Attention Deficit? Not if Marketers Can Help It: 62% of Marketers Say That Standing Out Keeps Them Up at Night

New Report from Channel V Media, “Tapping Into the Attention Economy,” Reveals That a Company’s Ability to Get Attention Has Taken a Back Seat to Even Producing a Good Product

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Channel V Media, a public relations and communications agency that builds market momentum for fast-growing companies, has released its new report, Tapping Into the Attention Economy: The State of PR & Marketing in a World Where Attention is Now Currency. The report reveals a surprising challenge for marketing leaders: getting noticed. What used to be a relatively straightforward box to check through good advertising and PR is now a place where marketers are getting stalled. In fact, marketers report that creating attention (62%) and differentiating from competitors (60%) have become even bigger pain points than generating leads (52%) and driving user adoption (34%).

There are three major factors contributing to these challenges: 1) the sheer volume of competing products on the market, 2) the growing number of media channels available to market them, and 3) the vast amount of content vying for audiences’ attention. For every new product or service launched, there are often several others that look and/or sound the same to passive audiences. This puts marketers in a situation where simply introducing their products to audiences is not enough–they must simultaneously differentiate them based on nuances that are often difficult for consumers to digest, especially through content formats that are shorter than ever.

Channel V Media’s new report, conducted in partnership with third-party research firm Dynata, reveals how the attention economy is shaping marketers’ strategies and budgets. It examines the different approaches marketers take depending on their industry, whether they're reaching business or consumer audiences, and whether they're optimizing for an on-the-spot purchase or a long sales cycle.

“There is a reason we’re seeing a buying spree of traditional media and social media outlets right now: If you have people’s attention, you can influence them,” said Gretel Going, President of Channel V Media. “Marketers fundamentally understand this logic. The first step in influencing audiences is getting their attention. The second–and increasingly more challenging–one is saying something different once you do.”

Companies don’t just want to be known–they want to be seen as different.

In a sea of offerings that look and sound the same, communicating how a product is different from competitors has become one of marketers’ biggest pain points. This is especially true for those in service industries where customers often don’t experience the service they’re purchasing until they’ve bought it.

• Companies with "invisible" products (like software and services) spend more to get attention. In sectors like manufacturing and professional services (i.e. financial services, advertising and marketing), where differentiation is toughest, companies are investing heavily in marketing to get noticed. Thirty-five percent (35%) of manufacturing companies and 32% of professional services report annual marketing budgets of $4M or more. By comparison, just about half as many consumer goods companies (19%) invest the same.

Visibility drives viability–not just awareness.

Public Relations has always existed to generate media coverage, but marketers are now more conscious than ever that visibility in media outlets creates more than initial awareness. It generates sales and leads, informs AI engines, influences stock prices and beyond.

• Media coverage directly influences revenue in 4 distinct ways. When asked the different ways that PR directly affects their business, the top answer from marketers was that it generates direct sales (62%). Fifty-three percent (53%) said that PR generates leads, 48% says it helps attract investors and 39% said it influences their stock price.
• Marketers use PR to break into new markets and industries. More than half of marketers say PR increases brand awareness among new industries (54%) and in new geographic markets (51%).

AI disproportionately relies on earned media to create brands’ narratives.

As AI-powered platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude increasingly shape how people discover and research brands, marketers are eager to influence them.

• Media coverage heavily influences the story AI tells about companies and products. Fifty-two percent (52%) of marketers say PR influences how they are presented by AI engines.
• The AI engines agree. When asking the AI engines themselves, traditional media sources are noted as the single largest contributor (43%) to how companies are positioned. AI-generated responses are also shaped by company-owned media (22%), user-generated or community content (13%), industry reports and analyst data (10%) and open knowledge databases (6%).

Companies can’t be everywhere their audiences are—but they’re trying

Companies are not only investing more heavily in marketing to capture attention, they’re also expanding their presence across more channels to reach audiences wherever they are.

• Marketers rely on an average of seven marketing channels to get audiences’ attention. With target audiences active across multiple channels, companies must meet them wherever they are. Asked to share the channels in their marketing mixes, marketers chose an average of seven of the top 11 channels, the most common of which were: social media (89%), digital advertising (81%), public relations (76%), email (72%), traditional ads (63%), events (60%) and influencer marketing (59%).
• Getting attention requires the right combination of owned, earned and paid media channels. When limited to just three channels, marketers naturally chose a trifecta of paid, owned and earned: social media (89%), digital advertising (81%) and public relations (76%), respectively.

B2C brands want consumers to purchase quickly. B2B companies have longer sales cycles. The marketing channels they choose reflect this.

• Consumer brands that want to reach large audiences and influence fast purchases rely heavily on traditional advertising (68%) and influencer marketing (64%).
• B2B marketers work in longer and more complex sales cycles, so they need to focus on sustained engagement. Events (67%) and SEO (57%) help them connect directly with decision-makers and maintain visibility throughout the buying process.

Marketers are spending more than ever to get attention

Marketers recognize that attention is a scarce resource—and they’re allocating more budget to ensure they get it.

• Three in five companies report spending more than $2 million annually on marketing, with 21% saying their budgets exceed $3 million each year. That investment is expected to continue growing as 78% of marketers say they plan to increase their marketing budgets over the next 12 months.
• They invest the most in their priority channels. Among the channels they invest in the most are digital advertising (17.5%), social media (17%) and public relations (16%).

Tapping Into the Attention Economy is based on responses from 250 full-time U.S. marketing executives.

More insights into how marketers are navigating the attention economy, allocating their budgets and prioritizing channels can be found in the full report here.

About Channel V Media

Founded in 2008, Channel V Media (CVM) is a communications strategy and PR firm that specializes in building market momentum for companies ranging from Fortune 500 industry leaders to emerging venture‑backed innovators. CVM builds awareness for companies and their products, develops C-suite leaders into industry visionaries, positions clients to be among the most vocal in high-value conversations and drives inbound leads. Current and past clients include Opera, Penn Mutual, GFT, SBS, Meteomatics, Sherweb, First Insight and one of the world’s largest ecommerce marketplaces.