Attention Is Borrowed, Not Owned
Marketing often discusses attention as if it's something you can capture, hack, or hold onto.
But you can't.
Attention is borrowed, and it can be taken back at any time.
People don't owe brands their focus; they lend it briefly, usually while engaged in other activities, and only if there's a clear reason to stay. That reason changes constantly.
This is why marketing tactics become obsolete so quickly. What worked last quarter may stop being effective the moment it becomes familiar. This happens not because audiences are fickle, but because attention naturally shifts once they recognize a pattern.
The mistake is trying to outsmart this reality instead of respecting it.
Brands that maintain attention longer generally do a few simple things well:
They earn relevance before asking for action.
They respect the context individuals are in.
They don’t confuse volume with value.
They present something useful, interesting, or genuinely well-considered, and then they step back.
Understanding that attention is borrowed changes how you approach marketing decisions. It makes you slower to interrupt and quicker to clarify. It shifts the goal from being seen everywhere to being remembered somewhere.
If someone gives you a moment of their time, the objective isn’t to squeeze everything possible out of it. It's to make that moment feel worthwhile.
That's how attention gets renewed.
