Attention Is the Only Currency That Compounds, Says Tolu Adedeji as Brands Rethink Growth in 2026
Tolu Adedeji, an astute marketing professional with experience across multiple markets, has urged brands to fundamentally rethink their approach to growth, stating that attention is now the only currency that truly compounds in today’s marketing ecosystem.
Speaking on the shifting dynamics of consumer engagement, Adedeji described 2026 as the era of an “audience-first world,” where brands must abandon product-first thinking and focus instead on earning, sustaining, and activating attention over time.
“I never thought I’d say this in my marketing career, but don’t start with the product. Start with the audience,” she said. According to Adedeji, the traditional model of building a product and then figuring out how to sell it is rapidly becoming obsolete. In its place is a new sequence: build an audience, earn trust through consistent value, and only then introduce the product.
She explained that attention has evolved into the primary currency of demand. Without it, brands remain invisible regardless of product quality. This shift, she noted, is already evident in creator-led and community-driven businesses, where podcasts are turning into commerce platforms and WhatsApp groups are emerging as fully functional marketplaces built on trust and continuity.
Adedeji also highlighted how this thinking is redefining the value of major “big attention” moments such as the Super Bowl. Rather than measuring success by virality alone, she said brands must now ask more strategic questions: who stayed after the moment, did interest convert into owned attention, and can the brand continue the conversation beyond the initial spike?
“Attention is no longer a single moment; it’s the beginning of a relationship,” she noted, adding that paid media often creates temporary attention rather than sustainable ownership. As a result, brands are increasingly redirecting investments toward building owned audiences and post-campaign conversion systems that enable long-term engagement.
However, Adedeji cautioned that owning an audience does not automatically guarantee attention. With average email open rates across industries ranging between 15 and 25 percent, she stressed that attention must be continuously cultivated, not merely collected. Strategies such as engagement-based segmentation, personalised communication, behavioural triggers, and higher-signal channels like WhatsApp communities are now critical to sustaining relevance.
According to her, the implications for brands heading into 2026 are clear: audiences must be built before products, high-visibility campaigns should be treated as entry points rather than endpoints, and owned attention must be actively nurtured to remain valuable.
“Attention is the only currency that compounds,” Adedeji concluded. “You only earn leverage when you win attention, keep it, and activate it continuously. Products and ads don’t create lasting advantage, people and relationships do.”
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