Wow, we live in a world of change! O.K., so that is not such a big shock. But every report I read says something different. Some say that video is critical. Then I recently saw a study by Pew Research in the USA that shows it slightly differently. Though 46% of Americans prefer to watch the news over reading it, of the demographic of 18-29, only 38% named video as their preferred news format. 42% of that demographic prefer to read (online, mind you) their news versus watching it!

Here you are reading the TMC (Tuesday Morning Commentary). I am told all the time that I should abandon the written form and just do a video version. I am told that I will attract a larger and more diversified audience. So let’s take a poll right here and now, and then I will get to my message for the week!

Please click on one of the three links below based on your preference:

• Would you still want to receive the TMC if it was in video format only? Please click here! 
• Would you like to have the option of choosing (each week) whether you want to watch the TMC or read it as you are doing today? Please click here!
• Are you happy with just getting the written form of the TMC, and if it were available in video, you would not watch it anyway? Please click here!

Research is really important. But you need to make sure it tells you what you are looking for. Different question formats can deliver different outcomes. There are so many variables. We and our clients need to conduct research, but we also need to decipher the information. Here is what I have learned when taking information provided to me, be it researched and found on the internet, accessed privately, or commissioned.

• A single study is not always the whole truth. We need to be open minded to different studies, compare similarities and differences, and determine the reason for such differences before calling one study or another right or wrong.
• I believe that, on the marketing side, all media work. If they didn’t, they would not be around. So, when someone says magazines are dead or no one listens to radio, I laugh! Those media work. A certain target audience utilizes them, and if that audience is part of your target, consider those media and determine if they or something else is the most cost effective to reach the audience!
• In my mind, based on both research and anecdotal evidence, strong changes in consumer behavior today (video versus text, online bookings, communications) are based on social platforms rather than just consumer demand. I don’t believe that consumers demand apps for mobile booking versus creating the option based on application development. It is technology leading the consumer versus consumer demand for many things in today’s society.

Let’s test the theory of technology driven versus consumer drive. If you did not respond to the survey above on video versus written format TMC, please scroll back and click one. That is all it takes. In a future TMC, I will tell you the result and the outcomes as well as the message with it!

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