When Attention Is Bought
Why constant visibility weakens brands.
Welcome to Issue No. 035 of Sojourn. An independent publication delivering strategic interpretation for leaders shaping the future of travel and hospitality.
A brand I’d been hearing about for months kept showing up in my feed, my inbox, my targeted ads. By the time I finally clicked, I noticed something strange: I knew the name perfectly. I couldn’t tell you a single thing it actually stood for. The visibility had outpaced the identity. Once I saw that, I couldn’t stop seeing it everywhere.
Interpretation: Hospitality has gotten very good at buying attention. Performance marketing budgets have grown. Targeting is sharper. Retargeting & repurposing are everywhere. Brands now appear in front of the right people more times than they ever could in the pre-digital era. And still, something is slipping. The brands buying the most attention are not always the ones being remembered. In many cases, they’re the ones being forgotten the loudest.
A brand that has to keep reminding people it exists hasn’t built recognition. It has built a ‘subscription to visibility’.