Share of Culture: How Brands Grow in the Attention Economy

The rules of marketing and brand building have fundamentally changed.

While traditional marketers compete for diminishing TV audiences, a new generation of brands have stopped trying to buy attention; instead, they earn it. They don't interrupt culture--they become part of it.

The most successful brands today aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. A multi-million-dollar ad campaign isn't worth what it once was, and progressive marketers know that and have adopted different strategies. The brands that dominate aren't just seen--they're discussed. This isn't just changing how brands communicate--it's transforming the very nature of how they're built and what plants them into the public consciousness.

Tesla built a billion-dollar business without a dollar of traditional advertising. Glossier transformed beauty by engaging communities rather than preaching to them. K-Pop band BTS generated billions of dollars in sales by using social media to build an army of fans.

What unites these successes is a shift from competing for share of market to competing for share of culture.

Share of Culture reveals the principles behind their success: How they connect with their audience and get them talking. Drawing on marketing science and real-world case studies, renowned brand strategist Paul Parton outlines a practical model for building brands in the new attention economy where a surplus of goods is mirrored by a deficit of attention, and where conversation is currency.