By Dr.Tunku Nur Atikhah Tunku Abaidah,
Senior Lecturer, School of Business Management UUM SINTOK KEDAH
For years, marketers have mastered the art of making consumers afraid to miss out. Limited-time offers, countdown timers, exclusive product drops, flash sales and viral trends all carry essentially the same message: act now, or regret it later.
It works because consumers do not like feeling left behind. Social media has amplified this phenomenon, turning the Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO, into a powerful marketing force. But what happens when consumers decide they are perfectly happy to miss out?
Welcome to JOMO – the Joy of Missing Out.
JOMO represents a different consumer mindset. Instead of feeling anxious about not participating in every trend, promotion or experience, consumers become comfortable deliberately stepping away.
It might mean ignoring a flash sale, deciding not to buy the latest viral product, switching off shopping notifications or simply accepting that not every new product deserves attention.
Importantly, JOMO does not mean consumers stop consuming. They may still shop, travel, dine out and discover new brands. The difference is that consumption becomes more intentional.
The question changes from “What am I missing?” to “Do I actually want this?”
When everything becomes urgent
Modern consumers operate in an environment where almost everything seems to demand immediate attention.
Open an e-commerce platform and there is a flash sale. Scroll through social media and an influencer recommends another must-have product. A voucher is about to expire. Stocks are supposedly limited. Another countdown clock is ticking.
Individually, these tactics can work. Collectively, they can become exhausting. There are already signs of consumers deliberately reducing digital noise. Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Consumer Trends survey in the UK found that one in five consumers had deleted a social media app in the previous 12 months, rising to almost three in ten among Gen Z. Half had also turned off notifications for at least one app.
Meanwhile, Accenture’s 2025 consumer research found that 76 per cent of shoppers felt overwhelmed by too many product choices.
These findings do not prove that consumers are abandoning brands or social media. But they point towards something marketers should pay attention to: more choice, more content and more communication do not automatically create more engagement.
Sometimes, they create a desire to disconnect.
Could FOMO marketing backfire?
Scarcity and urgency will not suddenly stop working. But problems may arise when every campaign becomes a FOMO campaign.
If every weekend is a “mega sale”, every product a “must-have”, every release “exclusive” and every promotion a “last chance”, consumers may eventually recognise the pattern.
The response may no longer be excitement.
It may simply be: “It is okay. I can miss this one.”
There is another warning for brands. The 2025 Sprout Social Index found that while consumers expect brands to understand online culture, one-third considered brands jumping onto viral trends embarrassing. Authenticity and relatability mattered more. That distinction is important.
Being visible is not necessarily the same as being relevant.
The rise of the selective consumer
For brands, JOMO does not necessarily mean consumers will stop buying. It may mean they become more selective about what deserves their money, time and attention.
This could create an interesting paradox.
Consumers may engage with fewer brands, but develop stronger relationships with the brands they deliberately choose. They may buy less impulsively but choose more carefully. They may ignore ten promotional messages but respond positively to one that arrives at the right time and offers genuine value.
This matters in highly connected markets such as Malaysia, where consumers already spend substantial amounts of time on social media. More digital exposure also means more brands, influencers, advertisements and trends competing for the same limited attention.
The challenge for marketers, therefore, may no longer be simply how to generate more attention, but how to become worthy of it.
What should brands do?
JOMO does not mean brands should disappear. It means they may need to communicate more intelligently.
Brands can focus on genuine value rather than manufactured urgency. They can prioritise relevant communication rather than simply increasing frequency. They can create original content instead of participating in every viral trend. Most importantly, they can give consumers space.
Not every interaction needs to produce an immediate sale. Not every trend requires a brand response. And not every consumer needs to be constantly reminded that they are about to miss something.
JOMO, therefore, may not be bad news for marketers.
Consumers who become more selective still make choices. They simply become more careful about those choices. For years, marketers have asked: “How can we make consumers afraid of missing out?”
Perhaps the more important question now is: “How can a brand become something consumers genuinely choose – even when they are perfectly comfortable missing everything else?”
