We live in an attention economy. An era of overflowing information, distraction, noise and an endless urge to see what’s next in our feed that makes attention an increasingly scarce asset. Just as gold or oil might have ignited and driven economies of past eras, the digital age is powered by attention where our time, focus and engagement have become a precious resource with companies fiercely competing to seize every ounce of it.
In an attention economy, the model is simple for advertisers: capture their attention and gain access to their wallets.
The competition for attention is a transformative shift in digital advertising that is fundamentally changing the rules of engagement for brands and buyers and challenging publishers to find ways, beyond simply putting content in front of consumers, to create meaningful interactions that resonate, drive engagement and ultimately build loyalty.
Digital advertising has long been measured by metrics like viewability, impressions, click-through rates, and conversions. However, these metrics don’t always paint the full picture in an attention economy. The strategy of sheer volume to drive awareness — getting as many impressions counted on an ad for the cheapest rate possible, regardless of the quality of those views — isn’t as effective in an attention economy and at some point soon, as attention becomes even more scarce, may no longer work at all.
“Proper attention moves way past viewability and safety, because you’re reaching people who actually care,” Albert Thompson, Managing Director of Digital at Walton Isaacson, recently told AdExchanger.
The focus now is on engaging with audiences in meaningful ways. Viewability — merely ensuring an ad is visible — isn’t enough. It’s about whether that ad makes an impact, whether it holds attention long enough to evoke a response or inspire action.
“If we were really innovating, we would have gone to attention years ago,” Thompson adds. His words underscore a critical point: innovation in advertising is not just about new formats or platforms but about understanding and harnessing attention itself. In the current landscape, advertisers are beginning to recognize that capturing attention requires deeper insight into consumer behavior and emotional engagement. CTV ads, for example, are mostly non-skippable, full-screen, interactive ads that are proving to produce higher engagement and hold viewers’ attention longer than other digital media.
The transition into an attention economy spotlights the value proposition at the heart of this economic model: companies are incentivized to cater to our interests and preferences. That is now the primary objective of publishers (i.e. content creators) and advertisers alike and it’s an alignment of their interests like never before. That alignment might finally force advertisers to step away from the bidding algorithms and put their own attention on more thoughtful interaction and collaboration with publishers. Thompson tends to agree.
“People invest too much time in the auction conversation. If you live and die by bidding, you’re not living and dying by high-intent consumers who drive outcomes. People who stay with a brand 20 years aren’t biddable. You have to earn that.”