Retailers have long drawn on behavioural techniques, nudges, to persuade consumers to purchase. Some have given rise to eponymous concepts like the ‘IKEA effect’ where consumers attribute higher value to products assembled themselves, fostering brand resonance. In digital advertising, nudges include complete-the-look carousels, star ratings, and one-click shoppable ads on social media. However, the implicit assumption is that consumers pay attention to these. But does this remain true in 2026?

Economists now treat human attention as a scarce resource comparable to land, labour, and capital reflecting that attention is finite, rivalrous, and exhaustible. Social media platforms have industrialised the harvesting and monetisation of attention, creating a paradox: the more content floods the environment, the less effective each individual message becomes. In this context of structural overstimulation, brands including Gentle Monster and New Balance are moving from persuading through exposure to cultivating cultural belonging, offering a new angle to a job department store historically used to excel at: shaping their communities’ culture.

IADS Exclusive: The end of the nudge -reclaiming influence in the era of overstimulation

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