• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 4, 2014

Run five minutes a day and live three years longer? This is according to research in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

What about other activities? Would watching five more minutes of TV add another three years? Most would probably say it’ll subtract three years -- or more.

In the future we can count on division of media time mattering even more, especially if multitasking tends to water down each of the multiple activities we are doing. Watching a TV commercial for 30-seconds, 15-seconds, ten-second or even five seconds will be more precious.

Erwin Ephron always talked about “recency” as being the key for brands. Timing is everything -- as well as duration of that message.

Piling on may not be encouraged, however. Multiple retargeting efforts of digital advertisers make might  executives feel good about themselves -- as they try and get me to buy that Pinerello Dogma Shimano electronic shifting 11-speed road bike for $5,750 or those Zappos Keen sandals. No doubt they are hoping to add more milliseconds to my gaze (including the fine ink I give them here).

Every second counts. Rentrak, TiVo and others have amped up the game by looking at TV viewing data on a second-by-second basis. TiVo measures second-by-second audience measurement data from a sample of 350,000 anonymous households. Rentrak gets second-by-second numbers from more than 8.7 million TV homes. Perhaps there will be more homes for survey and more partial moments of time to consider.  

By the way, if I’m running 50 minutes a day -- or ten times the rate mentioned above, that should mean an additional 30 years of life, no?

No worries. I’m not greedy. I’m here to share those extra moments. More time to watch ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and Tour de France reruns on YouTube, and shop on digital sites. Get ready, marketers -- but make it quick!