PETALING JAYA: Consumer attention capital is now a strategic marketing asset, and companies that underestimate its value risk long-term erosion.
“Attention has become part of corporate competitiveness in South-East Asia, and not just a branding metric,” Shermaine Wong, founder and chief executive officer of creator marketing platform Cult Creative Sdn Bhd, told StarBiz.
“It’s no longer about winning consumers, but staying competitive against regional and global brands that are structurally better at commanding trust and visibility.”
Wong highlighted that attention has turned into corporate currency and a strategic imperative. When attention is carefully maintained, brands are better able to enter new categories, launch new products and expand into new markets with improved credibility.
However, she also underscored that consumer attention capital is scarce in capacity. For a brand’s survival in today’s hyper-digital community, they will need to recognise attention as a strategic risk, and invest in the audience’s trust and cultural presence, she noted.
Companies that command attention can grow, expand and attract top talent, while those that lose it risk invisibility, margin erosion and slower market momentum.
“What makes this particularly dangerous is the timeline. These effects don’t appear in a single quarter, but it compounds quietly,” Wong explained.
She cited content fatigue as a current phenomenon across social media, particularly as AI has made content highly accessible and easy to produce at volume.
“Malaysian consumers, particularly in urban and digitally fluent segments, now make relevant decisions in seconds, often subconsciously.
“If the brand doesn’t signal utility immediately, it is mentally filtered out without backlash or memory, and that shift alone is a marketing challenge,” she explained.
When approaching their content strategy, Wong encouraged brands to ask questions such as “What’s the intentionality behind it?” and “Does it add value?”
She said this goes back to the concept of content fatigue, noting that people have become overstimulated with a constant bombardment of digital content.
“For instance, Instagram recommends posting three stories a day, which already builds up fatigue. This leads audiences to question relevance and impact,” she added.
In contrast, she points to Apple Inc’s precision-driven branding work as an example. “Apple is very clear in its conviction about what it is trying to sell. By doing so, the brand becomes more premium, prompting audiences to think, ‘I need to have it’,” she said.
According to Wong, the potential impact of attention loss now extends well beyond marketing, making it a board-level concern.
“If it is ignored at leadership levels, brands start to become reactive, depending on incentives and promotions to move the market. In truth, that is a structurally more expensive way to grow,” she said.
Wong said this eventually reaches investor and stakeholder levels, when attention loss shows up in operating metrics.
“Customer acquisition costs rise, organic growth slows and lifetime value becomes harder to defend,” she explained.
In fundraising, discussions of mergers and acquisitions, or regional expansion, costs can influence stricter valuations and closer scrutiny of leadership’s market relevance. “By the time a company recognises relevance as a strategic risk, competitors who have invested in trust and cultural presence are often years ahead,” she added.
Nevertheless, Wong offered insight into improving companies’ utilisation of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled content and social media tools.
She emphasised that marketing departments need to upskill their utilisation of AI more effectively, as opposed to relying on raw AI produced formats as end-products.
These efforts, she said, can empower employees to advance deeper, human-led narratives within their branding. “The real risk isn’t poor content. It’s organisational design that prioritises speed over thinking,” she stressed.
“Companies that succeed with AI are restructuring so that machines handle mechanics while humans own meaning.”
