Global creative and innovation agency tactical. has released a provocative new report at a time when brands face unprecedented competition for attention. They’re no longer just competing with each other – they’re competing with creators, memes, and millions of micro-moments on social media.
The report includes detailed case studies, a brand readiness checklist, and actionable frameworks for marketing teams looking to transform their approach to content and storytelling.
Attention spans are at an all-time low. Brands face a brutal truth: entertain or become irrelevant.
With mobile users spending just 1.7 seconds evaluating content before scrolling past, and the average human attention span now down to 8.25 seconds, the opportunity is clear: master entertainment, or get left behind. The old marketing playbooks are obsolete. The creator mindset is the new competitive advantage.
“Marketing used to be simple: buy attention, hold it hostage, sell something. But attention isn’t for sale anymore. Especially on social. It’s earned,” states tactical.’s new report, Entertain Me or Die. “In this era, it’s the brands that entertain that are going to win on social.”
It’s a bold statement – but the data backs it up.
At the heart of the report is tactical.’s concept of “Effective Entertainment” – the intersection where attention-grabbing content meets measurable impact. The framework argues that every piece of content must do two things: stop the scroll and land a feeling.
Key insights for brands include:
- Speed over sign-off: Creators optimise for speed; brands optimise for approval chains. In the battle for the scroll, speed wins.
- Specificity over scale: Creators talk to someone, not everyone. Broad messaging equals bland impact.
- Shows over ads: Creators build episodic content that gets binged. Brands build one-offs that get skipped.
- Co-creation over ownership: The best brands remix culture and collaborate with it – they don’t try to own it.
“Entertainment captures attention. Effectiveness makes it stick,” explains the paper. “One without the other is useless. Attention without feeling is forgettable. Feeling without attention never gets seen.”
Commenting on the release, Mike Khouri, CEO of tactical., says: “Brands are still treating Social like a dumping ground for resized TV commercials and leftover campaign assets. Meanwhile, creators are building billion-dollar empires from their bedrooms. If brands can’t entertain, they don’t deserve the spotlight.
Khouri adds, “The audience has moved on – and if marketers don’t rethink storytelling through the lens of entertainment, their brands will vanish into the scroll.”
The report draws lessons from global creator success stories including MrBeast, Huda Kattan, and Beautiful Destinations, alongside brands that have mastered the entertainment-first approach such as Apple, Wimbledon, and Burberry.
The paper also provides marketers with a brand “Health Check” scorecard and a practical measurement framework to evaluate whether their content is earning real attention, not just hollow vanity metrics.
With AI democratising content creation and the creator economy reshaping how audiences consume media, the gap between brands and culture is widening. “Entertain Me or Die” arrives at a critical inflection point where brands must decide: evolve into entertainers, or become invisible.
