Attention, a global social media agency that is an arm of KBS, has hired Asif Khan, Tim Gunatilaka, and Ben Krantz as VP/strategy & analytics, director of content, and creative director, respectively.
“Asif, Tim and Ben all have deep social and content roots but provide a broader purview of the marketing landscape, which is important to us as we continue to innovate for and with our clients,” said president of Attention, Tom Buontempo.
Kahn will be responsible for bringing a fresh perspective to Attention’s strategy and creative team, and showing the agency how data and creativity are inextricably linked. Prior to joining Attention, Khan led the strategy department at VICE Media’s Carrot Creative where he played an instrumental role in winning several pieces of new business, including Chipotle as its first ever-social AOR and several Unilever brands. He is also responsible for building the Carrot Strategy team from 3 to 15 members. Before joining Carrot, Asif held various strategy roles at branding, experiential and digital agencies after first starting his career in market research.
Gunatilaka’s background in journalism will allow him to bring an audience-first perspective to Attention’s storytelling capabilities. Previously, as associate director of content and social strategy at KBS, he helped launch the digital magazine IQ by Intel, among other branded content platforms. Before that, he served as head of content innovation at OMD where he oversaw GE’s foray into podcasts and virtual reality. Earlier in his career, he was a journalist for publications including Entertainment Weekly, SPIN and Paper Magazine.
Krantz has built a reputation for his ability to create authentic conversations and experiences for brands. As creative director at Attention, he is making an immediate impact on the creative department, including the agency’s own rebranding efforts. For nearly a decade, Krantz has led and developed groundbreaking campaigns across digital, social, traditional and experiential platforms for clients including Mercedes-Benz, American Express, Citibank and P&G. Previously, Krantz served as associate creative director at Tribal Worldwide and Publicis.
Attention recently launched an L.A.-based influencer studio, Meat & Produce, dedicated to leveraging the craft of a raw creator base, fostering brand collaborations and helping the influencer community build a business around their talent.
Growth Brings Growing Pains–and Bots–To Bluesky
Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk's X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner's support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta's Threads and its algorithms.
The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter, championed by its former CEO Jack Dorsey. Its decentralized approach to social networking was eventually intended to replace Twitter's core mechanic. That's unlikely now that the two companies have parted ways. But Bluesky's growth trajectory — with a user base that has more than doubled since October — could make it a serious competitor to other social platforms.
But with growth comes growing pains. It's not just human users who've been flocking to Bluesky but also bots, including those designed to create partisan division or direct users to junk websites.
The skyrocketing user base — now surpassing 25 million — is the biggest test yet for a relatively young platform that has branded itself as a social media alternative free of the problems plaguing its competitors. According to research firm Similarweb, Bluesky added 7.6 million monthly active app users on iOS and Android in November, an increase of 295.4% since October. It also saw 56.2 million desktop and mobile web visits, in the same period, up 189% from October.
Besides the U.S. elections, Bluesky also got a boost when X was briefly banned in Brazil.
"They got this spike in attention, they've crossed the threshold where it is now worth it for people to flood the platform with spam," said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and a member of Issue One's... Read More