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Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 2 October

Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 2 October

October 02, 2025

Numbers are up, metrics look great, and the higher-ups are high-fiving each other.

The little lines on all the charts are going up, up, up, so your brand is obviously crushing it, right? Welllll, maybe. As marketers, we love to worship our metrics. But the numbers never tell the whole story. Because, sure, your ROAS was glowing, but did you bombard your once-loyal customers with repetitive ads? Did you kill new products too soon because the dashboard didn’t add up? It sure is easy to forget that the real win is lasting brand loyalty—not just short-term clicks.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

DoorDash intros adorable robot, Demna debuts first Gucci collection & Trump wants to MAGA-fy TikTok

DoorDash’s new delivery robot takes on the big wide world.

What the hell. This thing is so cute. I would literally hang out with this cutie just because. I don’t even care about the services or the food it’s providing. I’m there for the pureness in its robot heart. Which I can sense because my heart is pure too. You wouldn’t get it.

Anyway, DoorDash has officially introduced Dot, the adorable red delivery robot, in Metro Phoenix. The nearly 5-foot tall robot is studded with cameras and sensors to help it navigate the world, which it’s going to need if it's going to survive. It’s a mean world out there. I just really hope people are nice to Dot.

Demna’s Gucci is here.

FINALLY. The fashion girlies will know how exciting this is. After being announced as creative director of Gucci in March, Denma has officially debuted his first looks for the brand, which, let's be real, has barely kept its head above water the last two years.

The collection is tailored, glamorous, and humorous, all tell-tale signs of Denma’s designs. The looks are chic and glam without taking themselves too seriously – a far leap from what we saw with De Sarno. I have to say, I’m a fan. Denma is a genius. And we may just see the revival of the Gucci brand under his direction. Check out the collection here.

Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% MAGA”. Delightful.

Hmmmm. Perhaps a war on free speech is beginning? The president has officially signed an executive order to "save" TikTok, while “joking” that he'd like to censor influencers, tweaking the algorithm so that content is "100 percent MAGA." Ha ha ha. Fun times ahead.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

DEEP DIVE

When metrics become monsters

There’s an old economics gem called Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

Sounds academic, but here’s the translation: the second you obsess over a number, you break it. And in marketing, we break numbers all the time (ROAS, CTR, CAC, MQLs) because we freaking worship them, screenshot them, and put them in decks with confetti emojis. And in doing so, we often forget that these numbers were supposed to guide us, not define us.

In today’s “outcomes era” of advertising, everything has to prove itself instantly. That’s great for dashboards… not always great for long-term growth.

Because when the metric becomes the mission, we risk creating success on paper and stagnation in reality.

Let’s start with a little parable.

A direct-to-consumer skincare brand managed to pull a glorious 6:1 ROAS on Facebook. Champagne corks flew. The marketing team basked in glory. However, they did it by relentlessly blasting their most loyal customers with their top-selling products.

So yeah, the metric was glowing, but the brand was quietly digging its own grave. Why, you ask?

Product tunnel vision: bestsellers hogged the spotlight, cross-sell opportunities died.
Audience fatigue: targeting the same fans over and over until the ads became wallpaper.
Innovation suffocation: new launches never got traction because algorithms kept backing old winners.
Market share leakage: while they milked their loyalists, competitors waltzed away with fresh customers.

The result? A dashboard that looked pristine, and a growth engine running on fumes.

And this isn’t just a hypothetical scenario. It happens all the time.

Goodhart’s Law is not picky. It’ll haunt any channel where metrics rule unchecked. This can look like:

Email: clickbait subject lines for the sake of open rate… cue unsubscribes.
SEO: stuffing so many keywords into a blog that it reads like a ransom note.
Social: chasing engagement until your brand voice sounds like an unhinged raccoon on TikTok.
Media buying: optimising for the cheapest clicks, only to attract bots, bargain hunters, or people who will never actually buy.

The trap is universal: what looks like performance often masks decay.

So, if the problem is so obvious, why do we keep doing it?

Blame a few familiar villains. Finance pressure is a big one. Every dollar spent has to have receipts, so marketers get squeezed into chasing whatever number looks best in a boardroom slide.

Then, of course, there’s algorithm worship. We hand over the wheel to platforms and let them tell us what “works,” forgetting that their priority is platform revenue, not ours. Add in short-termism, where quarterly targets devour any hope of long-term thinking, and you’ve already got a perfect storm.

And finally, there’s dashboard addiction. Those neat, tidy numbers make us feel in control, even when they’re quietly leading us astray. Chasing a metric feels good, like candy. But too much candy? We all know how that ends.

When you let the dashboard run the show, the costs pile up fast.

Your best customers get sick of seeing the same ads over and over. Your product line starts to stagnate as you double down only on the things that “perform.”

The growth pipeline clogs because you’re no longer feeding it with new audiences or fresh ideas. And while you’re patting yourself on the back for hitting this week’s numbers, your competitors are happily eating your lunch. You win the battle -the metric - but you quietly lose the war, which is the actual market.

How to break the cycle

Okay, enough doom (I’m sorry, I know I’m awful good at that.) Here’s how to stop letting Goodhart’s Law punk your campaigns:

Ladder up. Don’t let a metric float around unattached. If it doesn’t connect to a real business outcome: growth, retention, brand health - it’s just noise.
Budget for “bad” numbers. Exploration looks ugly at first. New channels, new audiences, and new creative won’t beat your proven winners right away. That’s the point.
Treat metrics like gossip, not gospel. ROAS is a rumour. CTR is tea. They hint at what’s happening, but they’re not the truth. Dig deeper.
Zoom out. Short-term efficiency feels great, but long-term metrics like lifetime value, market share, and brand strength tell you if you’re actually building something durable.
Mix exploitation with exploration. Steal a trick from decision science: use part of your budget to squeeze what’s working, and part to discover what’s next. Balance is everything, baby.

Goodhart’s Law is a reminder that if you worship the metric, you’ve already lost sight of the mission.

Marketing success isn’t a high ROAS screenshot; it’s a brand that keeps growing, evolving, and winning customers for years to come.

So yeah, hit your numbers. But don’t confuse them with the point. Otherwise, you’ll end up like that skincare brand: flawless dashboard, flaky future. The real flex is being the marketer who knows the difference.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

"Do it, Lady!"

Today's trending sound is from the series Chit by Jay Renshaw.

In the skit, the character Chit writes “Do it lady!” on his coworker Janice’s birthday card and convinces others it’s a common saying (without explaining it). Basically, it’s a brainrot version of "you go, girl!". It's real random, but I promise if you watch the trend it'll make too much sense. (It's literally snuck its way into my mates' daily vocabulary... Do it ladyyyy!).

The clip went viral, becoming a hilarious way to hype someone else or yourself up. It works for a stranger, a coworker, whoever... Do it ladyyyyy!

How you can jump on this trend:

Using OST to describe the person you're hyping up, film yourself lip-syncing to the audio, and tell 'em to "do it ladyyyyy!"

A few ideas to get you started:

Convincing myself posting a silly company TikTok counts as brand awareness
Hyping my coworker up as they schedule their next 3 LinkedIn posts
When someone actually clicks the link in bio

-Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: How’d that horse get in there?
✨Daily inspo: Robin Williams reminds us to have a beautiful life
🎧Soooo tingly: ASMR Jewelry Packing
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: I love carbonara pasta so much

ASK THE EDITOR

I am mostly a one-man team, but this is changing thankfully. What are some tips for being an absolutely slay in managing a boss marketing team? -Jas

Hey Jas,

When you move from a one-man band to leading a team, the temptation is to stay across everything because, up until now, you've had to! But the best leaders don't try to be everywhere, all the time. Instead, they trust their team to slay (ha) in their respective areas of expertise. You will become the person who sets the vision, keeping everyone focused on the story you're telling through your content.

Support your team when they need it, but you'll have to be ok giving up the control you're used to! Another important piece of leading your team will be to set the culture. So celebrate small wins, encourage reflection and learning when things go wrong, and role model good communication within the team. Good luck--exciting times ahead!