The Death of Attention
We’ve been told that attention is everything.
That whoever gets the most views, clicks or impressions wins.
But that was yesterday’s game and it’s collapsing in real time.
Attention has become cheap.
It can be bought, faked or automated.
Every brand is shouting louder, posting more often, running more ads and saying less.
We live in a time where you can reach millions and still matter to no one.
That’s not success... That’s noise.
The future doesn’t belong to brands that capture attention.
It belongs to those that deserve it.
Welcome to the Relevance Economy.
The Shift
There’s a hierarchy emerging in modern marketing:
Reach = Be seen.
Relevance = Be meaningful.
Attention = Be noticed.
Relevance = Be felt.
Reach is quantity.
Attention is duration.
Relevance is depth.
Reach tells you how many people you interrupted.
Relevance tells you how many lives you entered.
When you’re relevant, you don’t need to fight in the attention war.
You move to a higher plane where people seek you out, talk about you, defend you, and build with you.
You stop buying awareness and start earning belonging.
What Relevance Really Means
Relevance isn’t being trendy.
It’s not jumping on memes or pretending to care.
Relevance means you matter... Emotionally, culturally, contextually.
It’s when your message hits the exact frequency of what people are already feeling but haven’t said out loud yet.
It’s when your brand expresses something true, at the right time, in the right tone, with the right intention.
That’s why true relevance feels almost magical... Because it connects to something human, not just algorithmic.
The Three Laws of Relevance
Law 1 > Relevance Is Emotional
You can’t calculate your way to mattering.
People don’t form attachments to marketing plans: they connect to emotions that mirror their own. If you want to be relevant, stop selling features and start expressing feelings.
Great brands are emotional translators.
Law 2 > Relevance Is Contextual
Culture moves fast. Relevance lives in motion.
You can’t stay relevant if your stories stay static.
It’s not about being first, it’s about being timely.
Arrive with something meaningful exactly when the world is ready to receive it.
Relevance is rhythm.
And most brands are off-beat.
Law 3 > Relevance Is Earned
You can buy reach. You can buy attention.
But you can’t buy meaning.
Relevance is a privilege granted by the audience and it can be revoked.
The brands that last are the ones that prove who they are through consistent action.
The Framework: How Brands Become Relevant
1. Sense
Track the emotional weather of culture.
What are people craving, fearing, longing for?
Not as data points... As feelings.
2. Align
Find the intersection between your truth and theirs.
That’s your relevance window... The space where what you stand for meets what the world is feeling.
3. Act
Do something that proves it.
Not an ad.
An act. A collaboration, an initiative, a product, a statement.
4. Amplify
Once you act with relevance, the audience becomes your media plan.
People don’t share ads, they share alignment.
5. The Metrics That Matter
Forget CPM, CTR, ROI.
The new indicators of success are human.
- Cultural Stickiness: how long your idea stays in conversation.
- Reference Rate: how often you’re mentioned without prompting.
- Emotional Recall: how deeply you’re remembered after exposure.
- Community Pull: how easily people gather around your signal.
Relevance compounds.
Every meaningful act increases trust, and trust multiplies reach organically.
6. The Proof Is Everywhere
Patagonia didn’t grow by chasing attention.
They became relevant by standing for the planet.
MSCHF doesn’t compete for CPMs.
They design cultural moments that people chase.
Apple stopped advertising features decades ago.
They market beliefs and belief is the ultimate form of relevance.
Nike, through one act of courage with Kaepernick, turned risk into reverence.
That’s what relevance looks like.
7. How We Got Here
Marketing used to be about distribution power.
Then it became about creative power.
Now, it’s about cultural power.
We live in a world where ideas move faster than companies can approve them.
Where authenticity scales quicker than budgets.
Where being human beats being optimized.
The Relevance Economy rewards brands that behave like people, not corporations.
Brands that evolve, listen, feel and take risks.
Brands that aren’t afraid to mean something.
8. The New Rules for Marketers
- Stop fighting for attention. Earn alignment.
- Stop making content. Make context.
- Stop shouting. Start resonating.
- Stop chasing culture. Start shaping it.
- Stop trying to be everywhere. Be unforgettable somewhere.
9. The Future of Marketing
In the Relevance Economy, brands won’t just sell products, they’ll sell identity.
Marketing won’t just be about communication, it’ll be about connection.
Success won’t be measured in clicks, it’ll be measured in cultural memory.
You don’t win because you’re louder.
You win because you’re closer.
Closer to people’s truth, to their values, to their world.
10. A Final Truth
Relevance is the only real moat.
Reach can be bought.
Attention can be gamed.
But relevance? You have to earn it.
Welcome to the Relevance Economy.
Where meaning is the new metric.
And being seen is nothing compared to being felt.