Attention Marketing Guide: How To Capture Consumer Attention

When was the last time an ad you saw on YouTube made you buy something? If it’s been a while, you know it’s because you’re constantly bombarded by ads. To reach consumers fatigued by the onslaught of media vying for their interest across the advertising world, you need to master the attention marketing game.

The most valuable currency in today’s hyper-competitive marketing landscape is attention. Gone are the days when brands could get away with templatized, pre-packaged, or generic marketing messages alone. Even the most cutting-edge products or brand campaigns risk failing if your target audience never sees them.

Here’s how to develop captivating campaigns that seize limited consumer attention to drive engagement, revenue, and lasting growth.

What is attention marketing?

Attention marketing is the strategy of developing campaigns and marketing materials that grab and hold your audience’s attention in a non-invasive way. The goal is to earn attention and spark authentic, lasting relationships that translate to customer loyalty, brand advocacy, and sales.

Attention marketing is rooted in the concept of the attention economy, coined in the late 1960s by economist and Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, who noted “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Simon is credited with forming a psychology and economics-based view of human attention as a scarce, precious commodity. More recently, renowned marketer Seth Godin further popularized the concept in his 2019 book, This is Marketing, and in a manifesto on his blog where he states, “Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.”

Real-world example of attention marketing

A recent example of successful attention marketing is Gap’s viral 2025 “Better in Denim” campaign, which broke the brand’s engagement records with more than 400 million views and eight billion impressions. By featuring the popular girl group KATSEYE and celebrating diversity and individuality, the campaign resonated with Gen Z audiences.

The use of Kelis’s 2003 hit “Milkshake” tapped into nostalgia as an emotional marketing lever. Campaign timing was also strategic; launching amid controversy surrounding competitor American Eagle’s ad amplified earned media and social conversation, turning cultural timing into competitive advantage.

Types of attention

1. Sustained attention
2. Selective attention
3. Divided attention

There are different types of attention, rooted in psychology, that you can aim to harness when developing an attention marketing campaign. They include:

Sustained attention

This refers to your audience member’s ability to maintain focus on your marketing campaign or message over time, without being pulled away by distractions. To earn sustained attention, deliver clear and lasting value to the user through consistent brand storytelling, serialized campaigns, or other distinct touches that make audiences want to come back.

Selective attention

A cognitive process is when an audience member focuses on the message or image that resonates most while ignoring other competing inputs. Audiences have finite attention spans and may only latch onto the most relevant or noticeable aspect of a campaign. Sharp positioning with a stand-out point of view or differentiator can help you harness selective attention so audiences don’t tune out.

Divided attention

This is when an audience member can direct their awareness toward multiple different stimuli or tasks simultaneously. For example, when they acknowledge multiple elements of a campaign or piece of marketing creative, like audio and visuals, at the same time. Create marketing campaigns that engage audiences on multiple sensory levels, but stay consistent and on-message when playing with dynamic formats.

Strategies for attracting an audience’s attention

• Dig deep into behavioral data
• Engage in emotional marketing
• Ensure messaging is clear and compelling
• Ground your content strategy in social-first principles
• Thoughtfully weave in user-generated content
• Use influencer marketing to amplify your message
• Create experiential moments that stand out

Here are some of the best strategies for developing campaigns that attract attention and engagement from target audiences. There is no one-size-fits-all approach; some of these may be more relevant or useful than others depending on your brand, industry, stage of growth, and objectives:

Dig deep into behavioral data

To attract your audience’s attention and spark a true connection, deliver marketing campaigns that feel personally tailored. Start by digging into behavioral data to make sure you understand your potential customers’ needs. Conduct market research to identify motivators, host user interviews or focus groups, ask open-ended questions with survey apps, leverage social listening tools to gauge real-time sentiment, and define customer segments.

For example, if you’re launching a protein bar, research might reveal two distinct motivators: convenience-seekers wanting quick fuel for busy travel days and conscious consumers looking for clean ingredients and sustainability. By segmenting around these insights, you could create one campaign around on-the-go energy and another highlighting ethical sourcing.

There are an increasing number of tools and platforms that make it easier to use behavioral data to deliver hyper-personalized messages across channels. Platforms like Optimizely let you experiment and A/B test with behavioral targeting and content personalization. Nosto, an ecommerce-focused platform, provides personalized recommendations, merchandising, and segmentation with Shopify Plus integration.

That said, data personalization comes with responsibility. According to research from Attest, 84% of working-age consumers worry about the volume of personal data companies have access to. A breach can shatter trust permanently. Adhere to privacy best practices and stay transparent with customers about how you use their data to enhance their experience.

Engage in emotional marketing

According to Gallup, 70% of consumer purchase decisions, including brand preferences, are emotion-driven, and rational factors account for only 30% of decisions. To take your data insights even deeper and create campaigns that drive loyalty, use emotional marketing to elicit your audience’s emotions and desires on a subconscious level. Emotional marketing means developing campaigns and materials that tap into key emotions—such as fear of missing out (FOMO), nostalgia, and well-being—to drive purchasing decisions, grow brand love, and boost sales.

Ensure messaging is clear and compelling

If the way you’re communicating your product offering is even slightly vague or confusing, you’ve likely already lost your audience. Build a brand messaging framework to develop copy that delivers your key values and differentiators clearly, compellingly, and relatably, with a voice crafted specifically for your audience.

Eco-clothing company Girlfriend Collective maintains a consistent, ownable brand voice that not only reflects its commitment to sustainability, but does so in a way that’s fun, casual, and colloquial. Far from taking a scientific or condescending approach to its ethos, Girlfriend Collective’s brand tone and copy genuinely sound like the voice of a close friend.

Ground your content strategy in social-first principles

For the best chance of reaching your target audience and earning their attention, meet them on the platforms and channels they already use. Consult analytics tools such as Brandwatch, Sprout Social, or Google Analytics to dive into audience insights, behavioral data, and engagement metrics across channels to determine which to prioritize. This might include a mix of popular consumer-facing channels like Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, or Substack.

Then, tailor your content campaigns and creative specifically for each channel to play to each channel’s strengths and user habits so that your messages stand out. For example, a short-form video for Instagram and TikTok or an AMA on Reddit.

Thoughtfully weave in user-generated content

User-generated content is also a powerful attention marketing device. Campaigns that encourage your audiences to re-share, interact, and participate—or even add their own voice or personal flavor—can help grow conversation about your company and foster brand love and engagement.

For Ryan Babenzien, founder of viral filtered showerhead Jolie, prioritizing user-generated content and collaborations over paid ads was extremely effective in generating brand awareness through word-of-mouth marketing. By showcasing influencers sharing real shower experiences in their own words, Jolie sparked UGC virality. “When most people think about user-generated content, they’re probably thinking 10 or 20 pieces a month,” Ryan says. “We’re getting 600 to 700 pieces a month.”

Use influencer marketing to amplify your message

Partner with influencers that align with your vision and are poised to help amplify it. Not only can influencer marketing help you tap into promising new audiences, it can boost credibility.

When a brand praises its own product, it can often sound hollow or self-serving. It’s far more compelling—and trustworthy—when a trusted voice, influencer, or third party shares what they love about it in their own words. According to a study by Edelman, 63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products over a brand’s own messaging.

It’s essential, however, to focus on influencer marketing partnerships that are mutually beneficial, with clear alignment and relevance. Audiences may be suspicious of a campaign that rings false or arbitrary (celebrity partnerships are notorious for this). Rather than focusing on creator partners or macro influencers with mega followings, prioritize engagement over impressions; micro influencers and trusted voices who genuinely care about your business can make a bigger splash.

Tools like Shopify Collabs can help your team identify influencer partners well-suited to complement your offering or industry.

Create experiential moments that stand out

Unlike digital campaigns or ad formats that can easily be scrolled past, building live, tangible, interactive experiences—and inviting consumers, brand fans, and prospective customers to actively participate—can be an effective way to break through the noise and attract attention.

For Kat Kavner of Heyday Canning, taking a risk to stand out and grab attention by hosting a Bean Swap pop-up experience not only paid off, it went viral. Banking on the idea that doing something unexpected would attract notice—along with the lack of existing experiential activations created by other canned food brands—they put their money (as in, almost all of their quarterly marketing budget) toward the experience.

“We wanted to focus our money on one thing that had potential to cut through the noise and grow brand awareness,” Kat shares on an episode of Shopify Masters. And it worked. The brand’s TikTok videos related to the event garnered more than 230,000 views.