Monday, June 20, 2005

Solstice on ice

Instead of the usual mumbo-jumbo gumbo, we are featuring today a cool statistical gazpacho to celebrate the summer solstice. No slurping, please.

:: Consumers today encounter from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages per day, vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s, according to a Yankelovich study reported in USA Today. "There are so many ads out there that consumers actively avoid commercials today to an extent never before realized," said Prof. Dan Howard of Southern Methodist University, as quoted by America’s newspaper. "No matter how many more ads we put out there, it's not going to work...because it's not registering." Huh? What? Did he say something?

:: In light of the above, perhaps it comes as no surprise that 72% of DVR owners zap as many commercials as fast as they can, according to Magna Global, the media-buying agency. This useful statistic initially was reported in November by my pal Howard Finberg at the Poynter Institute, so I thought I ought to use it before it went to waste.

:: Fully 73% of respondents to a poll for AP and AOL say they would rather stay home and watch a DVD than go to a movie theater. Not even Batman could rescue movie revenues last weekend from a record-tying 17-week slump in which ticket sales fell short of the same period in the previous year. Maybe they should bring back original-recipe Milk Duds and real butter.

:: With newspaper circulation already at historic lows, Nielsen/NetRatings learned that even 21% of the remaining newspaper devotees prefer to read the paper online instead of in print. Suit yourself, folks. Just remember that you can’t wrap a fish in a laptop.

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