Attention Is the Asset: Gary Vaynerchuk at SXSW 2024

In this keynote, Vaynerchuk advances his most distilled form of the attention-as-asset thesis: that every marketing metric except attention is a proxy, and that the entire industry continues to optimize for proxies because attention is difficult to standardize and even harder to charge for.

He argues that underpriced attention windows on emerging platforms represent the most reliable path to compounding brand equity — and that most Fortune 500 CMOs are operating on 2010 mental models in a 2024 attention economy. This fundamental shift alters how practitioners must allocate resources in the coming quarter.

As the platform dynamics continue to evolve, understanding this core mechanic is no longer optional but required for sustainable growth and audience retention. The market is increasingly unforgiving to brands that ignore these underlying structural changes. We are witnessing a realignment of incentives where depth of engagement routinely outperforms shallow breadth.

It requires a complete rethink of the standard playbook.

AI-generated content is flooding every digital channel simultaneously, which increases noise and compresses the window where authentic brand attention still commands premium CPMs. Brands that understand attention as a primary asset — and not a derivative of reach metrics — will be structurally protected against the next algorithmic disruption.

This fundamental shift alters how practitioners must allocate resources in the coming quarter. As the platform dynamics continue to evolve, understanding this core mechanic is no longer optional but required for sustainable growth and audience retention. The market is increasingly unforgiving to brands that ignore these underlying structural changes.

We are witnessing a realignment of incentives where depth of engagement routinely outperforms shallow breadth. It requires a complete rethink of the standard playbook.