Content Strategy

I’ve written brand strategy documents that no one reads. Detailed creative briefs that get skimmed at best, ignored at worst. Spent hours crafting messaging frameworks, only to have someone ask, “So… what’s the takeaway here?” after flipping past 30 pages.

It’s not that people don’t want information—they do. They just don’t have the patience to consume it.

Don’t have a lot of time?  Watch this with your ears.

Quick Executive Summary for the Short-Attention Spans

• Write longer copy. Make slower films.
• People don’t have short attention spans—they have short patience for boring content.
• The right audience will stick around. The wrong one was never worth your time.
• If no one reads it, the problem isn’t length—it’s engagement.
• AI can summarize information, but it can’t create something worth reading.
• A movie trailer doesn’t replace the film. A summary doesn’t replace the story.
• Stop chasing skimmers. Build for the people who actually care.
• Attention spans aren’t the problem—distractions are.
• You don’t need to be shorter. You need to be better.
• If your content only works in two sentences, maybe it was never worth more.

Social media has rewired attention spans. AI is making people lazy. Information is more accessible than ever, but the willingness to engage with it is disappearing. People crave knowledge, yet won’t take the time to research or even absorb a well-crafted answer right in front of them. They want immediate gratification without effort.

This isn’t going to get better. In fact, it’s only getting worse. So as marketers, creatives, and business leaders, we have two choices:

1. Complain about it while no one listens (because, again, short attention spans).
2. Adapt.

Think Like a Filmmaker—Make It a Trailer First

People don’t read. They preview. A great film trailer doesn’t tell the whole story—it teases just enough to get people invested. That’s how content needs to work now.

Executives don’t read full reports, so they buy those “executive summary” books. Consumers don’t want product pages—they want the one-sentence pitch. Marketers don’t have time for 30-minute videos—they need the two-minute version.

Think about how people watch Netflix. They scroll, barely skimming thumbnails, until a trailer auto-plays. If it grabs them in the first 5 seconds, they stick around. If not, they move on.

Your website, emails, presentations, and videos all need that same kind of hook.

• Write an executive summary for everything. If you’re sending a report, put the key takeaway at the top. Assume no one will make it past the first paragraph.
• Front-load value. If your film takes 10 minutes to get interesting, no one will ever see minute 11.
• Tease what’s coming. Make people want to keep going.

Everything needs a preview.  That means:

• Putting the most valuable information at the top.
• Writing content that can be understood in seconds, not minutes.
• Creating summaries that get people interested enough to keep going.

If people only give you five seconds, make those five seconds count.

Give People Content in the Format They’ll Actually Consume

Some people still read long-form content (if you’ve made it this far, congratulations). Most don’t. Instead of forcing one format, the smartest approach is to create multiple versions of the same content.

That means offering:

• Articles for people who like to read.
• Downloadable PDFs for those who pretend they’ll read it later.
• Podcasts or audio versions for multitaskers.
• Short-form videos for visual learners.

People absorb information differently. Meeting them where they are is the difference between being read and being ignored.

AI Has Made It Worse, But It’s Also an Opportunity

AI is great for summarizing information, but it’s also making people lazier. Instead of researching or thinking critically, people are outsourcing their curiosity to a machine. That’s why LinkedIn is now full of AI-generated “thought leadership” posts that all sound the same.

This has two consequences. First, more people will skim instead of actually engaging with content. Second, and more importantly, high-quality work will stand out even more. If you actually know what you’re talking about, you’re already ahead of 90% of the industry’s AI-reliant content recyclers.

The Customers Who Stick Around Are the Ones That Matter

Accept That Most People Aren’t Worth Your Time. Not all audiences are worth chasing. The people with micro-attention spans who demand instant takeaways and refuse to engage deeply? They aren’t your best customers anyway. If someone can’t spend five minutes understanding what you do, they were never going to be a good client, collaborator, or long-term customer. Let them go.

Trying to dumb everything down for the lowest common denominator attracts the wrong people. Chasing after the “I need it in two sentences” crowd just means dumbing down your work for an audience that will never appreciate it anyway. Focus on the ones who do. The audience that sticks with you is the one worth investing in.

Continuous Partial Attention—The Concept That Predicted This Mess

Years ago, the founder of Sierra Games spoke at SXSW and introduced me to the phrase “continuous partial attention.” It’s the idea that people are never fully focused on one thing anymore—they’re constantly partially engaged in multiple things at once.

Back then, it was an emerging trend. Now, it’s just reality. You’re competing with Slack notifications, email pings, social feeds, and the 47 browser tabs someone swears they’ll get to later.

Instead of fighting it, design for it. The more effort it takes to understand something, the less likely people are to stick with it.

• Repeat key points throughout. They’ll miss the first one.
• Use strong visuals. Images break through mental clutter better than text.
• Make it skimmable. Bold key points (but not random words just for effect).

This Isn’t a Phase—It’s the New Normal

Short attention spans aren’t a temporary problem. They’re how people function now. Complaining about it won’t change anything—adapting to it will.

The good news? Most people are handling this problem poorly. That means the brands, marketers, and creatives who can communicate clearly and immediately will have an edge. The only question is: How are you adjusting?

The question is: How are you adjusting your work to reach people in this distracted world?

Why I Wrote This Article

I write to help process my own ideas. If someone reads these thoughts and finds them useful, great. But the real reason I write is to challenge my own thinking—to break down a concept, internalize the research, and form a perspective that’s valuable to me first. Writing forces clarity. It helps me understand a topic, a technology shift, or a branding challenge in a way that feels solid, not just surface-level. If that resonates with others along the way, even better.