Business Impact

Advertisers and content companies wishing to evolve and engage with kids and youth audiences need to understand the changes taking place in how kids and young people lead their lives. “Traditional youth marketing considered opinion formers and influencers to be a small elite, but these days the elite has become much larger,” said Davidson.

A clear majority of young people asked said the majority of website links (88%) they viewed and the viral video content they downloaded (55%) came from friends’ recommendations. Audiences also wanted more control of what they watched and when they wanted it. Young people expect content to be on all platforms; mobile, computer and TV. They want it to be searchable and increasingly expect it to be supplied on demand through services such as Joost.

MTVN is producing global shows such as Meet or Delete in conjunction with HP, where content is available on mobile, TV and on computer, and programming was shot in different countries across North America, Europe and Asia. Another example of how this report is influencing programming is in MTVN’s partnership with Sony Ericsson to highlight new talent for the Europe Music Awards through online and mobile voting.

“In an age when young people influence each other as much as marketers do, friends are becoming as important as brands. Kids have much more power to influence each other. You need to be interesting enough for kids and young people to bother to talk about you. You need to be remarkable. If not, you won’t be respected – that’s what some brands get wrong,” said Davidson.

Vogt agreed. “Brands need to provide teens with content that they want to share. Their reward will be the loyalty of brand-savvy groups. Microsoft’s online campaign for Sony is a great example of using content to build loyalty across a youth audience. By announcing new film releases using a Messenger tab Sony was able to provide content for teens that they then shared with peers across their networks, generating 8.4 million visits to the site,” said Vogt.

Young people are not geeks

The Circuits of Cool and Digital Playground survey found that the “technology” itself is irrelevant to kids and young people. While kids use mobiles and the internet constantly, the survey found that only 20% of 14-24s actually loved technology, and they’re in developing nations such as Brazil, India and China. The people least interested in technology were the Danes and the Dutch – despite saying they couldn’t live without it.

“Young people don’t see “tech” as a separate entity – it’s an organic part of their lives,” said Davidson. “Talking to them about the role of technology in their lifestyle would be like talking to kids in the 1980s about the role the park swing or the telephone played in their social lives – it’s invisible. They are completely focussed on the functionality and use of devices. They don’t enjoy texting, or emailing for its own sake – what they enjoy is communicating with their friends all the time.”

Apart from a few key new media terms, most young people avoided industry jargon. Only 8% of those questioned used the term “multi-platform,” and only 16% admitted to using the phrase “social networking.” The terms they use most frequently are those relating to accessing content for free, like “download” and “burn.” They also use brand names rather than category terms, with MSN, Google, and MySpace amongst the most popular. The term “web 2.0” is used by very few people (8%) outside China.

Young people also multi-task to a greater extent than adults. They still generally only do one thing at a time, but are able to have more stimuli coming at them and select the one that grabs them at that moment. Vogt commented: “Kids are very good at filtering the mass of information coming at them – dipping in and out of each.”

Kids and teenagers the same as ever – only different

Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground found that what kids and teens do has not significantly changed in 15 years. For kids, they may be immersed in tech from the day they were born, but the things they enjoy doing most are watching TV (85%), listening to music (70%), hanging out with friends (68%), playing video games (67%) and spending time online (51%). As they grow into teens so the ranking of their favourite pastimes change. At the top of the list of 14-24s favourite pastimes is listening to music (70%), followed by watching TV or hanging out with friends, both of which polled got 65%. Next came watching DVDs (60%), relaxing (60%), going to cinema (59%), spending time online (56%), spending time with girl or boyfriend (55%), eating (53%) and hanging out at home (49%).

“The survey revealed a strong dynamic between TV and the Internet, especially for 14-24s. Young people watch TV for stress relief - 60% of the sample said they watched most of their TV lying down. The internet, on the other hand, is cognitive and active, especially if kids are using it for homework or social situations,” said Davidson.

Kids still love good advertising. While the ‘best ad they’ve seen recently’ is still overwhelmingly on TV, there is the opportunity for marketers to extend their digital advertising across the other technologies kids are engaged with, including IM and social networking sites, especially since 47% of youth IM each other about ‘what is on TV right now.’ “Far from being a background medium, TV is the only medium they use whilst not multitasking at all. Linear TV is the medium for introducing people to new things they weren’t searching for in the first place,” said Davidson.

And for IM, the top topics for 14-24s were: gossiping (62%), making arrangements (57%), talking about the opposite sex (57%) and flirting (55%), work or school (54%) and TV and music (52%). “Given the amount of time young people are spending on instant messenger every day presents a very powerful opportunity for brands to connect with the youth audience. When on IM, teenagers are at their most engaged and interactive,” said Vogt.