I gotta admit, I kinda love these info-graphic videos. A few years ago, the first iteration of these “Did You Know?” vids appeared on YouTube, presenting a list of perspective-changing facts gathered by Denver school teacher Karl Fisch. Since then, the presentation has been re-animated and reversioned and rewritten to address all sorts of topics, but most of them have continued to feature the track ‘Right Here, Right Now’ by Fatboy Slim.
This version debuted last month. Created by Erik Qualman to support his new book Socialnomics, it updates facts on Social Media which–despite being an unholy, concentration-fracturing timesuck–is now a reality of modern life. The speed of communications change these days is truly mind-boggling; check this out.
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Of course, like all things on the web, you really do have to check this out. And when you do, you’ll see that some of the TV-bashing facts purported by Mr. Qualman are…dubious at best. It is fashionable to claim TV is dead and television advertising no longer works, but it’s simply not true. If you want to reach people fast, it remains the ideal advertising medium. And according to a Nielsen report from last November, we are watching more TV than ever–a staggering average of four hours and forty-nine minutes every day. And Qualman’s mystifying claim that “90% of people skip ads via TiVo/DVR” implies he’s describing 90% of the television public. But again, according to Nielsen, TiVo/DVR household penetration was 28% as of late 2008 and probably won’t hit 50% until late next year. And even among TiVo users, ad-skipping is far from universal with the BBC estimating the high-range for skip rates at 70%. Interestingly, the data shows people choose to skip bad ads–particularly fast food and car ads and watch good ads–often beer and other comedy spots. Further, DVR owners tend to watch more TV than others anyway.
None of this is meant to refute Mr. Qualman’s valid points about the sea changes created by the rapid adoption of social media. If you’ve ever had a friend who played Farmville, you already know how real that is…
By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79
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