I suspect the problem isn’t ignorance. It’s structure.
Imagine this dialogue.
The CMO says: “We need to invest in differentiated experience, build brand, think long-term.”
The CFO agrees: “Yes, but this quarter we need to grow 15%. What are you going to do?”
The CMO replies: “I’ll… launch a performance campaign with aggressive discounts.”
The CFO smiles: “Perfect.”
And so, quarter after quarter, year after year, we keep throwing bananas.
Because it works. For the quarter.
The problem? Chimpanzees don’t have quarters.
In the jungle, the closest banana saves your life today.
In the market, the closest banana kills your brand tomorrow.
But “tomorrow” isn’t on the dashboard.
“Tomorrow” doesn’t close the quarter.
“Tomorrow” doesn’t justify the budget.
-What If the Chimpanzees Are Right?
Here’s the question no one wants to ask: what if the primitive model is the right model?
Think about it.
Amazon is supposedly the most customer‑centric company in the world. Customer obsession, frictionless experience, long‑term thinking. And yet, what do we see?
- “Other customers also bought…”
- “Lightning deal ends in 2:34:12”
- “Add to cart with 1‑click”
Sophisticated bananas.
Still bananas.
Apple, which allegedly sells “experiences,” doesn’t sell products?
Aren’t AirPods the closest banana in the ecosystem?
Spotify, which personalizes to perfection, isn’t it competing for immediate attention against TikTok and YouTube?
Maybe the problem isn’t the primitive model.
Maybe the problem is pretending we’re not primitive.
-The Illusion of Experience
Here’s what I’ve discovered: many companies claiming to create “experience” are actually performing experience theatre.
Theatre is beautiful design, emotional copy, a Miro journey with 47 touchpoints, a Cannes presentation.
Real experience is the customer being able to do what they want, when they want, how they want — and not having to think about it.
The best experience is invisible.
It’s the absence of friction.
It’s not having to think.
Sometimes the best experience isn’t creating magic — it’s removing stupidity.
-The Industry Problem (Spoiler: We’re All Complicit)
The inconvenient truth: the marketing industry created a problem it now pretends to solve.
We created intrusive pop-ups and then sold “improved UX”.
We created spam emails and sold “personalized marketing automation”.
We created slow websites and sold “performance optimization”.
We created confusing journeys and sold “customer experience consulting”.
It’s like setting houses on fire and then selling fire extinguishers.
And we all know this.
Customer acquisition costs have increased 222% in the last five years.
Retention costs 5 to 7 times less than acquisition.
And yet, 44% of companies still prioritize acquisition over retention.
We know the math and do the opposite.
Why? Because incentives are misaligned.
Agencies charge for output volume, not outcome quality.
Metrics are wrong — we measure impressions instead of impact.
Timeframes are short — we think in campaigns, not relationships.
Structures are fragmented — brand, performance, product, sales, all in silos.
This is not a technological problem.
It is a systemic one.
And systemic problems don’t get solved with tools.
They get solved with difficult decisions.
-The Question That Should Be in Every Meeting
Instead of asking:
“What’s the ROI of this campaign?”
“How many leads will we generate?”
“What’s our target CTR?”
We should be asking: “If our customer had absolute freedom of choice, would they come back?”
Not because of lock‑in.
Not because of discounts.
Not because of inertia.
Because the experience is so good, so frictionless, so memorable
that going elsewhere makes no sense.
How many brands pass this test?
-Conclusion: The Necessary Discomfort
Chimpanzees will keep choosing the closest banana.
It’s evolution.
It’s instinct.
It’s survival.
We don’t have that excuse.
We have data proving that experiences differentiate.
We have technology enabling personalization at scale.
We have success stories showing it works.
And yet, we remain primitive.
Why?
Because it’s easier.
Because it’s faster.
Because it’s measurable within the quarter.
This article doesn’t have a magic solution.
It has no five‑step framework.
No call‑to‑action to buy anything.
It has only one provocation:
-What if we stopped pretending?
Pretending we build experience when we stage theatre.
Pretending we think long‑term when we optimize for the quarter.
Pretending we’re customer‑centric when we’re Excel‑driven.
Maybe the first step toward better experiences is admitting we’re throwing bananas.
And then deciding whether we want to continue — or evolve.
Over the next few months, I’ll explore these paradoxes more deeply: from the illusion of choice to the death of linear journeys, from the IRD™ triangle to the metrics that actually matter. Not because I have all the answers — but because asking the right questions is already halfway there.