I believe in embracing change, in finding new growth and opportunity in emerging technology, platforms, and ideas. Yet amidst all the constant change of this digital age, three truths endure as constants.

Respecting these three constants helps separate the tactical from the transcendent, the everyday distractions from the lasting values.

#1. All Media = Earned Media

We live in the most distracted society in human history. So smarter advertisers consider all media earned media. And the smartest don’t define the people they hope to reach as ‘demographics’ — instead, they treat them like an audience, as people to be intrigued and attracted. When attention is the rarest commodity, all attention must be earned.

#2. More ≠ Better, Better = Better

The modern world is awash in content. Every minute of every day, people upload well over five hundred hours of video to YouTube. So posting a video and hoping for views is lottery logic. Even worse is flooding social platforms with low budget posts. If you do the math, creating ten times as much content makes no statistical improvement on getting noticed. Only the quality of your ideas and delight of their execution drives clicks and determines how broadly it’s shared.

#3. Emotion > Information

Maya Angelou captured this perfectly: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Information focuses on facts and attributes, which can be easily co-opted. Emotion springs from benefits, from less quantifiable but far more compelling feelings, not facts. Enduring persuasion relies on the emotional connections you build for brands.