The Marketing Architects Debunking "Attention" with Marc Guldimann
Dec 2, 2025
Marc Guldimann, Co-founder and CEO of Adelaide, specializes in measuring media quality with attention metrics. He discusses the surprising truth that elderly intoxicated viewers pay more attention to ads but retain less information. Marc critiques the pitfalls of optimizing for attention, highlighting how it can lead to creative distortions and wasted resources. He advocates for a nuanced approach, promoting a credit-rating-like method for media quality that focuses on genuine outcomes, and reveals why some media channels are undervalued.
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Chasing Seconds Led To Gimmicky Creative
- Marc recounted how his team increased attention seconds from 3.5 to 4.5 and began choosing gimmicky creative to boost metrics.
- That optimization improved measured attention but compromised branding effectiveness.
Most Attentive Audiences Aren't Always Valuable
- Marc described how algorithms optimizing for attention can over-index on late-night older viewers.
- He noted intoxicated viewers pay more attention but remember far less, skewing value if you chase raw attention.
Goodhart's Law Applies To Attention
- Marc explained Goodhart's Law: optimizing directly to attention ruins its value as a leading indicator.
- Attention is necessary but becomes misleading once it is the optimization target.
