Underground Blog

A newspaper organization says 6 in 10 consumers still view newspaper ads.

A video-sharing company says 62% of adults are watching online video.

Practically every magazine and newspaper’s media kit will show how that publication outshines the others in the area.

I’ll go out on a limb and bet that a vendor for mobile advertising is going to show me a study that, shockingly, mobile phone ads are on the rise.

Like we expected them to say anything different.

One of the problems in the era of microblogging is that the un-objective and biased individuals behind this “research” take these stats, throw them up on the web and promote them as breakthrough findings.

Maybe we can’t prevent that. But that’s also where we as marketers and people who advise marketers have to take a step back and look at these studies, surveys and polls for what they are.

It’s far too coincidental that all of these study respondents magically favor the medium or product that is linked to the organization doing the study. Every time that happens, these pretenders are screwing up the mission of planners who strive for the most objective and real facts about audience behavior to make an honest recommendation to their clients.

And that’s where the organizations and vendors who conduct such studies are playing a dangerous game, giving us skewed information, affecting what is truly in the best interest of the people counting on us for objectivity and hurting the very partners they’re trying to help.

I’ve witnessed this enough times in my career to recognize it. If I’m going to be taken seriously as someone who prides himself on finding the truest insight for brand strategy, I have no choice but to look for the most honorable and objective research organizations that do not sway this way or that way prior to the study or poll.

The good news is that such objective research organizations are still out there, with more advanced tools for analyzing customized data on your own or with the help of a brand strategist.

How can you recognize them? The next time you salivate at a percentage or see how many people out of 10 favored this or that, do me a favor: See who did the research. Then think if there’s any way on Earth they would have published something contrary to their conclusions. For example, I severely doubt a newspaper organization doing a survey would have published findings that newspapers are dying.

It won’t take you long to realize what I have about these “researchers”:
Their findings are about as predictable as Scooby Doo eating a Scooby Snack.