Editor's letter: What’s worth your time and attention?

When the COVID pandemic started, I received emails from every brand, business and blogger with whom I shared my email address. I got emails on everything from policy updates and store closings to random companies saying, “We’re here for you” or encouraging me to make my living room my favorite yoga studio. (Just kick the kids and dog out of the room before practicing.)

Now, I’m not saying these emails shouldn’t have been sent, but for me, the influx during this time highlighted a central question to our role as marketers: What is really worth your customers’ time and attention?

—Jeff Fagel, CMO, Epsilon

We live in the attention economy—a concept that has only become exacerbated by COVID: 50% of consumers were online more and 42% were watching more TV because of the pandemic. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, is famous for saying that sleep—not HBO, Hulu or Amazon—is the streaming giant’s biggest competitor.

How we get people to pay attention, to care and to act has shifted dramatically in 2020. Between Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, anyone with a phone passes as a content creator. In a single internet minute, people watch 764,000 hours of Netflix, create 2.5 million Snaps and send 59 million messages on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

We’re charting new paths for creativity and creation that aren’t driven by the “creatives” of the past. And now, more than ever, we have to continuously prove our message is worth customers’ time and attention. The best marketers aren’t afraid to champion new ideas, often against a stiff headwind of opposition.

The reality is that our job is to drive measurable business results, all while staying ahead of the curve. But these days, understanding the curve is a daily endeavor. Amid a marketing landscape that is more unpredictable than ever, we decided to launch CORE. Our vision is this:

• CORE is written for, by and about the most progressive marketing leaders.
• CORE invites marketers to challenge what’s possible in your marketing—every day.
• CORE sparks a dialogue across mediums—print, digital, audio and video—to challenge all of us on how we perceive marketing today and in the future.

In our inaugural issue, our cover story on walled gardens looks at the strengths and limitations of these platforms with regard to the customer journey from brand, agency and marketing technology perspectives. In “The Ultimate Disruption,” we highlight the consumer habits that will disappear and what’s here to stay post-pandemic. On the topic of email, we talk to Shar VanBoskirk from Forrester and Oded Benyo from Epsilon about how marketers can break free from email’s transactional roots.

We hope our coverage encourages you to lead conversations that carve the path forward and consider what is possible beyond what you’re doing today. And that CORE is worth your time and attention.

Times of constraints breed creativity. Stop waiting for a roadmap and start drawing one instead.