Our attraction to numbers isn’t a fad. But they only work where the readers understand their significance.
Numbers get attention. There’s a reason why they’re still a staple of clickbait headlines, and this isn’t going to change, because our attraction to numbers isn’t a fad. However, where numbers don’t work is where the readers say “so what?” because they don’t understand their significance.
Suppose our new blue widget runs at 10kW, which is amazing, because the industry norm is just 1kW. We’d explain that advance in the first paragraph of an announcement or sales document, of course. Ten times the power!
But the headline needs to explain that too. “New blue widget runs at 10kW” will only attract readers who instinctively know that the industry norm is just 1kW.
Similarly, interesting comparisons can make the numbers work harder. Is it impressive that all the blue widgets we’ve sold, if laid out, would cover 20,000 square km? It might be. But it’s more impressive to point out that’s the size of Wales.