ADVERTISING IN THE ATTENTION ECONOMY: STRATEGIC ADAPTATION IN PAKISTAN'S DIGITAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Abstract

The rise of digital media has transformed how audiences engage with advertising content, prompting significant changes in advertising strategy and production. While many industry professionals attribute these changes to declining audience attention spans, most existing research on the topic originates from Western contexts. This study explores how advertising professionals in Pakistan perceive attention scarcity and how this perception influences their creative and strategic practices. Using qualitative data collected from 25 industry professionals, the study employs Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis to identify four major themes: platform-native production, adaptation to platform affordances, hook-first storytelling and narrative restructuring, and cultural localization in digital advertising. The findings suggest that practitioners increasingly view attention scarcity as a structural challenge associated with platform design, algorithmic visibility, and content abundance rather than solely as a limitation of audience cognition. The results also indicate that strategic compression has become a defining feature of contemporary digital advertising, while culturally resonant content plays an important role in attracting attention and engagement. By extending attention economy theory and platform affordance theory to a developing-market context, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how advertising professionals adapt to increasingly competitive digital media environments.