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September 2008 - Strategy Magazine
What next?

Statsthought: 42.6

by Mike Farrell
page 23

This is the percent of Canadians aged 14 to 34 that "like it when a television show has a single sponsor and there are almost no ads, except for the sponsor." (This percentage reflects those who rated this form of advertising as a 4 or 5 on a scale 1 to 5 for effectiveness.) Meanwhile, an almost equal percentage (41.8%) of young Canadians "usually skip over commercials when using my PVR."

It continues to be a perplexing enigma that in today's age of rampant technological advances, we continue to see a resurgent interest in old-school marketing techniques, a la programs "brought to you by" BrylCreem in the 1950s.

This stat is a perfect example of what I've grown fond of calling the "Marty McFly effect." Today's younger consumerist wants a "real," "honest" and "ongoing" interaction with sales staff in a given retail environment (hello, malt shop!). And young foodie culture is obsessively focused on Farmer John down the way and the ashen cheese his herd of goats produces.

It goes to show that as much as things have changed in the relatively newborn digital mediascape, some basics of sustainable human relationships will continue on, ad infinitum, into the future.

This "statsthought" is gleaned from Ping, Youthography's quarterly national study of Canadians aged 9 to 34. This particular stat was culled from a survey fielded in fall 2007 involving a battery of questions responded to by 1,762 14- to 34-year-olds, regionally represented. Mike Farrell (partner, chief strategic officer) can be reached at mike@youthography.com

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