Protecting Your Share of Attention: Standing Out in the Age of AI
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
As AI reshapes marketing and content becomes easier than ever to produce, attention is becoming harder to earn. With every brand chasing the next trend and every platform demanding a constant stream of content, the question facing marketers isn't how to create more. It's how to create something people will actually remember.
Those questions were explored in Protecting Your Share of Attention, a panel hosted by GAIN's Strategy Director Kirsten van Rooyen on the Media & Tech stage at MAD//Fest 2026. Joining her were Ryan Caird, Head of UK Scaled Growth, EMEA Agencies at TikTok, and Chris Beer, Senior Data Journalist at GWI, who shared their perspectives on what it takes to build memorable brands in an age of AI.
While the tools available to marketers are evolving at extraordinary speed, the principles behind strong brands have changed very little. That idea sat at the heart of the discussion.
Too often, brands get caught up chasing the next viral moment without thinking about what they'll be remembered for in the long term. As Ryan put it, "Viral moments come and go. But I think the distinctive brand is something that is yours all the time." A trend might generate attention for a few hours or even a few weeks, but on its own it does little to build lasting brand equity. The challenge isn't simply keeping up with what's popular. It's building something people remember long after the trend has passed.
That idea was reinforced by another of the panel's key themes. As Chris pointed out, one of the biggest frustrations with AI-generated creative is how quickly it all starts to look and sound the same. "We have found that the biggest frustration is exactly that generic output, that sense of sameness that emerges." When thousands of marketers are working from similar prompts and models, the result is often content that's technically competent but creatively indistinguishable. The challenge isn't producing more content. It's producing work that people instantly recognise as yours.
That idea was backed up by Ryan who referenced TikTok's creator effectiveness research, conducted with System1 and WPP. Analysing 12,000 paid ads across eight markets and responses from 180,000 people, the study looked at what actually drives effectiveness in creator marketing.
The findings challenged one of the industry's biggest assumptions. As Ryan summarised it, "Brand fit beats creator fame." Rather than relying on the biggest names, brands saw stronger results when creators genuinely aligned with their values, audience and style. Those partnerships delivered a 58% greater emotional connection than collaborations that felt bolted on.
The research also reinforced the importance of entertainment. Emotion plays a significant role in building brand memory, yet around half of creator campaigns fail to include a distinctive brand cue altogether. If audiences remember the creator but not the brand, the campaign has missed an important opportunity.
The conversation also returned to the value of consistency. Ryan spoke about finding creators with a recognisable "signature system" and investing in relationships over time instead of one-off collaborations. Familiarity compounds. The same principle applies to brands themselves. Distinctive assets such as tone of voice, sound and visual identity become more valuable the more consistently they're used, especially when brands embrace the native behaviours of platforms like TikTok instead of trying to recreate traditional advertising.
Chris brought the conversation back to the audience, sharing what GWI's research has consistently shown over the past seven years. Despite enormous changes in technology, media consumption and consumer behaviour, the qualities people value most in brands have remained remarkably stable. Reliability, honesty and transparency continue to rank highest, even through periods of disruption such as the pandemic and the rise of generative AI. While marketers often feel they're navigating constant change, consumer expectations have proved surprisingly consistent.
That naturally led to the discussion around authenticity and AI. Rather than seeing them as opposing forces, the panel agreed that AI is best understood as an accelerant. As Ryan said, "There's no replacement for human ideation and genuine creativity." It can help great ideas travel further, faster and across more channels, but it can't replace the human insight needed to create those ideas in the first place.
Ryan also challenged the way authenticity is often defined. Authentic brands aren't necessarily the most polished or the most raw. They're the ones that remain true to their own identity. Disney is a good example. Its worlds may be fictional, but the brand feels authentic because every experience consistently reflects the same values, personality and creative vision. As Chris observed, "Everything is fake, everything is fantastical, but it's completely true to them."
As the session came to a close, one point felt impossible to ignore. AI will continue to transform the way marketers work, but it doesn't change what makes brands meaningful. The brands that earn attention over the long term won't be the ones reacting to every trend or producing the highest volume of content. They'll be the ones with a clear identity, distinctive assets and the discipline to show up consistently.
Protecting your share of attention has never been about saying more than everyone else. It's about giving people something worth remembering. AI may change the way brands create, but it doesn't change what makes them memorable. As the discussion made clear, distinctiveness, consistency and trust remain the foundations of brands that stand the test of time.