Insights from Nebo

The curtains have officially closed at the Nebo Art Gallery, and we’re still thinking about it.

The Nebo Gallery was an art gallery hosted by us, for us, with an open call to anyone who wanted to take part — no talent required. People from every department answered, and the submissions ranged from paintings and photography to poems and silent short films. We also saw crocheted ducks and painted rocks, because apparently we’re jacks-of-all-trades.

Last week, I flew to New Mexico to experience the largest hot-air balloon festival in the world: the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. It also happens to be the world’s most photographed event. As a southerner and a marketer, my trip to the Wild West exceeded my expectations. 

Every year around this time, marketers collectively lose their minds — in the best way possible. The Q4 plans we've been polishing since July finally go live. Budgets get unlocked. Creative gets shipped. And somewhere, a media buyer is refreshing a dashboard with the intensity of a day trader.

Then reality taps us on the shoulder: everyone else is doing the exact same thing. Every brand on earth is flooding every channel at the exact same moment, and this year they've got an army of AI tools cranking out infinite variations of it all. 

For years, marketing has been obsessed with attention.

We want more impressions. More clicks. More reach. More ways to interrupt someone in the middle of whatever they were actually trying to do.

But attention is not the same thing as connection. And today, the difference matters more than ever.

Let’s take it back now, y’all. To a time when Destiny’s Child just broke up and everyone was over-plucking their eyebrows — all really tragic stuff. Carrie Underwood won American Idol, YouTube launched and Dancing with the Stars aired for the first time.

It is 2026. Your refrigerator can suggest dinner. Your watch knows you slept badly. An AI assistant can research a product, compare prices and make a purchase before you have finished deciding whether you even want it.

Somewhere, a marketing dashboard records all of this as user activity.

That word, user, has followed technology for decades. It once described someone operating a computer, back when doing so was a distinct enough activity to warrant its own label. Today, nearly everyone encounters digital technology constantly, often without consciously “using” anything at all.