There’s this weird moment in a campaign where everything looks okay on paper…but something just feels off. You can’t quite explain it. Emails are still going out. Ads are still running. Reports show green. But the energy is gone.

I’ve been there more than once. The team stops sharing the work. Nobody’s talking about the results. It all starts to feel a little mechanical. And that’s usually when I realize, our campaign didn’t crash, it just lost momentum.

And here’s the part most people don’t talk about: momentum fades before performance drops.

What I’ve learned to look for:

1. The vibe check
   If your team isn’t excited to send it, chances are no one’s excited to receive it either.
2. The copy check
   If the message feels safe or watered down, that usually means it’s stopped saying something worth hearing.
3. The gut check
   If it feels like we’re just pushing things out to push things out, it’s time to pause and ask why.

So what do I do when I notice the fade?

I don’t blow everything up. I focus on three small shifts:

• One strong messaging tweak that sharpens the point
• A quick internal huddle to rally the team around something fresh
• A fast experiment to test a new take and rebuild some energy

Because when you catch the fade early, you can actually save the campaign.

Some of the most successful campaigns I’ve worked on weren’t perfect. They just stayed alive. They stayed interesting. And that made all the difference.