Monday
The Kids Are All Right: Gen Y and Media Multi-Tasking
In the world of entertainment and advertising, youth has always been what is promoted most. More time is spent selling the emblems and ideas of youth than nearly anything else. That's surprising given that what would constitute "youth" makes up less than the average American lifespan. It is even more surprising when you think that those over 30 years of age have substantially more resources and earn more money than those under 30. But the reason for the selling of youth is simple: because those that have it flaunt it and those that don't want it.
But when selling TO youth, what is it that companies should keep in mind about this audience in the era of the Internet?
Young people have always wanted independence and control. Getting one's drivers license has a lot more to do with having the freedom to go where one pleases beyond the spying eyes of our elders than it does with any fascination with motor vehicles.
More than anything else in the modern era, young folk want control over their information. This is possibly the most important thing to note about Generation Y and how they use the Internet. The fact that the Internet is the medium they spend the most time with means that other media do not get used as much, but it does not mean that other media are not still important to them.
Generation Y is among the most adept multi-tasking media consumers alive. When Millennials are online, 50% of them are also watching TV, and 45% of them say they also listen to the radio. They way this generation seizes control of the information that besets them from all sides is to look to the Internet as the place to extend their engagement with what they are receiving from elsewhere. An upcoming event is announced on the radio? They go to the Internet to learn more about it and find out whether or not it is something they want to be a part of. A news item of interest flashes across the TV screen and they cruise the web to confirm, deny, or learn more about what was just shown.
What this means is that the Internet has become the dip around which all of the other chips rotate. The Web is at the center of the media Lazy Susan. The implications of this should not be lost on any marketer or advertiser. This kind of multi-tasking media consumption indicates that perhaps advertisers should start looking to multi-media marketing communications opportunities.
Some marketers have hung on far too long to the notion that they can reach enough of who they need to sustain their business in only one or two media environments, but the reality of media usage among some of us older folks, and the truth of media usage by most of the younger folks suggests that advertisers had better start changing their approach is they wish to be a significant brand in the future.
"I think the fluidity of attention definitely puts the pressure on advertisers and their creative agencies to get the attention of kids," says Roberta McConochie, director of consumer and industry trends at Arbitron, quoted in a story done by MediaLife.
"The smartest thing that you can do is use cross-media synergies to make sure your message gets through and, obviously, do things that get their attention with the message content."
Marketers had better start looking at "surround sound" marketing strategies if they want to be a force with the consumer of the future, and that consumer of the future is Generation Y. Between 1982 and 2002, nearly 100 million persons will belong to this generation, half of them now in their teens an in college. When they enter the age of acquisition (post-college to their mid-50s), they are going to be a spending force to be reckoned with.
To assume that your brand will maintain its relevance if you simply continue to pour your money into television, with annual double-digit CPM increases and declining viewer ship is believing that sending telegrams to your national workforce will keep you competitive with those companies that are communicating with their employees using the telephone. If marketers and advertisers are honest with themselves, they have to realize that to talk to the future they have to be present in it.
But when selling TO youth, what is it that companies should keep in mind about this audience in the era of the Internet?
Young people have always wanted independence and control. Getting one's drivers license has a lot more to do with having the freedom to go where one pleases beyond the spying eyes of our elders than it does with any fascination with motor vehicles.
More than anything else in the modern era, young folk want control over their information. This is possibly the most important thing to note about Generation Y and how they use the Internet. The fact that the Internet is the medium they spend the most time with means that other media do not get used as much, but it does not mean that other media are not still important to them.
Generation Y is among the most adept multi-tasking media consumers alive. When Millennials are online, 50% of them are also watching TV, and 45% of them say they also listen to the radio. They way this generation seizes control of the information that besets them from all sides is to look to the Internet as the place to extend their engagement with what they are receiving from elsewhere. An upcoming event is announced on the radio? They go to the Internet to learn more about it and find out whether or not it is something they want to be a part of. A news item of interest flashes across the TV screen and they cruise the web to confirm, deny, or learn more about what was just shown.
What this means is that the Internet has become the dip around which all of the other chips rotate. The Web is at the center of the media Lazy Susan. The implications of this should not be lost on any marketer or advertiser. This kind of multi-tasking media consumption indicates that perhaps advertisers should start looking to multi-media marketing communications opportunities.
Some marketers have hung on far too long to the notion that they can reach enough of who they need to sustain their business in only one or two media environments, but the reality of media usage among some of us older folks, and the truth of media usage by most of the younger folks suggests that advertisers had better start changing their approach is they wish to be a significant brand in the future.
"I think the fluidity of attention definitely puts the pressure on advertisers and their creative agencies to get the attention of kids," says Roberta McConochie, director of consumer and industry trends at Arbitron, quoted in a story done by MediaLife.
"The smartest thing that you can do is use cross-media synergies to make sure your message gets through and, obviously, do things that get their attention with the message content."
Marketers had better start looking at "surround sound" marketing strategies if they want to be a force with the consumer of the future, and that consumer of the future is Generation Y. Between 1982 and 2002, nearly 100 million persons will belong to this generation, half of them now in their teens an in college. When they enter the age of acquisition (post-college to their mid-50s), they are going to be a spending force to be reckoned with.
To assume that your brand will maintain its relevance if you simply continue to pour your money into television, with annual double-digit CPM increases and declining viewer ship is believing that sending telegrams to your national workforce will keep you competitive with those companies that are communicating with their employees using the telephone. If marketers and advertisers are honest with themselves, they have to realize that to talk to the future they have to be present in it.
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