From Chaos to Clarity: How Interestingness Wins the Attention War

In today’s chaotic media landscape, attention is the most contested currency. Steve Bannon famously said that Donald Trump’s strategy is to "flood the zone with shit," dominating the war for attention by sheer volume. This approach mirrors Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice to advertisers: "Make a bunch of stuff and put it out in the world." The goal? Stay top of mind at all costs.

But while these strategies might generate short-term visibility, they are highly inefficient—and ultimately unsustainable. For marketers, flooding the zone with content is exhausting for both producers and audiences. Everyone, including advertisers themselves, has ad blockers, whether literal or mental, to filter out the deluge of noise.

The problem lies in a fundamental misunderstanding: attention and memory are not the same thing. Something Jeffre Jackson and me discuss a lot. Yes, attention aids memory, but they are distinct goals. And one is ultimately more valuable to marketers. Trump’s strategy, for instance, relies on capturing attention without creating lasting impressions. He thrives on erasing memory—counting on the public to forget his previous statements to avoid accountability. For brands, however, this approach is counterproductive.

Brands must build memory, not just attention. Memory drives future sales. Without it, even the most attention-grabbing campaign is little more than spectacle - easy to forget, or worse. Recent marketing missteps from Jaguar and Audi illustrate the consequences of focusing on attention without creating meaningful connections to memory.

The Jaguar Misfire: Attention At The Cost of Resonance

Jaguar’s recent brand reset aimed to “copy nothing,” a phrase attributed to the company’s founder. The campaign’s futuristic aesthetic and bold repositioning certainly grabbed attention—but it left car enthusiasts furious. Why? Because it failed to build on the brand’s existing memories.

The iconic leaping cat logo, a symbol of grace, elegance, and power, was discarded in favor of a stylized, futuristic look. While the campaign sought to position Jaguar as forward-thinking, it neglected to connect the brand’s legacy to its future. Fans of Jaguar saw this as an erasure of history rather than an evolution.

The result? A missed opportunity to deepen the emotional connection with loyalists while alienating the very people who carry the brand’s memory. Attention was achieved, but at the cost of resonance.

Audi’s Ski Video: Fun to Watch, Easy to Forget

Audi took a different approach, releasing a visually stunning four-minute ski video featuring Candide Thovex. The ad demonstrates his incredible skills in navigating extreme terrains, ending with the tagline, “All conditions are perfect conditions,” accompanied by Audi’s logo.

While the video is entertaining, it fails to tie the excitement back to the brand. Audi’s cars don’t even appear until the logo flashes at the end, making it more memorable as a showcase for Candide than for Audi. If the goal was to demonstrate the brand’s capabilities in “all conditions,” why not feature the car doing exactly that?

This campaign, like Jaguar’s, grabbed attention but failed to generate the kind of memory that drives future consideration.

How Interestingness Outlasts Attention

What these examples highlight is a broader problem in marketing: the obsession with attention as an end goal. Winning the “war for attention” might make a brand visible today, but it’s memory—the accumulation of interesting, emotional, and meaningful impressions—that ensures relevance tomorrow.

Interestingness is the antidote to chaos. Unlike attention, which is fleeting and overwhelming, interestingness creates lasting mental impressions. It connects with people through cognitive depth and brand integration, tying every creative effort back to the brands core identity.

Prioritize Memory Over Attention

As media continues to fragment, flooding the zone with content will only become less effective. People have more tools—and more motivation—than ever to tune out the noise. Brands that focus on interestingness, however, can cut through the clutter by being memorable, not just visible.

There should be somebody in the room asking: Are we creating something that people will remember tomorrow, next week, or next year? Or are we just chasing attention for attention’s sake?

Interestingness is how brands thrive in a chaotic media world—not by overwhelming, but by resonating.