Share of Culture: How Brands Grow in the Attention Economy

How progressive marketers build brands in a post-advertising world.

The rules of marketing and brand building have fundamentally changed.

While traditional marketers compete for diminishing TV audiences, a new generation of brands have stopped trying to buy attention; instead, they earn it. They don’t interrupt culture—they become part of it.

The most successful brands today aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. A multi-million-dollar ad campaign isn’t worth what it once was, and progressive marketers know that and have adopted different strategies. The brands that dominate aren’t just seen—they’re discussed. This isn’t just changing how brands communicate—it’s transforming the very nature of how they’re built and what plants them into the public consciousness.

Tesla built a billion-dollar business without a dollar of traditional advertising. Glossier transformed beauty by engaging communities rather than preaching to them. K-Pop band BTS generated billions of dollars in sales by using social media to build an army of fans.

What unites these successes is a shift from competing for share of market to competing for share of culture.

Share of Culture reveals the principles behind their success: How they connect with their audience and get them talking. Drawing on marketing science and real-world case studies, renowned brand strategist Paul Parton outlines a practical model for building brands in the new attention economy where a surplus of goods is mirrored by a deficit of attention, and where conversation is currency.