Remember me?

I sure remember you. We used to be close, you’d read my words every day. But the more time went by, I became more distant.

Days became weeks. Weeks became months. We even took a gap year. Despite global warming, things got cold between us.

BUT NOW WE’RE BACK BABY!

Out with the old, in with the new.

Without any further ado, we’re going to pretend like nothing happened just like our parents after a summer vacation where they nearly murdered each other and just carry on with our moderately toxic, but never boring, relationship.

What is this relationship going to look like, you ask?

Great question!

Long walks on the (digital) beach and insightful talks about what makes you and me tick. Not as a person, but as a mindless consumer, of course!

Why are we obsessed about short form content?

What is AI doing to our future and how to fight fire with tokens?

Why do I know what a hook is despite the fact that I can’t fish to save my life?

Today’s topic - The Era of The Hook!

I want to talk about why we’re living the era of the hook and why the majority of businesses and marketers I see haven’t figured out the path to success has shifted while they were still standing on it.

But before we start - ADS! The only reason I was able to restart Lateral Thinking is because I know send voices memos. Not to victims on Whatsapp, but to AIs like Wispr that save me hours every week.

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If you got this far, you’re hooked.

And you got this far because of the following reasons:

• The subject title grabbed your attention

• The intro was catchy enough to make you keep reading

• The topic I mentioned was relevant to you

• (+ some serendipity sprinkled all around)

Welcome to the era of the hook.

Short form ate the internet (and it’s still hungry)

Funny enough, the biggest video platforms on the planet now agree that a view can last 1 second. I find that hilarious. Then I remember how short MY attention span is.

Five years ago, YouTube Shorts wasn’t even available worldwide. Today it pulls 200 billion views a day, up from 70 billion in 2024.

Same thing on Instagram. Reels took 37% of the time Americans spent on the app in 2024, and 46% in 2025. Nine points in one year. (That’s a lot of thumbs.)

Back in 2016, Facebook found people spent 1.7 seconds on a piece of mobile content. That was before TikTok and Reels took over. I’d wager the number didn’t go up.

And no, I won’t quote the “humans have the attention span of a goldfish” stat. The BBC traced it and found zero science behind it. It’s bullshit, and the goldfish deserved better.

So if you think a stranger will give you more than 2 seconds before you earn them, you were delusional before, but now you’re just silly.

The companies winning right now demand attention.

A to do for you

When you close this email, open the last ad, Reel, TikTok or landing page you pushed live. Give it only 2 seconds with your time. For video - once with sound off, once with sound on.

Ask one question: would I stop for this if I didn’t know who made it?

If the answer is “maybe”, that’s a no. Change the hook. Lead with the tension, the problem, the weird detail, the result. Anything that makes a thumb stop.

It’s not just your friendly neighborhood newsletter-man saying this.

TikTok says over 63% of its highest-CTR videos show the key message or product in the first 3 seconds. Google and Kantar scored 11,000 YouTube ads and found that ads following their ABCD guide (the A stands for Attention) showed a 30% lift in short-term sales likelihood.

For example, say you pay €10 CPM and 3% of clicks convert.

At a 1% CTR, you get 0.3 conversions per 1,000 impressions. That’s a €33 CPA. Push CTR to 1.3% with a better hook and you get 0.39 conversions. That’s €26 CPA.

A better hook can lead to 23% cheaper customers. I’ve seen even better results.

That’s all, folks!

See you with the next hook.