The gripping statistic

While not as sexy as ‘I just made love’ (previous post), statistics could be the new sexy in 10 years.

I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians.  And I’m not kidding. -  Hal Varian, chief economist at Google

If I had Hal’s kind of money, I would bet millions that he’s right.  So how do we as communicators and marketers get in on the action?  We start by making the numbers we communicate gripping…

According to Dan and Chip Heath (authors of Made to Stick),

A gripping statistic is one that aids a decision or shapes an opinion.  For a stat to do either of those, it must be dragged within the everyday.

The most illustrative examples of this definition that I’ve come across recently are the work of a young graphic designer by the name of Toby Ng Kwong To.  For example,…

Had Toby lazily put the millions that have computers versus the billions that don’t, his infographic would not be effective; nor would we be moved, as the Heath brothers indicate, to form an opinion or make a decision.  But since we all live in a village of some kind, we can imagine the disparity, formulate a strong opinion and maybe even make a decision to get involved.

Although it may not be our calling to provide the remaining 93 in the village a computer, it is without question our job to make statistics ‘grip’.  Otherwise, as Google’s chief economist predicts, someone else will, and they’ll look sexier than us for doing it.

Really, only 7 have computers?  I bet you’ll remember that tomorrow…