Harnessing Attention

Navigating the consumer's mind, evaluating attention, media archetypes, and upcoming events

Author

Pedro Porto Alegre
February 12, 2025

Welcome to Marketing Chronicles. A monthly dose of strategy and creativity for brands, agencies, and businesses — delivered on the second Wednesday of every month. If you like what you see, join us for free.

Hello Marketing Chroniclers. We’ve got meaty newsletter this month!

Below you’ll find a mix of insights, recent research, upcoming events, tools, and fascinating content to dig through.

  1. Making The “Familiar” Fresh: how creatives’ super power lies in tactfully introducing novelty without alienating what our brains are already used to.

  2. C --> U --> C: the process by which our unconscious and conscious brain layers interact with each other, and the external world.

  3. Attention Evaluation Worksheet: a handy tool to evaluate how your creative and media choices are working together to capture and hold attention.

  4. The Effects of Advertising Media Channel Combinations on Brand Performance: new research that uncovers 7 “media archetypes” that work best depending on the category your business is operating in.

  5. YYC Data Con — Harnessing Data For Social Impact: upcoming event that I’ll be speaking at in Calgary, AB.

  6. How Top Strategists Are Using AI: upcoming online FREE event that I’ll be hosting with APG Canada.

  7. Super Bowl Ads 2025: where to find them, score them, and some of my faves.

  8. Strategist’s Delight (What’s On): collection of my favourite film, series, podcast and book that I’ve consumed over the past month.

Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

OPINION/

Making The “Familiar” Fresh

We live in a postmodern society today where everything that's "old" is deemed irrelevant, and only the "new" seems to matter. Technology has had a major impact in this shift in mentality (the promise of a "tech utopia" coming out of Silicon Valley led us all astray a bit).

But here's the thing: the revered word 'disruption' isn't something to be thrown around lightly.

Very few brands can actually disrupt anything. It requires some sort of major leap, and a lot of money to habituate people into adoption.

In his 1999 book "Liquid Modernity", the great Zygmunt Bauman suggests that modern societies have transitioned from a period of 'solid' modernity, characterized by long-term vision, predictability, and stability, into an era of 'liquid' modernity, defined by constant flux, uncertainty, and individualization.

This promise hailed by technocrats seems to have completely missed a key variable in this whole equation: HUMAN NATURE.

In advertising there's a case to be made that creativity's greatest power is to make the 'familiar' fresh. Studies have been done on this and whenever brands are looking to create net-new work, ensuring that 80% of it remains familiar with the remainder 20% being the "surprise", the levels of advertising effectiveness seem to reach its pinnacle.

The reason is simple: people use brands as mental shortcuts to make decisions. Make too big a change and you won't be recognized nor associated with the right things anymore.

Now, this isn't a hard science of course, there's a certain level of subjectivity here, however marketers are typically the first ones to throw the baby out with the bathwater with the ambitions of "leaving their mark" or simply because they've grown bored with their brand.

But brands that quietly and CONSISTENTLY chug along (cue McCain's recent outstanding 10-year effectiveness case study) are the ones that not only outlast others but also experience the greatest compounded growth.

Refreshing brands, creative, tactics, are all welcome here. This isn't a call to stagnation, but rather a nod to the marketers who have gotten this figured out - look no further than the journey that the Frosted Flakes folks have been on for the past 72 years.

OPINION/

C --> U --> C

C --> U --> C. That appears to be the order by which our minds process information. Meaning, the art of communication (e.g., advertising) follows a similar pattern.

Conscious activity informs the Unconscious, which then informs Consciousness. Here's an example:

🧠 Consider how we choose words: when you're having a conversation about a topic, that conscious input is constantly informing your unconscious to feed you back a choice of words to say it out loud. C informs U which informs C again.

Sounds odd to think of it this way, but the words we say or write don't just pop out by coincidence - there's an intricate process taking place inside our minds that we're largely unaware of.

My favourite metaphor for how to think about our unconscious mind came from Freud:

"I am a house. It is dark in me. My consciousness is a lonely light. A candle in the wind. It’s flickering. Sometimes here, sometimes there. Everything else is in the shade. Everything else is in the unconscious. But they are there. The other rooms. Niches, hallways, staircases, and doors. At any time. And anything that lives within you and wanders within you…it is there. It works and lives. Within the house that is me. Instinct, eros, and taboos. Forbidden thoughts. Forbidden desires. Memories we don’t want to see in the light. That we displaced from the light."

So, when it comes to advertising or other forms of communication, the message is that input into consumers' unconsciousness. Whether it is consciously tended to or bypasses straight into unconsciousness, it depends on how much attention it is able to grab.

But once it's in the U, and is reinforced regularly, it becomes a matter of the right occasion for your mind to fish it back into consciousness. This "final mile" is often overlooked by our consumer selves as we believe the thought about "buying a Pepsi" came out of the blue - but that's not necessarily the case.

In technological terms, our minds are not that different from Google search: we type a word into the search bar, and Google then fishes back all the content that is relevant for the request, which happens to be directly tied to SEO rankings and who's paying the most to appear at the top of the page.

The mind is a fascinating playground, one that marketers get to play in for a living. However, with it comes some serious ethical implications that we should all spend some time thinking about...

TOOLS/

Attention Evaluation Worksheet

I've never been a big fan of templates, as I find them to be too restrictive. But oftentimes, to train our brains on how to see things differently they can come in handy for a period of time.

Above is a little worksheet I've built to help structure my thoughts around media evaluation through the lenses of viewer attention.

This all derives from the amazing work that Karen Nelson-Field PhD and the folks at Amplified Intelligence have been doing in distinguishing between low quality and high quality attention mediums and creative.

Some things to keep in mind as you look through this:

  • Understanding what devices the creative will be viewed through is imperative because, for example, when we're on our phones we're typically multitasking and leisurely scrolling through things, meanwhile when we're watching TV we're immersed in a deeper state of attention.

  • Platforms are somewhat derivative of devices in this case, but whether or not something can be skipped, engaged with, be seen as an interruption, etc. can significantly impact the quality of attention it holds. For example, if you're publishing creative on Instagram you have a mere 2 seconds to hook the viewer into your message before they're gone.

  • Format is interesting because we know that video is better for emotion driven creative, meanwhile static is less effective at that. But here's the catch, video on YouTube gives you 6 seconds to say something before it can be skipped, whereas something on Instagram it's up to the viewer because skip-ability is embedded into the experience. Now, if you are thinking display, a 2x2 display placement has a very different effect than a half page placement. It all plays a role in driving attention.

  • Now, when it comes to amplifying attention, context matters a lot. If you're advertising on The New Yorker versus on a random magazine, the quality of content varies dramatically. And oftentimes the context itself says a lot about what you're brand is about - premium vs bargain brand, etc. Your creative must rise up to the production quality of the context in which it will appear.

  • Demographics are less groundbreaking in this worksheet, but they still play a role. Just read Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation to grasp how generations' abilities to hold attention can vary dramatically.

  • And finally, creative fundamentals. Far too often beautiful creative makes its way into the media but no one can remember what brand is it coming from. Becoming attuned to how early your DBAs are showing up (e.g., on IG they need to show up in the first frame because of skip-ability), how often, what's the emotional tone of the creative, how is the story unfolding, etc. are all critical in turning creative's attention into desired outcomes.

What are your thoughts on this attention-quality framework? You can download the PDF version here.

RESEARCH/

The Effects of Advertising Media Channel Combinations on Brand Performance

There’s a new research paper making the rounds that is challenging some of the findings from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. And that’s a good thing, because it means science is doing what it’s supposed to do.

But I believe it’s doing something more – it’s pushing the How Brands Grow body of work forward.

Back in 2021, Felipe Thomaz and his peers finished analyzing over 1000 campaigns and a million journeys via Wavemaker and Kantar data, and wrote a 71-page paper that’s been under peer review for the past couple years.

What they found will likely become the next “most talked about” topic in our industry: maximizing reach isn’t a one size fits all solution; there’s a lot of nuances on the functionality that each channel plays depending on your category (and not just business objectives and audience makeup).

“In auto, for example, TV has about a 2% chance of influencing the average person. But in personal care, it will have about a 50% chance. If you're then using it for brand building, that would be a different percentage. And if you don't have goal-specific campaigns, then that's another problem that you have, because then you're further averaging things out.”

On average, the campaigns Dr. Thomaz analyzed, all the reach was leading to a sub-2% business lift, whereas optimized “media portfolios” were getting between 15%-18%.

The key insight here is that there’s a lot of heterogeneity across consumers, and how easily we’re able to shift their preferences changes depending on each channel’s characteristics. Some channels are higher risk (e.g., cinema, because if you miss the mark on creative you can actually turn that captive audience against you), whereas others show lower risk (e.g., social media, because the attention you’re likely getting in a newsfeed is short and fragmented at best).

This means that thinking about media in terms of portfolios becomes quite interesting (almost like ETFs with varying degrees of risk and what they’re good at achieving).

Thomaz and his peers created 7 media archetypes that aim to answer some of the questions mentioned above, but the key here is to experiment with it based on your business objectives, audience, and category you’re in.

Check out the paper here, and also his podcast conversation with Conor Byrne on "That's What I Call Marketing". This is fascinating stuff.

Note: Peer reviews are still underway, so the strength of the datasets and the conclusions derived from it have not yet been widely accepted by other scholars (as of February 2025). Stay tuned for more on this!

EVENTS/

YYC Data Con: Harnessing Data For Social Impact

I’m excited to be joining an incredible panel at YYC DataCon on February 28.

We’ll be diving into how data can drive social impact – expect a thought-provoking discussion with some fascinating (and likely differing) perspectives.

Here’s the deal: use my promo code above for 10% off your registration and join the conversation. Seats are limited, so don’t wait!

EVENTS/

APG Canada: How Top Strategists Are Using AI

On Tuesday, February 18th from 12-1 PM EST, I’ll be hosting 2025’s first edition of APG Canada’s Grow Your Brain on Zoom (for FREE!).

I’ll be chatting with some industry giants about how THEY are using AI to better do their jobs.

By now we know that AI is no longer the future; it’s the present. But with a new tool emerging almost daily, how do we cut through the noise and find real, actionable uses for AI in strategy? In this conversation I’m bringing together three experts to share their hands-on experiences with AI and how they’re using it to elevate their work:

  • Rebecca Myers (Strategy Director, Citizen Relations): "I use AI to develop brand and audience tone."

  • Mani Hermanus Du Plessis (Group Strategy Director, john st.): "I use AI to help me develop strategic territories."

  • PK Lawton (Founding Partner, Sister Merci): "I use AI to dig deeper into consumer insights."

Here’s what to expect:

  • Pragmatic insights on AI’s opportunities and limitations in the strategy process.

  • Show-and-tell: Real-world examples of AI tools in action.

  • Thought-provoking discussion on the future of AI in marketing, ethics, and creativity.

This isn’t just theory—it’s a conversation grounded in practical application and forward-looking insights. Moderated by yours’ truly!

INSPIRATION/

Super Bowl 2025

There were so many amazing ads this year that it’s difficult to pick one.

If you’re looking to view ALL of them, here’s a handy link: https://admeter.usatoday.com/2025

But below were some of my favourites (in no particular order):

BRAIN FOOD/

Strategist’s Delight (What’s On)

QUOTE/

Strategic Thinking

"Strategy is done above the shoulders. Tactics are done below the shoulders."

Jeremiah Owyang

More of PPA:

PPA 

Pedro Porto Alegre is a seasoned marketing professional with in-depth experience building brand and communications strategies for top-tier B2C and B2B organizations across Canada. His repertoire extends from crafting and executing integrated multi-media brand marketing campaigns to the commercialization of performance-driven innovations for multimillion-dollar and nascent brands alike.