It’s a more of a visual thing really. It’s not about being literate or not. This whole subject however, is still upsetting to many. Even Groucho Marx once said, “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
That was a long time ago. Five years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts released a report that consolidated over 40 various studies on how young people in particular are reading far less than they did at the turn of the last century.
Less than half of all 13-year-olds read on a daily basis. Over a twenty-year period ending in 2004, 20 percent of high school juniors and seniors stated they never read for pleasure. And, over fifty percent of young college age adults don’t read for pleasure.
The 15 to 24 age-group spend almost three hours a day watching TV. The same group only devotes and 7 minutes to any reading.
Yes, this information is disturbing on so many levels. But to business owners, marketers and advertising professionals, it poses a conundrum. How do you circumvent the reality of this decline in reading without adding to the problem?
You can’t! Steve Jobs said “…the fact is people don’t read anymore,” meaning that they prefer to do it online. But, are they really reading or scanning. Which are you doing right now?
ENTER VIDEO: More people watched web videos of cats than read the newspaper. The KISSmetrics blog reports that, “viewers of a product video are 64-85% more likely to buy after watching.”
As marketing and advertising professionals, we are primarily called upon to solve our client’s problems. With that solely in mind, we offer you our affordable, memorable and effective broadcast and web video services. See what we can do for you – contact us today!