How brands can build connection without adding to the noise

Our Strategic Navigators research shows that this feeling is not only persistent but growing. A reality shaped by rapid change, economic uncertainty, and an explosion of daily choices.

Brands can’t remove overwhelm. But they can choose whether to add to it or design around it. Brands have a unique opportunity: to become a source of clarity, ease, and even relief in consumers’ lives.

When everything feels like noise, overwhelmed consumers default to what psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls “System 1 thinking” — fast, automatic, emotional responses rather than careful analysis.

Barack Obama understood this reality. He told Vanity Fair: “You’ll see I wear only grey or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions.” Steve Jobs commissioned “like a hundred” identical black turtlenecks.

The psychology is sound: Choices deplete mental energy. When cognitive resources are depleted, people rely on mental shortcuts. 

The brands that win make the right choice feel effortless.

Brands often overwhelm when they mean to help. The average consumer is exposed to anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 ads daily. Retargeting follows people across the web long after they’ve made a purchase. Social media ads repeat the same message across Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Email campaigns pile up in inboxes, each demanding attention.

The result? Choice paralysis. When faced with too many options, consumers often abandon their purchase entirely. 

Faced with this paralysis, Netflix learned that curation beats quantity. Users were spending up to 40 minutes browsing, often abandoning the platform. By improving recommendation algorithms, they flipped the script: today, 80% of viewing is driven by tailored suggestions, not user searches.

Design for eight-second attention spans.

Attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to just eight seconds today. Consumers now engage in shorter bursts, often three to five seconds long. Instead of forcing deep attention, smart brands use these micro-moments to create intuitive flows. Duolingo uses gamified micro-moments (five to ten second streak updates, light nudges) to keep attention and retention high.

Brands should prototype and test micro-interaction journeys and use behavioural data to optimize each touchpoint for minimal friction and maximum value. At DEPT®, we help brands rapidly prototype and test micro-interaction journeys, leveraging behavioural data to optimise each touchpoint across web, app, and even immersive environments.

Replace segmentation with situational relevance

Traditional audience buckets feel blunt in 2025. Consumers now expect content to respond not just to who they are, but where they are, physically, emotionally, and even economically. A Gen-Z buyer in a financial crunch behaves more like a cost-conscious Boomer than their peers. AI can help brands detect real-time signals to serve content that feels eerily well-timed (without being creepy).

Through AI-powered personalisation engines and real-time signal detection, DEPT® helps brands move from static segmentation to delivering content that aligns with a user’s real-world context.

Lead with intelligent minimalism

In a world of overchoice, people gravitate toward brands that act like a well-edited wardrobe. Apple is well known for offering only a handful of product options at a time, limiting consumer overwhelm and reinforcing a confident, curated brand identity. Clean design, decisive messaging, and confident restraint build trust. Brands should articulate clear, bold choices, eliminating the “what now?” feeling across digital touchpoints.

Create interfaces that decide with the user

The best digital experiences aren’t self-service; they’re co-piloted. Amazon’s “frequently bought together” eliminates decision fatigue while increasing cart size. Spotify’s curated playlists remove the song selection burden.

Smart personalisation predicts what customers want, and brands win when they reduce the burden of figuring it all out alone. DEPT® helps brands anticipate needs, combining data, AI, and commerce expertise to guide decisions without overwhelming users.

Build “quiet loyalty”

People don’t want another program to manage. Loyalty in 2025 is ambient. Baked into experience, not just rewards. Think: zero-login reordering, seamless thank-you credits, or meaningful content drops that don’t ask for anything in return. Brands should build loyalty systems that feel like value, not obligation. And use data to make it feel like magic. 

Overwhelm isn’t going away. It’s the atmosphere we all operate in. Brands can’t eliminate it, but they can choose whether to contribute to the static or become a signal within it.

The most effective brands today don’t just grab attention; they deserve it. They respect the realities of modern cognition, crafting communications that feel light, experiences that guide rather than demand, and systems that flex with context.

They use behavioural insight to design for how people actually decide. They prioritise adaptability over one-size-fits-all, and clarity over complexity. They reduce decisions without reducing agency. And they recognise that in a world of too much, doing less with more intention is a competitive advantage.