The Connection Economy: Why Memory Matters More Than Attention

By Erica Kelly, Vice President Client Strategy, Evolve

We got really good at getting noticed

Open any marketing deck right now and someone, somewhere, is about to say the word “attention.”  We can thank psychologist and economist Herbert A. Simon, who argued back in 1971 that attention, not information, was the scarce resource. Fifty-some years later, that theory couldn’t be more relevant. Brands jump on never-ending social trends and elbow their way into major sporting events for a three-second window of eyeballs, hoping proximity to the moment counts as belonging to it.

But with all of the attention we’re paying for, how long does it truly last? Can you name three brands around the U.S. Open that actually took a swing at your attention? What did they have to say?

The brands that actually stay with us have figured out something most haven’t caught up to yet: there’s a difference between grabbing a scroll-stopping second and earning a spot in someone’s memory. Knowing when to jump into a cultural moment matters. Knowing when not to matters more. I call this the Connection Economy, and I think it’s about to outlast whatever’s trending this week.

Attention isn’t the same as meaning

The Attention Economy will tell you that attention is the most valuable thing a brand can win, but I’m pushing back on that. Attention gets you noticed. Connection gives someone a reason to remember you.. In a world where any brand can now produce infinite content at the push of a button, that distinction is everything.

In a recent survey of more than 300 marketers, events, field marketing and OOH were the most likely channels to overperform, cited by 53.4% of respondents. (AirOps, Marketing Leaders Reality Index 2026)

It’s no coincidence that these channels are steeped in connection. They put brands into context in ways that feel relevant to people moving through their daily routines.

They capture attention, sure, but they can also create a sense of belonging. Think of bus shelters along tech commutes in San Francisco recruiting talent, large-format bulletins in SoHo introducing a retail brand, or a sunscreen activation outside a music festival.

Even the tech world is quietly waking up to the value of context. Midjourney recently acquired Co–Star, the AI horoscope app built around interpreting the circumstances of someone’s life. Context is becoming its own currency, and no channel understands context quite like out-of-home.

Context is the thing you can’t automate

AI can generate an endless number of messages, but it can’t manufacture the circumstances when someone might encounter them. Where I am, what I’m doing, who I’m with, what I’m already thinking about and what’s happening around me all change what a message means. Context is what turns exposure into relevance.

Meanwhile, our screen time is at an all-time high and the price tag to capture attention through digital is rising along with it. That makes chasing those fleeting moments of attention a losing game.

Build memory like infrastructure

So if attention is the wrong obsession, what’s the right one? Treating media strategy like infrastructure: memory structures embedded in the audience’s lives, online and off, through a system of connected moments that compounds over time instead of starting from zero.

Good infrastructure is already there. You take the same road to work and pass the same corner coffee shop until they become part of your mental map. Brand memory can work the same way. “The billboard I pass on the 101” is a stronger anchor than another ad between two pieces of content because repetition and place gave it somewhere real to live.

A billboard on the commute, a podcast at the gym and a CTV spot later that night do not each need to do all the work. Over time, they collectively build familiarity and relevance that a single flash of attention rarely can. OOH builds that familiarity in the places an audience already moves through, podcasts add storytelling through a trusted voice, social keeps the brand responsive, and experiential turns something people see into something they feel.

Like good infrastructure, the media system has to follow the audience’s life. Where can a brand become familiar before anyone even needs it? Where can it show up when the category starts crossing someone’s mind? Where can it create a moment strong enough to actually stay?

A media plan centers on the product. Memory infrastructure centers on the end user. It is built deliberately and connected across moments, laying the groundwork beneath those inevitable spikes of attention.

We’ve been too focused on asking whether someone saw us, clicked or stopped scrolling long enough to register the message. The more interesting question is what those moments add up to over time. When someone eventually needs what we sell, have we built enough memory, familiarity and connection to mean something to them?

If we’re spending nearly a trillion dollars a year trying to get people’s attention, we should care a hell of a lot more about what’s left once we have it.

Author Bio:

Erica Kelly is a brand strategist and VP of Client Strategy at Evolve OOH. She explores how brands build memory, meaning, and momentum and is author of the Substack Touch Grass.