The Triumph Of Disinformation

In the 3rd quarter of 2012, television continued to dominate video viewing.

According to Nielsen's 3rd quarter 2012 Cross-Platform Report...

• Video viewing on a television (live plus time-shifted) came to 97% of all video viewing
• Video viewing online accounted for a little over 2% of video viewing 
• Mobile video viewing was about half of 1% of total viewing. 

Here's how it breaks down:

One of the fascinating aspects of these numbers is how out of touch many advertising people are with reality. These numbers should not be a surprise to anyone. They have shifted very little in the past few years. But the constant drumbeat of web zealotry has left many in the ad business believing nonsense and propaganda.

Last week I was at an advertising function. I was sitting at a table with a group of young people who worked at agencies. In the course of our discussion I asked these people to estimate how much video viewing was done on a TV and how much was done online. The consensus was that 60% was done online and 40% on TV.

These were not students, these were people who worked at agencies.

I don't blame them for their ignorance. I blame an industry that survives on hype and baloney; that has leaders who don't lead; that refuses to re-examine its biases and assumptions.

Several years ago when the web was shiny and new, and television was "dying," those of us who were prudent and judicious, and refused to be stampeded into wasting our clients' money chasing digital rainbows, were accused of being slow to adapt to the "new realities." We learned how to adapt all right -- not to any new realities, but to the drumbeat of criticism.

Now that the hysteria of the false prophets has turned out to be substantially misguided, the ad industry is still confused about what is going on around it.

And A Little Poetry...

There was a young fellow named Lance
Who became a big hero in France
He did himself harm
Having junk in his arm 
But not quite enough in his pants