INTENTION BEFORE ATTENTION: Why the Smartest Brands Start With What They Mean, Not What They Make

Photo by Vitaly Mazur on Unsplash

In a world engineered to steal your attention, it’s easy for brands to assume that attention is the goal. More impressions. More views. More followers. More noise. We measure it, chase it, optimize it, and celebrate it as if attention itself were proof of progress.

But there is a deeper, more strategic truth:

Attention without intention is just distraction. Intention makes attention meaningful.

This tension, Attention vs. Intention, is becoming one of the defining challenges for modern brands. The companies that thrive in the next decade will be the ones who understand the difference, and more importantly, design their brands with intention first.

At LO:LA, we believe intention is the new competitive advantage. It’s what we call your Return on Ideas: the clarity of purpose that makes everything else, your brand, your marketing, your experience, work harder.

01. The Problem With the Attention Economy

The last decade rewired our expectations. Platforms built entire business models around keeping us scrolling. Brands responded in kind, flooding the world with content, more assets, more campaigns, more ads, more everything.

Attention became a currency.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: attention has never been cheaper or more meaningless.

Algorithms reward the outrageous, not the authentic. Memes go viral for no reason. Trends rise and collapse in days. Even exceptional creative gets swallowed by the feed.

And yet brands still chase attention as if it were the measure of their worth.

But attention is a reaction, fleeting, passive, and shallow. It can be bought. It can be manipulated. It can be faked.

Intention, on the other hand, cannot.

02. Intention Is Your True North

Intention is the deliberate, thoughtful decision-making behind your brand. It answers the questions most companies skip:

• Why do we exist?

• What are we really here to change?

• What difference do we want to make?

• What do we want people to feel?

• How do we want to show up, consistently?

Intention is slow, steady, and strategic. It is the work you do when no one is watching. And it is also where real brand advantage is built.

Because intention creates:

Clarity

Your team makes better decisions. Your customers understand you. Your partners recognize you.

Consistency

You show up in a way that feels deliberate, coherent, and trustworthy.

Confidence

You stop reacting to competitor noise, algorithm shifts, or the trend of the week. You know who you are, and who you’re not.

Character

Intention gives your brand a soul, not just a style. It’s what makes you magnetic instead of needy.

Attention grabs. Intention grounds.

03. The Cost of Chasing Attention Without Intention

When brands prioritize attention at the expense of intention, three things happen:

1. You attract the wrong audience.

Attention can spike your numbers, but it doesn't guarantee relevance. Viral moments often pull in people who don’t convert, don’t stay, and don’t care.

2. You dilute your brand.

The more you chase what’s trending, the more you erode your identity. You become a follower, not a leader. A brand without intention becomes a brand without meaning.

3. You create content, not connection.

Noise doesn’t build loyalty. Consistency does. Values do. Experiences do. When intention is weak, content feels empty, even if it gets likes.

As the saying goes:

“What you get by being visible is nothing compared to what you build by being intentional.”

04. Why Intention Makes Attention Work Harder

Intention isn’t the opposite of attention. It’s what gives attention value.

When your brand is intentional, attention becomes a signal, not a distraction. It becomes a multiplier.

With intention, attention leads to:

Recognition

People connect the dots: your message, your identity, your promise.

Relevance

The right people gravitate toward you because they feel seen, understood, and aligned.

Resonance

Your story lands, not because you shouted the loudest, but because you spoke the clearest.

Return

Intention drives the metrics attention can’t: retention, loyalty, preference, and advocacy. Attention can be bought. Intention must be built. And the brands that invest in building it win.

05. Brands With High Intention Create Better Work

Some of the most iconic modern brands, Patagonia, Airbnb, Apple, and Liquid Death, didn’t become household names by chasing the algorithm. They built with intention:

• a point of view

• a clear promise

• a consistent experience

• a defined tone

• a memorable story

Because of that, their attention compounds. Every campaign feels like a chapter in the same book.

Their intention makes their attention unmistakable.

06. How Brands Can Shift From Attention → Intention

Here’s the practical shift every brand can make today:

Step 1: Start With Your Why (and be brutally honest).

Not the fluffy mission statement.The real, gritty, commercial, and emotional truth behind your brand.

Step 2: Define your intention across five dimensions.

Human intention — What feelings do we want to evoke?

Creative intention — What’s our aesthetic DNA?

Experience intention — How should people interact with us?

Behavioural intention — What do we commit to doing every time?

Commercial intention — What does success look like beyond vanity metrics?

Step 3: Align your internal teams first.

Great brands are built inside-out. Intention is shared behavior.

Step 4: Let intention guide execution, not the other way around.

If every idea doesn’t ladder up to your intention, it doesn't ship. Simple.

Step 5: Measure meaning, not noise.

Engagement without conversion is a vanity metric. Attention without retention is waste. Likes without loyalty are irrelevant.

Measure what your intention promises.

07. The Mnemonic: AIM

If attention is noise and intention is clarity, then the goal is to AIM:

A — Attention

What do people see first?

I — Intention

What are we trying to make them understand?

M — Meaning

What do they remember and act on?

Most brands stop at A.The smart ones build I.Only the great ones reach M.

This is where LO:LA excels.

08. The Future Belongs to Intentional Brands

Technology will only accelerate the competition for attention. AI-generated content will make the world louder, faster, and more saturated than ever.

But intention?AI can’t manufacture that.

Intention requires:

• human judgment

• human taste

• human story

• human leadership

• human meaning

This is why intentional brands will stand out, not because they shout, but because they matter. In a world drowning in content, intention becomes the signal that cuts through the noise.

09. What It Means for Leaders and CMOs Right Now

If you’re leading a brand today, here’s the truth:

People don’t want more from you. They want meaning from you.

They want clarity, care, values, craft, consistency, and a point of view. They want brands that behave like leaders, not broadcasters.

Attention alone can’t deliver that.

Intention can.

Conclusion: Intention Is the Last True Unfair Advantage

The brands that will win the next decade are not the ones that shout the loudest. They are the ones who know exactly who they are, what they value, and how they show up, consistently, creatively, and confidently.

Attention might get you into someone’s feed.

Intention gets you into their mind. Meaning gets you into their life.

If your brand is ready to shift from chasing attention to designing intention, that’s the work we love most.

At LO:LA, we help brands build clarity before creativity, meaning before messaging, and intention before attention. Because that’s where the real return lives—your Return on Ideas.