It strikes me as very odd when people say things like “we have much to learn about [insert new media], it’s not like TV that we know so well”.
Know so well?!? How many marketers have heard of the ‘Duplication of Viewing Law’ (Goodhardt, 1966*) ? How many can predict a repeat-viewing rate for a program, time-slot, or channel? Even what is known isn’t well known (nor used).
There are so many unanswered questions. Even simple questions like is an ad spot on the left hand side of a page is worth less or more than one on the right? And how much?
Not enough is known about how we should best use media to expose category buyers to our advertising. Let alone how these exposures reach brains. And this is true for even ‘old media’ like TV and print. So much that needs to be researched. It’s extraordinary how ignorant many marketers (and marketing academics) are about our discipline’s fundamental ignorance.
Byron Sharp, July 2015.
* Published in the most cited journal in the world, Nature (and yes the date is correct, 1966). Yet try to find a marketing textbook that covers it (not counting this one).
Marketing Science 