Recommended: A world of hits

“A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.”

The Economist (via mudd up, peterwknox) (via marco)

This is really a huge insight that has repercussions in all sorts of other areas, from digital advertising to iphone apps to search engines. And it’s all based on the age old principle of people being afraid of missing things out. Hence the blockbusters.

Maybe one person’s attention span is composed on one hand of following others (blockbusters) and on the other, finding your own (niches).

My hunch has always been that advertising needs social proof — proof that there are other people that dig an offer or an ad. That ultimately creates curiosity stemming from not wanting to miss out on something that a lot of others are getting.