Book: Paid Attention

Tagline: Innovative Advertising for a Digital World

Author: Faris Yakob

Find Online: On Amazon

Date Read: The latest time was January 2018

Why did I choose to read this book?

I was so impressed by Faris' talk at HOW Design Live 2015 that I immediately bought his book after his presentation. I credit this book with sparking my interest in media theory and media philosophy. Years later I still refer back to it regularly.

Table of Contents

• Part One: Paid Attention
• Introduction: Paid Attention – How Much is it Worth?
  • Media = bandwidth
  • Communication is persuasion
  • Attention is like water
  • The rest of the book
• Ch 1: Logocentrism: What’s in a name?
  • Brands are socially constructed ideas
  • How much is that brand in the window?
  • Persistently irrational behavior
  • The dark side of brands
  • Brandagrams
• Part Two: Attention Deficit Disorders
• Ch 2: Uncovering Hidden Persuaders: Why All Market Research is Wrong
  • No rational messaging
  • Research as marketing
  • Customer service is marketing
  • What brand tastes like
  • Physical persuasion (nod your head)
• Ch 3: Advertising Works in Mysterious Ways: Modern Theories of Communication
  • The moment of truth
  • Lubricants of reason
  • The paradox of choice
  • Blindness blindness and meta-cognitive errors
  • Disrupted expectations
  • Mind the curiosity gap
  • Pandemic, or viral, is a thing that happens, not a thing that is
  • The attention market
  • The importance of being awesome
• Ch 4: Is All Advertising Spam? Communication Planning in An On-Demand World
  • An apologia for advertising
• Ch 5: The Spaces Between: The Vanishing Difference Between Content, Media and Advertising
  • Media making the world
  • Lions and language and geeks
  • The medium definitely isn’t the message, any more
  • The content republic
  • Cumulative advantage
  • Not content
• Part Three: Attention Arts and Sciences
• Ch 6: Do Things, Tell People: How to Behave in a World of Infinite Content
  • Technology is a medium
  • Actions at scale
  • Acts of happiness
  • Platforms and products
• Ch 7: Recombinant Culture: Talent Imitates, Genius Steals
  • Ideas are new combinations
  • Great artists steal
  • Same same but different
  • People will pay more for something people have paid attention to
  • Modern postmodernism
• Ch 8: Combination Tools: How to Have Ideas: a Genius Steals Process
  • Liminal spaces
  • Creative tenacity
  • The planning paradox
  • The mediation generation
  • Post-postmodern advertising
• Ch 9: Advertising for Advertising: Is the Industry Paying Attention?
  • Seven habits of highly effective communication
  • Awarding creativity
  • Trial by jury
  • Studying cases
• Ch 10: Integrative Strategy and Social Brands: Be Nice or Leave!
  • What do advertising agencies actually do?
  • What strategy is and is not
  • Planning for the future
  • The socialization of media
  • Be nice or leave
  • Emerging cultural practices
  • Social graces
  • Cultural latency
  • Ghostwriting for brands
  • Are you engaged?
  • Back to the future of planning advertising
• Ch 11: Prospection: Planning for the Future We Want
  • Ideas versus utterances
  • Low latency communication
  • Social TV
  • Reverse the polarity
  • Why?
  • Beyond the tweet
  • New principles of planning
  • A new planning toolkit
  • Marketing as social experiment
  • Where do you want to go?
• Epilogue: Talkin’ About Your Generation