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← Back to IdeasOgilvy On: Reclaiming Attention Through Earned-First Creativity
Ads polished to perfection and pushed through mass media channels. For decades, this was the standard operating system for our industry. Brands taking a one-size-fits-all approach, banking on a single, overarching creative idea to reach large audiences everywhere they looked or listened. Repeated exposure to that same message equaled success.
But the game has changed.
Today's consumers live in a voracious ecosystem of reels, memes, recaps and 7-second soundbites. Each of us in a unique labyrinth of content, an elusive algorithm curating our route. The endless scroll, tailored to our distinct behaviors and interests, has us craving constant novelty—reflected in our fleeting attention spans that all but guarantee how every other ad is a skip waiting to happen.
For brands and marketers looking to get a particular idea across, this new reality presents a challenge. Competition is no longer category-specific. It’s everyone, all the time.
Breaking through this sea of sameness and content oversaturation demands a different approach: Earned-First Creativity. This is a fundamental shift in how we conceive, create, and execute campaigns and brand narratives. Everyone has a different “FYP” (for you page), and today’s social fragmentation calls for a multi-touch ecosystem in order to reach audiences and effectively cut through the noise.
In other words, it’s no longer enough to take one big idea and hope it meets the people where they are. It’s about taking several high-impact ideas and surrounding the people where they are. It’s about setting little fires everywhere, and inviting people to feed the flames.
The New Playbook: A Calculated, Coordinated Content Blitz
Marketers' objectives may not have changed, but the way to achieve them has. Today, simply pushing content into the world is akin to a whisper in a hurricane – a recipe for invisibility. Earned-first creativity, on the other hand, cultivates a world of unmissable moments that encourage active participation. It’s a strategic content plan that ensures we meet consumers at their different touchpoints and invite them into our single narrative.
Consider Ogilvy's recent essie x Ellie, ‘Nail the Grind’ campaign. Ahead of the WNBA season, essie partnered with the New York Liberty to celebrate confidence and self-expression, but with an unexpected, earned-first twist: the first-ever manicure on a mascot, NYL’s Ellie the Elephant.
The team orchestrated a surge of co-created content, flooding feeds from multiple sources. By collaborating with media, inviting reporters on-site for exclusive access, developing co-created content with talent, and amplifying the collaboration through a network of influencers, the campaign built real fan affinity and pop culture presence, earning sustained and widespread attention and engagement. It showcased the power of owning moments between moments, an approach that continues throughout the season with in-game activations and extended essie x ellie brand moments
The Art of Immersion
Traditional marketing often pushes messages from the outside-in. Brands will determine a narrative and hope it sticks. Meanwhile, an earned-first approach flips this – it is fueled from the inside out. It requires becoming embedded in different subcultures and micro-communities and designing experiences where consumers become active participants in the brand's story.
Heinz did this recently, when they teamed up with DJ, producer and rapper, Mustard. This collaboration wasn't random; it was a clear demonstration of listening to cultural currents. They launched a 360-creative campaign that fused music culture, viral social media memes, and creative strategy for an unforgettable Grammy’s moment and wave of efforts across different mediums.
CeraVe also demonstrated this inside-out approach when they successfully turned organic online chatter into a highly talked-about moment. Fans had taken to the internet to dub CeraVe moisturizers the "GOAT,” and the brand responded by bringing a real-world goat mascot, Sarah V, to life. Brand fans couldn’t get enough of her, and the campaign ultimately came full circle with real-world activations that transformed customers into real-life participants.
A singular marketing stunt is no longer enough; it’s imperative to come at it from all sides and design creative that can work its way into conversations and communities. The best brand stories are those that strike a chord and leave consumers eager to engage with and propagate the message.
Audience-Driven Storytelling
Obsession shapes what we see, listen to, and interact with. Knowing this, brands must open multiple paths to engagement and enable audiences to choose their own adventure. Imagine if every story you read had the same beginning and end... boring, right?
Earned-first creativity embraces brand stories as a sprawling, non-linear narrative. One consumer’s first touchpoint with a brand may be entirely different from another’s (think: encountering a viral meme versus stumbling into a local pop-up). But each unique interaction gives a glimpse into the overarching story and fosters a sense of discovery and involvement, turning passive viewers into active participants who feel a genuine stake in the brand's journey.
For brands accustomed to controlling the message, the greatest challenge in embracing earned-first creativity lies in relinquishing a certain level of control and inviting audiences to share the reins. While this shift may feel uncomfortable at first, brands who empower customers to dictate their own path and interact with brand narratives on their own terms will foster more genuine engagement and see greater business outcomes.
The Path Forward: Igniting Little Fires Everywhere
Attention is no longer bought – it’s earned. In a world of infinite scroll, every piece of content should aim to provoke reaction or participation, whether it's a share, a comment, a remix, or a real-world action.
By setting those "little fires everywhere," and creating multi-faceted narratives that intersect culture with strategy, audiences can become real characters in brand stories – and make those stories their own.
Some of the most interesting stories have yet to be told. Are you ready to light your fires?