In today’s competitive landscape, brands aren’t just fighting for attention – they’re competing with more brands than ever to drive sales and deliver business results.
To grow, a brand must do more than get noticed.
It must turn attention into associations that are relevant to its target audience – associations that make the brand come to mind in buying or decision-making moments.
The trademarked Associative Attention framework helps brands do just that.
It connects the dots between WHAT you want your brand to be known for and HOW
to get noticed in the first place — offering a practical, science-based approach to building stronger brands that drive business results.
The next sections break down how it works on a high-level.
To build strong brands and grow sales, it’s essential to build relevant mental associations that firmly position your brand, product, or service in the minds of your target audience.
Category Entry Points are the motivations or occasions why customers are buying from your category.
As a brand owner, you need to understand what these are and link relevant ones to your brand, product or service.
Distinctive Brand Assets are associations that help your customers to identify your brand quickly and easily. Be this in advertising, in-store, online or on a high-street.
It’s critical you have a long-term strategy on what associations to build, strengthen and avoid.
To build mental associations in the minds of your target audience, brand owners need to draw attention to these associations.
Creative Executions is about how you draw attention to your brands’ associations in advertising, POS and packaging.
As a brand owner, you need to understand the effective, science-based techniques that help you achieve this.
Media Mastery recognises that different media vary in their ability to capture and retain attention. And that messages and the life stage of a brand influence the level of attention a brand needs.
It’s essential to understand which media to utilise and the most effective ways to get the attention of your target audience on a particular platform.
The Associative Attention framework by Ortum® was initially published by WARC and has been recognised as a ‘Best Practice’, also featuring in several podcasts.
The original article on the Associative Attention framework by Ortum® published by WARC.
WARC’s Lena Roland talks to marketing consultants Max Stricker and Samuel Brealey about their article on associative attention. Discussing how marketers can activate attention in a meaningful way to lead to better outcomes such as increased sales.
This quick diagnostic helps you assess where your brand stands today across the four pillars of the Associative Attention framework – and where to focus next.
Based on your answers, you’ll receive a tailored report with specific recommendations for your brand.
It’s the first step toward building a strategy, aligning your team, and tracking progress with a clear roadmap for growth.
Think of it as ‘Guided Diagnostic’
A focused virtual (or in-person) session (ca. ½ day) where we walk through the Associative Attention audit with your team. This goes deeper than the online version, with guided discussion to uncover what’s happening behind the scenes.
You’ll receive audit scores across all four areas of the framework, a list of improvement opportunities, and tailored recommendations for your brand.
Think of it as ‘Diagnostic + Review of brand outputs’
Everything in the Light Audit – plus a deeper dive into your brand’s actual output. Over 1–2 days, we review your brand plans, advertising, innovation, media and more to understand how your brand shows up in the real world.
You’ll receive detailed audit scores, brand-specific recommendations, and a prioritised (with your input) action plan based on your business context and goals.
Think of it as ‘Capability Building’
We equip your team with the knowledge and tools to apply the Associative Attention framework confidently. Sessions include how to run audits, use templates and checklists, and apply the framework to your brand.
We also offer deep dives into each of the four areas – for example, how to improve your advertising to cut through the noise and build brand associations. All sessions are tailored to your team’s needs and knowledge gaps.
I appreciate when an essay uncovers something that feels immediately clear. It’s as if a piece of the puzzle has clicked into place. This article certainly provided that enlightening moment for me!
The framework effectively merges the ‘long and short of it’ – connecting two, frequently conflicting, domains.
Great perspective here on how to implement ‘attention’ in real-world scenarios.
Absolutely love this as a top line framework to discuss how to build brands.
Smart. Less is more.
The Associative Attention framework was developed by Max Stricker and first introduced in an exclusive WARC article co-written with Samuel Brealey, a Chartered Marketer known for helping clients master the fundamentals of marketing.
Max Stricker is the founder and Director of Ortum, a London-based consultancy dedicated to building stronger brands that drive business results. Ortum’s work is grounded in decision-, behavioural- and marketing-science – always with a focus on practical application. The team supports clients in upskilling teams, aligning stakeholders, and embedding shared principles for long-term brand growth.
Through the Associative Attention framework, Max and the Ortum team help brand owners – from small businesses to global organisations – strengthen their brand-building efforts and create lasting impact.
