WordSpreadsQuickly.com

We all talk about how we should become as good at creating meaningful marketing change as we are at making new tools that track consumer behavior. However, our resolve has been anything but visionary. Word of mouth marketing is certainly a step in the right direction. But as Machiavelli notes “absolute power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The power of marketing is controlled by marketers, by advertisers and not by individuals. That’s why firms like BuzzAgent are a recipe for failure, in my opinion. I believe these types of marketing approaches lack a compelling purpose for making significant change with how we market products and services and, is not a true shift in power.

Yes, we can TiVo a commercial and skip content we don’t want to view. But, we can’t “warn” or “block” advertisers who interrupt us or ignore our preferences or take advantage of our attention. In fact, I think this would make a great FireFox extension. And, I’m not talking about sending our vote – happy face or sad face – to Google.

It’s no secret marketing has become a repetitive problem for most organizations. Unfortunately, we can’t just cut out the cancer of marketing clutter generated by organizations that simply spend enormous amounts of money to interrupt us. Many talking heads in the marketing arena say that model is broken. I disagree. In fact, that system is not broken at all. The economy around this framework of interruption marketing is cancer-free, healthy and growing.

We’re missing something. We lack a real alternative. We lack a new economy for change.

That’s why AttentionTrust.org is likely to be so important. The guiding principles of AttentionTrust, a non-profit organization, points to an entirely new economy of marketing based on your attention. Here’s what they say on their site:

When you pay attention to something (and when you ignore something), data is created. This “attention data” is a valuable resource that reflects your interests, your activities and your values, and it serves as a proxy for your attention.

4. Transparency
You can see exactly how your attention is being used. You can DECIDE who you trust.

This new economy based on the guaranteed rights of individuals to own, move and exchange attention data is interesting and is likely to have advertisers asking: Can I Have Your Attention, Please?