Attention.
Attention measurement is a category that has to be created — not just sold.
- Treated like viewability 2.0 — but you're not.
- Coastal competitors are better-funded.
- Stuck at agency evaluation, not brand default.
Qualify yourself in 10 seconds.
- Best for
- Attention measurement vendors, attentive-AI / cognitive measurement startups, and CTV / video-attention platforms moving from agency evaluation to brand-default category position.
- Typical trigger
- Brand teams treat us like viewability 2.0 — we're more than that.
- Engagement shape
- Advisory Retainer (+ optional fractional)
- Core output
- US market entry for an attention measurement category leader
- Time horizon
- 6 to 18 months (architecture → scale)
- Best mapped to
- Advisory Retainer with optional fractional / interim commercial leadership during the US build phase. Scoped from a Market Entry Audit.
If any of these sound like your meeting last week.
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“Brand teams treat us like viewability 2.0 — we're more than that.”
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“Better-funded competitors are on both coasts — we need to compete fast.”
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“Adoption is stalling at agency evaluation — the buyer narrative isn't landing.”
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“We need to design our founding US commercial team — and we don't know who the first hire should be.”
- You're Pre-Series A / Pre-PMF — no enterprise traction or buyer urgency.
- You want a media-mix line item without sharpening the buyer narrative.
- You need a vendor-comparison spreadsheet, not a designed go-to-market motion.
- You're not willing to narrow ICP or kill segments that look promising but don't close.
- There is no internal owner to carry the work after the engagement ends.
Three operator anchors.
Attention measurement is a category that has to be created — not just sold. I've shaped the attention narrative as an author (EARO framework, “Relevance Realization”), a standards contributor (AdCP founding member, co-lead of its Signals & Measurement WG), and an operator. When attention companies need to move from "evaluated by agencies" to "defaulted by brand committees," that's the work — built across three lanes: category narrative, standards & trust posture, and US commercial team architecture.
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Author of the attention thesis
EARO framework (Exposure → Attention → Relevance → Outcome) translates attention from a metric into a structured buyer-facing framework. Published essays — “Relevance Realization”, “Attention Isn't Enough” — read by category buyers.
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AdCP founding member · Signals & Measurement WG co-lead
Positions attention vendors inside emerging standards — not chasing them. Industry-authority posture (191+ published bylines, DMEXCO columnist, Forbes Tech Council) compounds credibility with brand and agency buyers.
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Commercial architect for category creation
Designs founding US commercial team architecture — role design, hiring profile, comp model, and revenue-model framing (baseline measurement + AYCE programmatic expansion). Available as advisory or fractional / interim during the build phase.
Representative engagement pattern from an attention measurement category leader — founding US commercial architecture (advisory archetype). Client names, decision-makers, and revenue targets are masked; operating logic and public career anchors are retained.
- Paid Attention · Faris Yakob
- The Mind Is Flat · Nick Chater
- Thinking, Fast and Slow · Daniel Kahneman
Paying Attention
The State of Attention Measurement in 2026
- 20products scored on 12 dimensions
- 8deep profiles with SWOT
- 584claims re-checked
EARO operating model.
Exposure → Attention → Relevance → Outcome — and the operator lanes underneath (measurement, narrative, standards, adoption) that move attention from agency evaluation to brand default.
What ships, shaped like this.
US market entry for an attention measurement category leader
Three-lane engagement: (1) category narrative built from EARO and “Relevance Realization”, (2) standards & trust posture across AdCP / MRC / IAB, and (3) founding US commercial team architecture — role design, hiring profile, revenue model, governance.
- 01 Category narrative architecture (EARO + brand-committee translation)
- 02 CTV-grade attention positioning roadmap
- 03 Standards & trust posture across AdCP, MRC, IAB
- 04 US team MVP role design (CCO/CRO + 2× AE + 1× AM)
- 05 Revenue model framing (baseline measurement + AYCE programmatic expansion)
- 06 Holdco engagement plan (Omnicom incl. IPG, Publicis, WPP Media, Dentsu, Havas)
Show all 8
- 07 Founding-team hiring framework (skin in game / solid product / great humans)
- 08 Optional fractional / interim commercial leadership during the US build phase
Sample structure only — no client data. Final artifact is shaped to the engagement, the data available, and the decisions the read needs to drive.
Three-lane advisory engagement (architecture → activation → scale)
- 01
Phase 1 · Architecture
Category narrative + standards posture + founding-team blueprint.
- Category narrative architecture (EARO + brand-committee translation)
- CTV-grade attention positioning thesis
- Standards & trust posture across AdCP, MRC, IAB
- US-team MVP architecture (roles, comp, sourcing)
- Revenue-model framing (baseline + expansion + pricing parallels)
MilestoneFounding architecture sanctioned; first A-player profiles identified; standards roadmap locked
- 02
Phase 2 · Activation
Holdco engagement + brand-side education + adoption motion.
- Holdco engagement plan (all 5 holdcos)
- Brand-side thought-leadership program
- Conference / panel / webinar cadence
- Test-and-learn structure for top-tier brand pilots
- PMM alignment for objection handling
- Optional fractional / interim commercial leadership during build
MilestoneY1 revenue baseline locked across top-5 agencies; AYCE programmatic launch with marquee brands
- 03
Phase 3 · Scale
Brand-default category position + governance for the next chapter.
- Y2 doubling on baseline + AYCE scale
- M&A / partnership advisory at category level
- Path-to-scale governance for founding commercial leader
- Board-level strategic input
MilestoneCategory dominance across brand and agency adoption; multi-year valuation trajectory unlocked
Who you're benchmarking against.
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- Adelaide
- DV
- IAS
- Lumen
- Realeyes
Engagement work includes a SWOT vs. peer set, positioning roadmap, and competitive-takeover plays where the wedge is clear.
Operator vocabulary, defined.
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- AYCE
- All You Can Eat — programmatic expansion pricing parallel that runs alongside baseline-measurement licensing, modeled against the DV / IAS pricing structure.
- EARO
- Exposure → Attention → Relevance → Outcome — a cognitive-science-grounded framework that translates attention from an isolated metric into a structured brand-committee narrative.
Applied thinking, published.
Same vertical. Different operating layer.
When the vertical is clear, the next question is which company system carries the strategy.
Operating playbooks
- Org DesignOrg design is GTM infrastructure. This playbook helps scale-ups move from heroic execution to clear ownership, decision rights, capacity planning, and repeatable operating cadence.
- RetentionPost-sale operating system for retention, expansion, renewal confidence, churn prevention, and Net Dollar Retention (NDR). It turns reactive renewal management into a designed expansion motion — customer health, expansion triggers, and a board-grade NDR number.
Other vertical playbooks
- TravelTravel tech operator + travel data insider — for vendors unifying portfolios or modernizing the data graph.
- AudioWhen audio platforms fight for US brand budget, the bottleneck isn't reach — it's the buyer narrative.
- GamingGame advertising is now a scaled media channel — not a niche buy. Translating that into Americas GTM.
- NativeNative + recommendation platforms grow fast — the US enterprise bottleneck is rep productivity and ACV expansion.
- App GrowthApp-first DSPs and mobile growth platforms turning existing US demand into a focused, lean commercial engine — not a cold market entry.
- GrowthOperating model for aligning marketing, sales, data, and customer feedback into one revenue system for scale-up growth.
Market references last validated: June 7, 2026. Revalidate before pitch use.