Top teen insights and trends of 2011
Top teen insights and trends of 2011
MediaPost’s Engage: Teens blog reports on an online discussion by Grown Up Thinking with 300 13-19-year-old teens about the technologies, platforms and brands they used over the course of 2011. Here are highlights:
2011: A Year Of Personal Sacrifices - No longer insulated by parents doling out discretionary funds, teens are not only reacting to the pressures felt by their cashed-strapped parents, but are helping to take on the responsibility through part time jobs and making their own sacrifices on personal spending. Billed as “The Lost Generation,” the unemployment rate of a teen is double that of an adult (20% by some measures), which leads to teens adopting many of the cost-saving measures they glean from their parents
Like Their Parents, Teens Are Savvy Mobile Users - Much of the coupon-redeeming, price-comparing and loyalty-point-aggregating activity marketers have witnessed among adults around Black Friday/Cyber Monday is actually taking place among teens, as well. Roughly 30% of teens wielded smart phones during 2011, with estimates that 2012 will bring 50% adoption levels. The top shopping apps mentioned among teens in our discussion forum included Amazon mobile for scanning, Foursquare for check-in discounts, Old Navy’s Snap Appy, Seventeen, Red Laser and ShopKick. A surprising number of teens expressed interest in using apps to learn about local deals at restaurants, as well as redeeming offers from Groupon and LivingSocial
Teens Are Native Users Of Virtual Currency - Gamification continues to grow among teens, as it provides them with a way of earning points and virtual currency in an entertaining format. 43% of teens have spent real dollars on in-game virtual items or virtual currency. With the total US market for virtual goods at just over $2 billion in 2011 (Inside Virtual Goods, 2011), it is no wonder that brands are finding ways to leverage this currency as an incentive. Teens flock to games such as Cityville (over 55 million active users, #1 game on Facebook in December; Games, 2011), Sorority Life and numerous others to earn points that can be redeemed for real items. Many teens in our forum described earning virtual points in order to save money on holiday gift purchases this year. Top virtual points/currencies among our panel: MyYearBook’s “Lunch Money,” Facebook “Credits,” Coca-Cola’s “MyCokeRewards,” Sorority Life’s “Brownie Points” and SwagBucks
Watching Content Is A Social Experience - Social media turns watching content into a shared experience among teens, and with research citing improved ad recall when ads are published across multiple platforms (Up 150%, compared to just TV; Mashable, 2011), the circumstances are ripe for brands to create an integrated approach to content. When tuning-in to their favorite TV shows (Glee, by a two-to-one margin; Mr Youth, Nationwide Poll, 2011) 53% are posting comments about the show to their Facebook pages, 45% are texting their friends show-related updates, a staggering 39% will visit the show’s Facebook page, and 18% will Tweet directly at the show. By contrast, only 11% report using a show’s specific mobile app (Mr Youth, Nationwide Poll, 2011). Among teens who feel compelled to stay focused on (only) the show, many teens will opt for texting or sending a message via Facebook chat during commercial breaks. This provides an opportunity for brands to extend show engagement through social activities during the “commercial break” that ties back to the content, and socialize the experience among a viewer’s friends
Teens Yearn For More Customization On Facebook - Earlier this year, we surveyed teens across the country on their reactions to the Facebook changes unveiled at F8 in September. Two and a half months later, we decided to reach back out to teens for their insights. Among 250 responses from our online discussion, teens expressed their overwhelming desire to keep things simple and unchanged. Negative sentiment (among our responses) to Facebook’s ticker remains persistently highly, as teens think it provides too much information about their social activities. On the other hand, Facebook mobile (and “places” in particular) is very well received. Teens look forward to the day when they can customize their pages further, choosing their own color schemes, much like the old MySpace. As brands find creative ways to personalize and brand their own timeline pages, they should also be thinking of ways to help teens modify and individualize their own pages
Teens Use Google+ To Meet Up Online - Teens are using Google+ to have more intimate conversations among subsets of friends, carving out circles, which fit their own definitions of social groups. Teens have fun defining these: “cool kids, weird people, fat people, hot girls (and guys) and Moustache Mafia,” are among the more interesting circles. Teens also create circles for high school classes and after-school clubs/hobbies to facilitate study sessions. Hangouts are another way in which teens can connect with their classmates online to socialize their late-night cramming. Brands should support this activity, helping to bring together teens around unique circles and interests
Teens View Twitter As Their News Source - For teens, Twitter is their news source. They follow musicians, sports teams, celebrities, authors and deals from brands. As other platforms are better at conversations among peers, Twitter is (predominantly) a broadcast medium with this generation for up-to-the-minute facts. A few sources they follow most closely: The Onion, NPR, Local News, TMZ and MacNews
Spotify And TurnTable Turn Teens On To Music - This generation prefers free, on-demand music from streaming services as opposed to content ownership. With the ability for teens to follow what their friends are listening to on Facebook, teens now have Spotify and Turntable to thank for expanding their own musical tastes. In a recent poll among teens, we found that 70% of teens are “highly likely” to listen-in to music tracks that they notice their friends listening to in the activity feed on Facebook (Mr Youth Nationwide Poll, 2011). Undoubtedly, this social integration has led to the successful rise of Spotify, Turntable and other services keen on taking advantage of Facebook apps, as a way to grow awareness of their services. Top music services with teens in 2011 included Pandora, YouTube and Spotify, as well as lesser-known sources Grooveshark, iheartradio.com, Playlist.com, SoundCloud, last.fm and Tumblr
Teens Want Ads That Entertain And Offer Authentic Messages - Teen’s tune-in to brands that offer distinct value exchanges. They want to be entertained, while also learning how products will benefit them. Allstate’s Mayhem accomplished this, providing a source of entertainment, while also conveying a straightforward product benefit. Other top ads with teens this year include Target’s recent two-day sale Black Friday ads, Kenny Power’s K-Swiss ads and Old Navy’s “Funnavations” campaign. A few lesser-known examples also surfaced, including Derma Blend’s “Go Beyond The Cover” ads, which reached more than 7 million views on YouTube in just two months. Ads that missed the mark? Ads that “tried too hard to be cool” or appeared to alienate or exclude others. Exclusivity, or “us vs. them” marketing that might have worked with older generations, is seen as offensive among this generation. One example of what did not connect with them was Dr. Pepper’s latest campaign, which focused solely on men. Teen girls in our panel felt left out, with a vocal minority vowing never again to drink the soda. Among teen guys, they saw the ad as playing on traditional stereotypes.
Diverse, Customized Style Is The Trend - A tough economy has not kept this generation of teens from expressing their own sense of style. Popular among teens this year were Toms shoes, Uggs, hair feathers (yes, feathers!), animal prints, moccasins, and leather jackets. Both vintage and hipster looks appear to be alive and we’ll, among. Beyond the usual e-commerce destinations (Amazon, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Haute Look, Ruelala), it was interesting to see many on the radar that we might not know about. Up-and-coming e-commerce sites included: 6pm, nomorerack, modcloth, Free People, Go Jane, Beyond The Rack, NectarClothing.com, UrbanOg.com, Threadsense.com, & Asos.com
Thursday, 19 January 2012 12:35