Steve Pratt: How to Earn & Keep Attention

The worst thing you can be today is average. Whether it's a restaurant, a car, a book, a TV show, or a podcast, average is getting crushed—the reason why is simple. When people have a choice, they choose better. Today, no matter the category, consumers have plenty of choices.  

Steve Pratt is an expert on earning attention; he often thinks about this dilemma of choice. Steve co-founded Pacific Content, the first branded podcast content agency, which boldly broke new ground in podcasting, making original shows for brands. Steve and his top-notch staff were smart and brave. Steve has moved on as the co-founder of Department of Differentiation, which provides differentiation strategy to brands, marketers, creators, and entrepreneurs.

We became friendly six years ago when Amplifi Media & Sound That Brands introduced a branded show on behalf of a national food company that still tops the charts. Steve’s new book Earn it: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers comes out today (buy it here) and offers a masterclass on two of the most critical elements in content development: differentiation and capturing attention. We sat down to talk about the strategies podcasters should use to attract and retain the right attention for sustained growth.

Steve Goldstein (SG) – Everyone now has TikTok brain. We live in a 6-second world where our minds have been rewired for fast-scrolling content. It feels like this makes attention even more challenging to garner.

 Steve Pratt (SP) – Right, attention is hard. The simple answer is we need to make things people like and are grateful to spend time with, rather than interrupting people and following them around the internet.  It's the only way forward if you want to be successful unless you're comfortable annoying 99% of the people you're trying to reach.

SG – That sounds ideal, but we both know that’s incredibly hard.

SP – Creating real value for people is hard work. It's easy to run broad 'spray and pray' campaigns, but it's much more challenging to craft content that leaves people saying, 'That was time well spent.’

SG – The bar for that is clearly higher. You write in the book that mediocre isn't good enough.

SP – The call to action for marketers and content creators looking to earn people's time and attention is to make awesome stuff. Stuff that is different from everybody else and creates unique value for the consumer or listener, or you won't get their time and attention.

When you examine your own habits—what captures your attention and what you intentionally block out—it becomes clear how high the bar has been set. There's never been more things trying to get our attention. Whether it’s clickbait headlines or something else, we all have very strong filters now, and we're just getting choosier and choosier around what we decide to spend time on.

SG – Many content creators and marketers confuse garnering attention with satisfaction and retention. I come out of the radio business. A few years ago, I was with a couple of senior radio executives at a large ad agency in New York, and the agency’s view of commercial radio was pretty demeaning, saying, “You guys do stupid things like ‘Jello Jumps’ to attract attention. He was right. It was attention, but maybe not the right type to build a brand. The class clown also creates attention. 

SP – That’s why the word “earn” in the title of my book is very deliberate. You can grab attention, or you can capture it, or you can steal it with stunts and short-term things. If you do it once, it's like a fad or a prank. Earned attention is different. It requires consistent excellence over time and developing a track record that shows people you are committed to delivering value for them.

Earning attention turns into trust because you're proving yourself over and over and over again. It's not just a one-and-done. When you earn trust, people are more willing to enter relationships with you and understand who you are and what you stand for.

SG – So, earning attention is really a long-term play. It’s about holding attention.  

SP – Yes, and podcasters do a great job of holding people. If you can get 80 or 90% of those people all the way through an episode, I can't think of another place on the planet where you can get that kind of time and attention. Imagine you're a marketer and thinking about what it would be like if you had to knock on someone's door and say, “Hey, is it okay if I come and hang out in your living room for half an hour every two weeks?” No one will say yes to that – but they do with podcasting.

SG – Now we have new issues. I’m considering the challenge of creating content for multiple platforms, audio, video, TikTok, YouTube Shorts… all. 

SP - Short-form social video has fascinated me since the pandemic. Learning how to tell compelling stories in 30 seconds or a minute has been an interesting experiment. The opportunity is in storytelling across different platforms, leveraging the unique strengths of each. Wherever people connect with you, you're providing value, whether through entertainment or information that fits the platform. The biggest challenge, however, is convincing them to leave where they are and follow you to where you want them to go.

SG – Jerry Seinfeld says the big issue today is not short attention spans but quality content. He said, “There's no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing. The whole idea of an attention span is, I think, a misnomer. People have an infinite attention span if you're entertaining them.”

SP – Yeah, he’s right. It’s not short attention spans; it’s quality. People will give their full attention to something they value. When you land on a great podcast, Netflix series, or book, you'll spend tons of time with it. We're all just really, really picky and want to make sure that we're using our time well.

SG – Speaking of Seinfeld, you talk in the book about George Costanza and “do the opposite.” In my early days of programming, someone said to me if everyone is talking fast in their promos, I’m going to eliminate words and talk slow. 

SP - There are a bunch of different layers of do the opposite. One is to be different than everybody else. If you're copying what's popular, if you're the second, third, fourth, no one's going to spend time with you. No one likes average. To earn attention, you must be unconventional, stand out, be different, and do something uniquely yours. If you don’t, you will blend into the massive sea of content online.

SG – There are also pressures to crank out more content to make more money.

SP – If you're in an ad-supported business model, making an original show and trying to make money, there's a lot of economic pressure to put out a lot of shows and be an “always on” show so that you can have more inventory and sell more ads. I would much rather have an amazing six-episode season with a three or four-month break than have 30 mediocre episodes that stack up and get ignored.

SG – You and I share the belief that the download is nothing more than a wish. The key is tracking real listening. I had your former Pacific Content partner Dan Misener, on my “View From The Top” panel at Podcast Movement in August. Dan is beating the drums for verified listening. 

SP – It comes down to measuring the time and attention that people give you. I love looking at completion rates. You can see completion rate graphs where people come in, start sampling, and leave in droves in the first minute or two, they are saying this is boring and not worth my time and attention. Those graphs around where people's time and attention are spent are a marker for editorial quality. The show is not good enough if you’re not keeping their attention.

SG – Do you have any suggestions for content producers just getting started in podcasting or thinking about doing something new?

SP – Content strategy is a powerful tool for earning attention. Today, there are no barriers to regularly sharing great content across various platforms. With podcasts especially, when done well, the medium can capture significant time and attention—often 30 to 45 minutes or more per episode, which is unmatched by other formats.

Focusing on an underserved community can be one of the most effective content strategies. With less competition, you have a greater opportunity to deeply engage your audience and become a phenomenal resource, as fewer options cater to their needs. By truly serving this community, you foster a sense of connection among members, turning them into advocates and ambassadors for your show.

SG – Steve, thanks for sharing some wisdom. You are great. The book is excellent. I wish you tremendous success.

You can find Steve and buy “Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers” at StevePratt.com.

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