✅ The attention economy
A week in management, media and public relations
I’ve been telling anyone enthusiastically who’ll listen over the past week about the book I’ve been reading. It describes a fundamental change in human behaviour that began with the Industrial Revolution and has accelerated with mass consumerism.
The book is about our ever-decreasing attention span as a species. Try as I might, I could never remember the title. Stolen Focus by Johann Hari is a book about all of us.
The descriptions of people visiting Graceland, Elvis’ home in Memphis, and the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Gallery in Paris and experiencing both through the lens of their mobile phones are funny but rooted in truth. We’re addicted to mobile devices and the internet.
Hari argues that lack of focus weakens our cognitive ability as individual human beings but critically erodes our collective ability as a society to recognise and rise to tackle big issues. It helps explain the inertia of the societal response to the climate crisis.
Stolen Focus is well-written and researched. Hari spent three years on the project, although he has been criticised for selectively picking research to support his arguments and for failing to recognise the weaknesses of some studies.
He discovers that the reasons for our diminished attention span are complex. There is no single contributory factor. Diet, lack of sleep, pollution and social issues, including abuse and stress, are among twelve contributing factors that he unearths.
Technology and the business model of social networks are cited as one of the biggest issues.
We learn from the self-imposed three months that Hari spent living without the internet that it is possible to rebuild attention and counter the powerful engineering and psychological forces that make social media addictive.
There’s a sense of exhaustion towards the end of the book. Hari stops short of simple answers because there aren’t any. This isn’t a self-help book. Instead, he shares a series of projects from around the world and encourages the reader to take steps to tackle attention for their benefit and society.
Stolen Focus is a challenging book that raises complex but important issues.
Social media and platforms
©️ BRAND PROTECTION: Meta is rolling out new brand protection tools, including an improved image-matching system to detect counterfeit product listings and an intellectual property reporting centre to track infringement issues. The updates provide more control for brands to protect their content on Facebook and Instagram from duplicate listings and other policy violations. Source: Meta.
🫥 ONLINE TRANSPARENCY: The UK government is introducing new laws banning unavoidable hidden fees in online shopping, saving consumers over £2 billion a year, outlawing fake reviews and requiring clearer pricing labels on supermarket shelves. The measures to be included in the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumer Bill aim to increase consumer transparency and fairness. Source: UK Government.
Industry
😐 HELLO BURSON: WPP is merging its two largest public relations agencies, BCW and Hill & Knowlton, into a $1 billion agency called Burson. The combination creates one of the world's largest agencies with more than 6,000 staff across 43 markets, although further leadership appointments and potential job losses resulting from the merger are still to be determined. Source: Provoke Media.
🔖 GOVERNANCE REVIEW: The CIPR has launched a governance consultation for members. Proposed governance changes aim to ensure it remains relevant, strong and sustainable, supporting members and adhering to its original purpose and Charter principles of promoting public relations in practice and within society. If you’re a CIPR member, please engage with the process over the next few weeks and share your views. Source: CIPR.
Data and analysis
⬆️ MARKETING INVESTMENT RISES: The latest IPA Bellwether Report is bullish for 2024, with UK marketing budgets revised up to the strongest levels in almost a decade as organisations invest in growth. Events (15.9%) and direct marketing (12.5%) are forecasted for strong growth. Investment in public relations is set to rise by a modest 1.9%, while advertising spend set to reduce by 0.7%. Source: IPA Bellwether.
🏢 OFFICE EVOLUTION: The Nowhere Office by Julia Hobsbawm explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes to the nature of work. Hobsbawm reports on the seismic shifts in how we work, the role of office spaces, innovations like four-day weeks, and what leaders and employees will require in this new environment. Source: Wadds Inc.
Influencers
🤳 ENTITLED INFLUENCERS: Reshmi Bennett, founder of luxury cake company Anges de Sucre, said that the constant requests from entitled influencers wanting free products in exchange for "exposure" led her to start saying no and anonymously posting the worst offenders to showcase the issue. She urges business owners to reward customers rather than work with influencers. Source: The Times.
Artificial intelligence
📒 AI FRAMEWORK: The Central Digital and Data Office published a useful framework last week outlining management issues related to the application of generative AI in government. It focuses on applications within government but is relevant to any organisation and broadly applies to public relations. It sets out applications of generative AI, safety and responsibility, security and governance. Source: UK Government.
🧑⚖️ FTC AI REVIEW: The FTC has launched an inquiry into the multibillion-dollar investments by Amazon, Google and Microsoft into artificial intelligence start-ups Anthropic and OpenAI. It plans to investigate the influence of the three tech giants to determine if the deals undermine competition and innovation. It marks increased scrutiny over partnerships between big tech and AI start-ups that have so far avoided regulatory review. Source: The New York Times.
I’m speaking at the Digital Comms Engagement Conference in London on Tuesday. NewsWhip CEO Paul Quigley and I will talk about the growing contribution of corporate communications and public relations to management and its value in contributing an external perspective to decision-making.
This perspective is based on a research project that Wadds Inc. undertook for NewsWhip that will be published in the coming weeks. Ultimately it shifts public relations from an operational function and business cost to a value creator.
Thank you to the following members of the House of Marketing & PR community of practice for sharing and debating stories covered in the newsletter over the past week: Andy Green, Julian Christopher, Josephine Graham, Alan Morrison, Andrew Bruce Smith, Sarah Waddington CBE and Rita Zonius.