by Sabrina Ortega Marengo – CEO & Client Service Director at NSB Agency

The advertising industry has spent years obsessed with "grabbing the user's attention," but in a context of media multiplication and users with chronic attention deficit, it's getting harder and harder to build brand strategies that deliver high-impact branding and performance results.

A few days ago, we were invited by META (the holding company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and several others) to a presentation on the trends and latest findings on what works in digital communication.

In the report "Meta, Demystifying Attention", the world's leading digital advertising company offers evidence that fits surprisingly well with what Byron Sharp argues in How Brands Grow: what drives growth isn't the intensity of attention, but reach, light frequency and the mental memory built through simple, distinctive repetition.

(If you want a quick summary of Byron Sharp's book, here's a link).

What Meta proves about attention

1. Not all seconds are equal: the myth of "the longer, the better"

Meta contrasts three types of advertising environments:

  • Feed: videos or images that appear in the vertical scroll.
  • Short Form: short, full-screen formats like Reels, Stories or Shorts.
  • InStream: advertising that plays before or during longer content. The classic pre-roll or mid-roll: the mandatory ad you see on YouTube, Hulu or inside longer videos.

InStream ads assume continuous attention because the format forces it. Even so, the data shows that short ads, watched for only a brief time, generate as much or more brand impact than a long ad the user "has to watch."

In other words: forced attention doesn't perform better, and the formats where the user can choose whether or not to keep watching (Feed and Short Form) are more efficient second by second.

2. The obsession with view time is a useless bias

Marketing mix models show that optimizing for "more view time" doesn't predict results. Its statistical weight is negligible compared with other factors:

  • Creative: 55%
  • Frequency: 31%
  • Reach: 24%
  • Optimization for view time: 1%

This resonates directly with How Brands Grow: the key to growth is reaching more light buyers, not maximizing the deep attention of a few. View time is overrated because it measures intensity, not breadth.

3. Accumulated attention matters more than continuous attention

Several short impacts, spread out over time, generate more conversions than a single long exposure.
The reason is simple: memory is built through repetition, not depth.

This point is almost a carbon copy of Sharp's theory: brands grow by increasing penetration, not loyalty.
Advertising works by keeping the brand mentally available through multiple brief touches.

Meta's view reinforces that premise from the standpoint of today's digital behavior.

4. Creative is the real multiplier (it determines 55% of a campaign's success, according to Meta)

Beyond format, the strongest driver of attention and effectiveness is creative quality.

Meta sums up four elements with notable impact:

  • Human cues and emotional connection.
  • Branding integrated from the start.
  • Movement, rhythm and visual dynamism.
  • Clear distinctive assets.

As we can see, there's a strong overlap with the conclusions of Byron Sharp and his book "How Brands Grow": brands need to be easy to recognize and remember, not just "be seen."

How to connect all of this with the "How Brands Grow" theory by Byron Sharp

There are three obvious parallels:

1. Reach rules

Sharp insists that brands grow by winning more light buyers, not by squeezing the heavy ones.

Meta shows that:
. Optimizing view time does little.
. Optimizing reach and light weekly frequency does predict sales and brand lift.

Both lines point to the same destination: reaching more people, more times, even if only for a few seconds.

2. Repetition builds memory

Meta's concept of "attention aggregation" is basically: distributed repetition > long exposure.
This matches the idea of building mental availability through frequent, brief and consistent contacts.

3. Distinctive creative is a strategic asset

Sharp calls them "distinctive brand assets"; Meta calls them "creative levers."
But the logic is identical: to grow, a brand has to be recognizable in half a second.
And yes: that's exactly what happens in a scroll (horizontal or vertical … you've got just a split second!).

Important: music/audio is always key, because Reels or Stories without music perform far worse!

Practical recommendations based on both approaches

1. Stop paying for "view time"
According to Meta, it doesn't correlate strongly with sales, with brand lift, or with memory building.

2. Invest in a variety of short formats and broad reach
It's not about making a single "premium" video: it's about showing up more, in a light and natural way.

Note: In its digital media recommendations, META suggests 20 different formats, and a minimum of 7 to 9 per campaign on social media, all optimized by its artificial intelligence engines (this will be material for another article).

3. Plan a stable weekly frequency (2 to 3 impacts)
Target Frequency is a solution that lets you distribute exposure and avoid the campaign concentrating on a few users.

4. Prioritize adaptable, distinctive creative

  • Early branding (at NSB we call it "brand salience")
  • Strong visual rhythm (this is the impact of creative!)
  • Real people (humanizing the message is key!)
  • Recognizable assets (strong link to the brand)

5. Amplify with creators (if it makes sense)
The data shows consistent improvements in attention and playthrough.

In short, Meta's message isn't just technical: it's a reminder that digital marketing doesn't need more obsession with complex metrics; it needs to get back to basics:

  • Reach more people.
  • Repeat consistently.
  • Be easy to recognize.
  • Don't demand that the user "pay attention"; just be there when they need you.

In a world of endless scrolling, both Meta and Byron Sharp's "How Brands Grow" converge on the same truth: attention isn't something you capture, it's something you accumulate … which is why creative and the advertising budget matter, and a lot. No matter how many claim otherwise, doing marketing without a solid brand strategy, without creative and without budget is impossible.