New phrases

A couple of new phrases that seem to be entering the (marketing) lexicon:

'Mobile blinders' or blinkers - How a mobile distracts your attention from everything else around you, for example point of sale material in shops.

From the FT:

"It is a scene playing out in supermarkets across the world: a consumer waits to pay and, instead of browsing the magazines and chewing gum displayed alongside, she pulls out her mobile phone for a quick digital distraction.
US magazine executives call the habit the “mobile blinder” after the vision-narrowing headgear worn by racehorses, and say the trend is wreaking havoc on the industry.
Data released on Thursday show a big decline in single-copy sales of US magazines at newsstands and retail outlets, amid increased digital competition and reduced retail space. Single-copy sales fell 9.5 per cent to about 26.7m in 2012 from the previous year, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. That is about half the 52.9m magazines sold on newsstands a decade ago."

'Binge viewing' - when people watch multiple episodes of a TV show in one sitting.  Apparently Netflix prefer the term 'marathoning', but binge watching was the buzz phrase used most often when discussing last week's launch of their House of Cards.

From the New York Times:

"Television producers have turned bingeing, hoarding and overeating into successful prime-time shows for years, but now they are having to turn their attention to another example of overindulgence — TV watching.

Binge-viewing, empowered by DVD box sets and Netflix subscriptions, has become such a popular way for Americans to watch TV that it is beginning to influence the ways the stories are told — particularly one-hour dramas — and how they are distributed.

Some people, pressured by their peers to watch “Mad Men” or “Game of Thrones,” catch up on previous seasons to see what all the fuss is about before a new season begins. Others plan weekend marathons of classics like “The West Wing” and “The Wire.” Like other American pastimes, it can get competitive: people have been known to brag about finishing a whole 12-episode season of “Homeland” in one sitting."