Rocketboom: Please Listen to My Demo
One of the commonly accepted bellwether sites for the market, Rocketboom, has had podCast411 compile the results of its user survey [PDF] conducted from Feb. 5-12. Some of the results indicate strong polling bias — for instance, 92% of respondents say they primarily view Rocketboom on a computer, and 68% say they check it directly from the web site. Which tells me that it’s probably underreporting iTunes, mobile partner and RSS subscriber data.
To paint a picture of the typical Rocketboom viewer, a composite subject would look like a 21- to 33-year-old Californian man who’s a degreed professional making more than $60,000 a year. He spends less than three hours a day watching television and from three to eight hours online, where he gets most of his news and shops regularly. He’s got an account or three on social networks, subscribes to some RSS feeds, has a fetish for Macs, and may even keep his own blog or podcast to lord his internerdliness over his friends.
Of course, the most significant number is that 92% of the 1,063 responses checked the ‘male’ box. While that’s great if your selling beer, gadgets and lad mags, advertisers know that the big purchasing decisions (cars, plasma TVs, new appliances) are generally made by women. Though without having any data for marital status, it’s difficult to know how many men are single or parents — which also complicates the income number, because most surveys ask household income and I’m having trouble believing that more than a quarter of Rocketboom users make over $100,000 a year.
Statistics, like steaks, always taste better with a grain or three of salt. But if you needed confirmation that online videos can appeal to a wealthy, male, educated and computer savvy audience, here you go.
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“Stastics, like steaks, always taste better with a grain or three of salt.”
Spell check, please…
Frank 'viperteq' Young on February 19th, 2007 at 12:30 pm - Permalink
Oye, gracias. Though every time I see a typo in the Chronicle or the Times, I do find it reassuring.
Jackson West on February 19th, 2007 at 6:07 pm - Permalink
I was this man you described to come visit me. ;)
Heather on February 19th, 2007 at 8:53 pm - Permalink
not “was”, want. Damn, now he’ll never visit. Say is he into good grammar?
Heather on February 19th, 2007 at 8:54 pm - Permalink
Darn, you are so right, I wish we would of asked everyone if they were single. Well, there is a bit more balance to the inference that more are married or not quite as wealthy because the 100k was total household income, not individual income.
The question read:
“What is your total annual household income in U.S. currency? (Please include the total from everyone in your household).”
On another note, while I take for granted the same conclusion that the survey is under-representative of our off-site audience (by nature of the survey being on the site), sadly enough, Rocketboom has hardly scratched the surface with cell phone audiences or any other 3rd party distribution point for that matter. We have all kinds of partners and I have heard many promises by cell phone companies with “audiences in the millions” and i.p. boxes that promise “hundreds of thousands” so perhaps I’m living in an isolated world, Ive never experienced any sign of that. I can imagine it pretty easily.
The road ahead for serial content creators like myself thus seems extremely promising to me because these little audience pools should become larger and more pervasive. The last thing I will ever do is simply just persevere but that’s all it may take for many as imminent technology begins to expand the audience at a frenetic rate for many years into the future, or three. :)
Drew on February 19th, 2007 at 9:50 pm - Permalink
[...] so on — all smart people, I’m certain. But as a cynic, I can’t help but wonder at the almost singular appeal to the male gaze this trend [...]
NewTeeVee » BikiniZero Takes Net News to ‘Natural’ End on March 27th, 2007 at 11:47 am - Permalink