Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Obsolescence.

There was a science report on NPR this morning that's worth thinking about, I think. Reporter Robert Krulwich wondered do tools, materials, clothing actually completely ever die.You can listen to the report here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/02/01/133188723/tools-never-die-waddaya-mean-never

He found a community still making paleolithic stone tools. He found a place to buy virtually every item in the 1895 Montgomery Ward catalog. Scientist Kevin Kelly said:
"I say there is no species of technology that have ever gone globally extinct on this planet."

I think about this in light of two things. One, the affectation of new media gurus who have variously claimed: marketing is dead, advertising is dead, TV is dead, print is dead, radio is dead and so on. And Two, the new data that shows Facebook is virtually useless as an advertising medium--clicks through rate is 0.051. If I'm reading that right, that's five clicks per thousand impressions. http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i3526b9ba6837828c88f374604a45b9a6

Everything that was ever made in the past is somewhere being made in the world today. Though maybe Facebook will be the first to belie that assertion.
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5 comments:

  1. BOB HOFFMANFebruary 1, 2011 at 8:21 AM

    You are not right. It means 5 clicks per TEN thousand impressions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sean PeakeFebruary 1, 2011 at 9:15 AM

    What was interesting about that study was what appeared on the last page:
    "It is worth noting that the majority of campaigns we analyzed were focused on fan acquisition, which may skew some of the results. Benchmarks may vary for campaigns aimed at websites or fan nurturing campaigns."

    It's worse than we thought

    ReplyDelete
  3. george tannenbaumFebruary 1, 2011 at 9:16 AM

    You're correcting me at 5:20 your time. Ouch.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BOB HOFFMANFebruary 1, 2011 at 10:31 AM

    One more thing. I've been told by someone in the inside at Facebook that the real number is 2 in 10,000. I don't know where Adweek got their number.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2011 at 7:41 AM

    Media consumption is changing though not at the rate our hysterical trade pubs claim. Watch how a 13 year old consumes media. And remember this Contrarian, at 32 I can virtually I'll be reading yr obit on my ipad3.


    Lis D'Antonio

    ReplyDelete