YouGov - What the world DOESN'T think
Martin Ellis
CV Writer | Ex Candidate | Ex Hiring Manager | Ex Headhunter | Ex Recruiter | Outplacement | Careers Advice | Your Voice | Management CVs | LinkedIn Profile | LinkedIn Refresh | Career Strategy
I feel the need to open by saying that technology is good. It has added a good deal to my existence. Since I was born my life expectancy has risen from 69 to 85. Technology has helped. So I am a fan. I just don't swallow everything that stuffed down my gullet........
There's often an evangelical air to new technology. AI is going to do this...... Data is going to do that..... Elon Musk is my dreamboat....... Steve Jobs only employed people better than him....... Everybody will live forever - HALLELUJAH!
As soon as I get a whiff of a sermon, I smell a dead fish. And for good reason. I was that marketing person once. I would select the data that suited me. But it's worse than that:
Technology in the hands of an idiot can blow your foot off
The spreadsheet is corrupt. Checking it is boring and the intern who's working on it has a degree. So it must be right. And I'm too important to give it a poke, and anyway I have lots of projects and sales are down, and my boss is looking for the next magic bullet to save their arse before the month closes.
Think I'm shooting from the hip?
Please allow me to introduce the evidence from that most reputable of resources - YouGov.
Under 'Ratings' on their website they list what they reckon are the "Most Popular" 52 comedians in the UK. Just for the moment, think who may be on that list for yourself. Not who you like, but who you think the great British public would vote for as a collective in 2019.
I'll give you 30 seconds. If I could play the Countdown tune here, I'd do it. Rachel Riley can shimmy around in your own head if you wish. For the sake of gender balance, you could consider Jimmy Carr is a tutu if you prefer. BTW, we're doing the 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown version on this blog. It's almost the best thing on the telly.
So here are the Top 5 according to YouGov:
- Ronnie Barker
- Dawn French
- Ronnie Corbett
- Billy Connolly
- Bradley Walsh
BRADLEY WALSH???????????
And 2 of them are dead.
But hold on. It gets better.....
7. Stan Laurel
He died in 1965.
And you can break the stats by generations. When millennials voted their 52, 19 are dead. That includes Chico Marx, who died in 1961 and who even I'd forgotten.
Look at the list for yourself. Do you swallow it? Either it's wrong, or the average age of a YouGov voter is 97. Which is isn't.
To be fair, this is all pretty obvious stuff. But what about the stuff that's not so obvious? When can you be sure that everything is right?
You can't.
But that doesn't mean you accept this stuff with a shrug. At least give it a sideways glance and a sense check it before you invest in your next marketing campaign - and your credibility.
Sometimes we're better served using our professional judgement. Are you ready to back yourself ? That's when you can make a proper difference.
Martin Ellis is the Headhunter at the RSE Group. You can argue with him at [email protected]
Digital Campaigns Manager at Shooting Star Children's Hospices.
5 年Audience fragmentation is another point to consider on this. The top five made careers when it was still possible to be a household name by appearing on TV when there were only 3-4 channels. They drew in audiences of? tens of millions, whereas now anything even approaching half that is probably cause for campaign corks to pop in TV executive offices. If you asked millennial who their favourite comedians are now you'd get a hundred different answers drawn from dozens of different channels here and in the US, Youtube, etc etc. But they will have still grown up seeing repeats of things like Vicar of Dibbley and the two Ronnies because thats what their parents put on at Christmas. So while they may not be the most popular among millennial, the sheer numbers they get from being a cultural touch stone will dwarf most modern comedians.? You're right in that that result doesn't just mean the teens are all spending their time watching two Ronnie's sketches on their phones though.? Also Bradders has probably got a big double boost from modern audiences for Doctor Who (which I think he's been excellent in) and a lot of corpsing to stupid answers on The Chase that have gone viral.??
Partnering with the best Housebuilding businesses, I stop the wrong people from joining. Over 7000 meetings in 22 years of headhunting. I won't pretend to be your best friend. I'm paid to search. I don't want CVs.
5 年It must be harder for comedians today, as they have 50 odd years of material which they can’t use as their own, already out there!