36% of people tested still do not realise that Google Adwords are ads.

Get real about the level of digital literacy.

It does amuse me when I hear a bunch of digital marketers talking about some way they are going to finesse their strategies and how they intend using the latest social media development.

This is all terrific stuff and I spend far too long reading and talking about it myself, but, and this is an important but, we need to view all of digital decision in light of the real level of digital literacy of our  peers.

So this year the research shows that over a third of web users don't know anything about Google advertising. Well that is an improvement on last year when the figure was over 40%.

In the UK there are 11,000,000 lacking the basic digital skills to function adequately online. My guess is that this is an underestimate.

So yes let's employ the wonders of digital technology but do it knowing that it will be ignored by a significant chunk of the populace. Especially, older consumers. Dick Stroud