Keep it simple, keep it visual: 1/3rd of adults struggle with reading and writing

Crikey. In the UK there are an estimated 12 million people who have a reading and writing age of between 9 and 14 despite speaking English as their first language. This represents almost a third of the adult population.

I was introduced to this little factoid by Jon Cohen, MD of quallie agency Rosenblatt and a one-time Leo Burnett grad trainee, in a paper he wrote for the Market Research Society Annual Conference last year. Those of you who have a subscription to the indispensable WARC can read it in full here.

In his paper, Jon reported that "almost all self-define themselves as 'visual' people. They like to see visual representations of things. They are often far more keen to 'watch' a story, than to read about it."

Picture credit: cormac70 taken at the Bluewater shopping Centre in Kent