The Attention CODE: Making Brands Memorable in the AI Era
August 12, 2025
The marketing funnel is a ghost. It haunts the halls of brands that still believe they control the message. But in today’s attention economy, where every glance is currency, consumers are the new center of gravity. They pull brands into their orbit on their own terms. To win here, you need more than a relevant message; you need a memorable one. You need the Attention C.O.D.E.
The C.O.D.E. Filter: From Relevant to Remarkable
While DTP defines the consumer journey and QKV explains how AI matches relevance to spark Discovery, C.O.D.E. ensures the creative itself builds Trust by being Compelling, Ownable, Differentiated, and Emotional.
Getting discovered by the algorithm is only half the battle. To hold that attention, your creative must be more than just relevant—it has to be remarkable. Every asset, from a social post to a Super Bowl ad, must pass our four-point filter:
- Compelling: Does it stop the scroll and make them care? Is it interesting enough to earn a moment of their finite attention?
- Ownable: Could your biggest competitor run this ad and have it feel true? If the answer is yes, it’s not ownable. It must be rooted in your brand’s unique spirit and story.
- Differentiated: Does it sound like everything else in the industry? We must avoid the “DMO Bingo” of clichés and show up with a distinct point of view.
- Emotional: Does it make them feel something? As Maya Angelou taught us, “people will never forget how you made them feel.” Logic informs, but emotion is what moves people to act. The most powerful stories come from real people, making your partners, public relations, and authentic creator partnerships important engines of emotional connection.
And the science backs it up: neuroscience research shows 95% of decisions are subconscious and emotion-driven. Madden’s C.O.D.E.-compliant campaigns, like ‘Free to Be,’ deliver twice the impact potential, proving how emotional resonance fundamentally transforms marketing from awareness to fierce advocacy.
This is how we approach media and advertising—not as a game of impressions, but as a discipline of creating resonant, C.O.D.E.-compliant experiences that connect brands with consumers in a meaningful way.
The Framework in Action: Case Studies in Resonance
The power of The Attention C.O.D.E. is best seen in action.
Our “Free to Be” campaign for Eureka Springs is a perfect example. The strategy began by identifying a traveler Query: “The Seeker,” a traveler searching for authenticity and self-expression. We matched this with the destination’s most Ownable and Differentiated Keys—its unapologetically quirky and inclusive spirit. Finally, the campaign delivered a Compelling Value proposition: the promise of a place where you are truly “Free to Be.” A robust PR and influencer strategy amplified this value, landing features in Southern Living, Forbes, and Lonely Planet, capturing 178 million impressions and generating $1.6M in ad value equivalency.
The authenticity of this approach was crucial. The campaign “didn’t start with a tagline. It started with listening… We built trust with LGBTQ+ business owners. The outcome was a campaign built by the community, for the community”. Nothing validated the campaign’s resonance more powerfully than when a local official challenged it. After the official suggested the “Free to Be” slogan was too political, the community itself rose to its defense.Over 110 citizens filled a commission meeting, with one declaring, “love and inclusivity is our brand.” This unscripted, passionate defense from local stakeholders provides the ultimate proof of the campaign’s Emotional success and its deep alignment with the community’s ownable identity.
Our work as Agency of Record for Destination Door County puts the framework into practice. The award-winning “Feelings” campaign was explicitly Emotional, focusing on the feelings that experiences instill in visitors. To create Ownable and Differentiated content, we launched the “Art in the Door” initiative, a juried art competition that tapped into local artists to promote the community, generating over 5,600 new leads in the process. The entire strategy was so Compelling it drove a 144% year-over-year increase in paid search traffic.
Beyond our work, Spotify’s “Wrapped” campaign is a masterclass in applying these principles.
- Query (Q): It taps into a universal human desire for self-reflection and identity expression.
- Keys (K): Spotify uses a user’s own listening data—their top artists and genres—as the most Ownable and Differentiated content possible.
- Value (V): The Perceived Value is immense. It’s a Compelling and Emotional narrative of your year, packaged in vibrant, shareable graphics. This user-generated content becomes a massive earned media event, dominating social conversations and driving a 21% spike in app downloads during its 2020 launch week.
Nike’s “Dream Crazy” campaign, featuring Colin Kaepernick, was a bold play on Emotional Value. By aligning with the values of a young, socially-conscious audience (Query), Nike delivered a powerful payoff that went far beyond the product. The controversy generated massive earned media, keeping the brand at the center of the cultural conversation and leading to a 31% surge in sales.
In the attention economy, brands that pass the C.O.D.E. filter won’t just get noticed—they’ll be remembered.
