We’ve been told for years that marketing is about moving people through a funnel — awareness at the top, conversion at the bottom. You build the campaign, buy the media, brief the influencers, and expect demand to fall into place. But here’s the reality we’re seeing across live entertainment, immersive, culture, and ticketed experiences:

The funnel is broken.

The audience never even enters it. Not because the work isn’t good. But because the cultural infrastructure has changed. What used to be a campaign is now a scroll. What used to be a moment is now a meme loop. What used to be earned attention is now algorithmic luck.

So, let’s be honest:

You’re not just competing with other shows.

You’re competing with everything — feed, scroll, stream, swipe.

And you’re doing it in a world where attention is fragmented, demand is fragile, and momentum is impossible to fake.

What Actually Moves Culture Now?

In a recent keynote, I walked through the three cultural operating systems that are winning attention in 2025:

• Charli XCX (Brat): Cultural ignition protocol. Meme-native, fan-led, remixable by design.

• GTA VI: Platform-scale gravity. A drop so big it distorts the feed around it.

• Coachella Content stack disguised as a party. A vertically integrated syndication system that monetises memory, identity, and anticipation.

These aren’t campaigns. They’re systems. And if you’re still marketing like it’s 2015, you’re not building demand. You’re fueling someone else’s algorithm.

So, What’s the Alternative?

At AGM, we’ve spent the past two years rebuilding our strategic model around a new truth:

Attention is the real inventory.

And if you can’t map it, track it, or act on it — you’re not in the market. You’re in the background.

The new model isn’t a funnel. It’s a feedback system. It listens, loops, adjusts, and ignites — in real time.

What This Series Will Cover

Over the next three pieces, we’ll break down the core shifts we’ve made — and what they mean for anyone trying to move culture, sell tickets, or survive the scroll:

1. Pricing is Narrative Why dynamic pricing without story breaks trust — and how Ticketing Intelligence aligns pricing to perception, not just yield.

2. Your Real Inventory is Attention How to detect demand before it shows up in your dashboards — and how the AGM Attention Index tracks cultural ignition, not just reach.

3. From Tools to Trust How we rebuilt our entire service model around motion, not media — and why the marketing system that performs is the one that listens.

One Final Thought

This isn’t about doing better marketing. It’s about doing different business. If attention is the bottleneck and cultural traction is the variable, then marketing isn’t promotion — it’s demand design. We’re not here to simply sell ads; we’re here to build ignition systems.

Curious how we can help your brand ignite demand in the new attention landscape? Let’s talk strategy. Want an insider look at our upcoming Attention Index? Sign up now to be the first to know.