The Attention War: Acronym Persuasion Labs
This month, I had the opportunity to attend Winning the Attention War, the first event in the Persuasion Labs event series by Acronym, the largest global independent Search and Performance Marketing Agency with offices in NYC, Toronto, Singapore, and Berlin. I go way back with the team from when I worked at Denihan Hospitality as the Director of Marketing for The Benjamin Hotel & Fifty NYC. Two of my favorite colleagues, Norma Berry and Tim Devlin, joined the ranks at Acronym to be instrumental in their travel vertical. The travel industry is such a small world!
‘Winning the Attention War’
Speakers from The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Coffee Labs and Product. Inc.
The day was packed with presenters from publisher heavyweights like The New York Times, Washington Post, and Bloomberg. Speakers from creative agencies Coffee Labs, Product, Inc., and Got Spice Podcast founders Kirti Naik and Greg Yates kept our attention all Friday.
Do you ever feel like you’re about to short-circuit from brain overload? Well, you’re not alone.
With attention spans that were once 12 seconds are now 8 seconds (same as a goldfish 🫣), coupled with the amount of content on platforms pushed out every 60 seconds, our brains don’t know where to focus.
Our host and keynote speaker Kelly Leach, Chief Client Strategy Officer at Acronym, kicked off the event. She shared, “In today’s noisy world, you’ve got seconds to make a lasting impact — and that first one? It’s everything. Our first Persuasion Lab, ‘Winning the Attention War: From Distraction to Action,’ didn’t just talk theory—we got real about how to grab attention and hold onto it. The series aims to bring together the sharpest minds in the business to dig deeper, disrupt the status quo, and keep pushing the boundaries of what marketing can do.”
How do we stand out? How do we make an impact in an instant? How do we stop the dreaded scroll?
A common thread the speakers shared was to show up in places where your target audience is. Focus on the quality of your content and audience. The Washington Post speaker pointed out that even if you have only one second, you’re in front of people interested in what you have to say, and attention spans are longer with educated readers.
Kelly spoke about the challenges of capturing people’s attention and how Acronym has tackled the issue. The team’s smart use of data, key media relationships, and creative approach have increased the value of their marketing efforts. However, it still takes some trial and error.
Insights from the discussion:
The Washington Post shared interesting data about the voracious political reader, who is more apt to engage with an ad in the right environment.
Key learning: Don’t shy away from the political cycle with advertising. That’s when The Washington Post sees a surge in readership.
The New York Times has been busy with its product development, which has seen a shift in readership through its juggernaut Games section and with the acquisition of The Athletic.
Key Takeaway: We are noticing changes and deviations from the single-feed media consumption model. Food remains a leader in reader consumption. The content is made for digestion!
Coffee Labs turns seemingly dull topics into activations and engaging solutions. The team has even found a way to read your mind by your facial expressions — look out those with RBF!
Key Takeaway: They have taken topics and turned them on their heads to stand out. I’m a nerd about stunts and activations, so the founder was great to listen to.
The team at Bloomberg started with the Bloomberg Terminal, an indispensable tool for the financial market, which gave them a strong foundation of trust when they became publishers.
Key Takeaway: Their high-network audience has made them flourish into a global media arm where people consume media 24/7 and truly trust their reporting. Many luxury products just can’t easily be advertised anywhere else.
At the end, we wrapped up with a panel discussion about AI and the nature of its takeover. They posed questions like: How do we apply it to keep up with our daily workload and become more effective? How do we make it work for us instead of putting us out of work? It was a thought-provoking group and a topic I’m paying more attention to in the public relations industry. As a publicist, our core value is in our human-centered relationships and working with trusted media sources, so the application of AI has to be very deliberate and smart.
After attending the first Persuasion Labs event, I can’t wait to see what Acronym dives into next! Never stop learning and networking is my final word of advice.
