What if ads weren’t just about grabbing your attention—but serving your true intentions? At MAD//Fest, Lee Henshaw, Founder, introduced Into-it, a new kind of ad tech rooted in what people actually want.

An intention economist walks onto the attention stage—sounds like the start of a bad joke, right? But that was me at MAD//Fest, giving a talk titled Can I Have Your Intention, Please?

The idea for my startup, Into-it, came after reading The Intention Economy by Doc Searls. In it, Searls suggests a radical shift: from today’s attention economy—where brands fight to interrupt us—to an intention economy, where customers openly share what they’re looking to buy, and businesses compete to meet those needs.

Into-it is just three months old, but we’re already partnering with record labels, promoters, and retailers to turn this idea into reality. We’ve built a Chrome extension that replaces banner ads on sites like The Guardian and The Independent with personalised music notifications—only for fans who’ve said what they’re into.

It’s a timely experiment. The publishing industry is in crisis. I’m old enough to remember when newspapers and magazines captured 40% of the UK’s ad spend; today, it's just 4%. Thirty years after the invention of the banner ad, we’re working with publishers and music companies to explore a future where that same inventory powers something better: a value exchange based on relevance, not intrusion.

Speaking at MAD//Fest was just one part of the experience. We also had a stall on Seltzer Street, where we connected directly with publishers, marketers, and investors. For a company like Into-it, those conversations are essential. This model only works if the people who need it understand it—and want to help shape it.

Thankfully, the MAD//Fest crowd got it. It felt like exactly the right place to start a different kind of conversation about the future of digital advertising. One driven not by noise, but by intention.