1,826,089,359 websites, nothing to see.
So much good stuff this week, it seems only right to share via what the upper crust (nether regions) of clickbait culture gratingly call a “listicle.”
Actually, the Reductionist would like to consign the legions of fame-sucking neologists who come up with coinage like “listicle” to pedantic hell, forced to eternally endure their malapropisms; madness ensues.
This just in: people don’t hate online ads. Source: a study of US and Australian internet users jointly conducted by media shops Magna and IPG Media Hub.
And, no, they don’t love online ads either—mostly and/or worstly, they’re just plain indifferent. Especially if a) the ads are delivered to them via the kind of loosely targeted media buys now being shoved down the ad world’s throat by Google or b) the ads are creepily stalked to them via the kind of highly personalized targeting recommended in an earlier study, also by Magna.
Enough with the data versus creativity catfight. Data gives you a window on relevance and creativity makes sure your ad stands a prayer of being noticed. You need both.
In unrelated news, it turns out the post-pandemic world won’t be a damn thing like the Roaring 20s. This, despite repeated predictions from the chatterati in blogs like, well, this one.
The operating theory, at least until now, has been that all pandemics, going back to the Black Plague, are followed by economic resurgence. Drafting on Mark Twain’s charming phrase, “history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme,” this has led a lot of us to expect a couplet that looks a lot like the 1920s.
That is, until you take a gander at this genius insight from Politico Magazine—https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/roaring-2020s-coronavirus-flu-pandemic-john-m-barry-477016
In it, historian John Barry points out that all the excesses and “Gatsbyesque decadence,” were fueled by a combination of war, flu, and survivor’s guilt. Implication: while we can expect an economic bounce, the zeitgeist that travels with it will be something different.
Chasing clarity hypothesis: if the prevailing social and physical conditions are what will shape post-virus moods and attitudes, the driver will be a response to the enforced isolation of the past month
Reductionist prognostication: from package goods to travel and tourism to political campaigns, the mantra will be a new “coming together.” That could be huge.
Of course, 90% of post-pandemic predictions will probably be wrong. Including this one.
By the way, if you’re wondering about the number at the top of this post: it’s the total tally of websites as of January 2021.
Puts sort of a different spin on the way the Reductionist’s parents, back when TV was four networks and PBS, often nodded sadly at each other, saying, “all those channels, and nothing worth watching.”
Stay creative out there.