Twitter Youth Mobile Trends

Could twitter be the next great thing in youth mobile behavior?

I've enjoyed our recent posts about trust and youth marketing (more resources here). One of the challenges in marketing to youth is the changing landscape - youth always gravitate towards more trusted networks. When marketers got hold of email they migrated to Myspace and Myspace to Twitter. Now following our series on Youth Trends, let's look at the trend of Twitter in our new research.

Interested in Twitter?
Check out mobileYouth's own Graham Brown and Josh Dhaliwal on Twitter

One of the key research findings from our mobileYouth 2008 Social Media report was the exponential growth in Twitter usage by youth. We now see Under 25s as the heaviest users of Twitter!

Is Twitter SMS 2.0?
From being predominantly the domain of 25-34 year old techs, Twitter has burgeoned into a valid youth platform. Here are some interesting findings:
* Youth twitter usage rapidly adopting similar patterns to SMS usage implications for operator charging, marketing channels, PR abound...
* Under 25s now constitute 25% of twitter usage - the largest single age group
* Japanese youth have rapidly adopted twitter into their daily social activities. Go watch the public Twitter feed and witness how much Japanese content passes through.
* Twitter still has a long way to go to reach the lowest common denominator that made SMS fly but it has the advantage of a core consumer beachhead to play with.

Report links
* Download the Report PDF
* Social Media Presentation here
* Recommendations from the Social Media Report
* About the Report

Mobile Behavior - resource for Youth Trends Marketers inc downloads

As you know we like to cover trends in youth marketing here and last week we wrote about the importance of using youtube and similar channels in communicating with youth. Now let's look at Youtube as a source of insight into youth mobile trends (such as with mobileyouth's insightful mobile behavior videos) - this time looking at the mobile behavioral patterns of youth and what it means to agencies and their brands.

Understanding mobile youth behavior is key to understand what their brand values are. Here's what mobileYouth says about mobile behavior on their site:

For us, mobile behavior is not a new addition to the portfolio or the next great thing but the core raison d’etre of our organization and a central tenet for making your product relevant in youth marketing.

Youth Mobile Trends: Video

Continuing our Video Theme and trends in youth marketing as blogged last time here on Youth Mobile Trends, today we look at trends in youth mobile TV and video. What's the latest? Here's a selection of recent topics for your consideration:

* Video insights into youth mobile behavior at Youth Trends Report
* Interesting video insights into green issues facing youth and how they view brands on the basis of their values @ Alcatel's Teen Lab
* "Teens downloading music online is still alive and well thanks to this technique: tube converting. This time it's not through Limewire, but through something closer to home: YouTube or any online video site." @ Derek Baird's Barking Robot (original from Ypulse)
* Mobile Video tipping points @ Mashable
* In answer to critics who’ve said that video ringtones cannot be monetarised, Vringo  has just announced a deal with Turkish operator, Avea. It’s aimed directly at the youth market. @ GoMoNews
* (TechZilo) Using video to reach youth in the elections. Barack Obama, who is the darling of geeks, youth and others, is making history by truly embracing technology. His campaign team bought presidential camapaign ads in online video games - the first ever. 

The ads appear in games through Xbox Live. The gamers are targeted by location, to promote voting. Political analysts at Gartner said that the ads were targeting youth who were otherwise unlikely to see traditional advertising. Ads appear in games as banners or billboards with an image of Obama, and the URL VoteForChange.com

Technorati Tags: youth mobile trends, mobile video, youth trends, video advertising, youtube

Youth Mobile Trends - is Youtube the next great thing in communicating with youth? by Graham Brown (mobileYouth.org)

by Graham Brown

Youth marketing is always redefining the parameters of what is acceptable. Bright individuals will always push the envelope however there will always be a marcomms department to keep them in check. That was one of the themes of my recent presentation to Vodafone on Youth, Loyalty and Trust and follows on from the Great Youth Brands Series on MobileYouth featuring Red Bull, Jones Soda and Toyota Scion.

Common sense dictates that if a brand gets it wrong, it's time for damage limitation with the marcomms department leading the charge.

That's how ordinary brands deal with extraordinary issues - in average ways producing very average results.

However, I'd like to focus on how great youth brands are breaking the mold and doing something out of the ordinary.

Perhaps the best example to date is how EA dealt with the apparent glitch in the latest release of Tiger Woods 08 that including the "Jesus Shot" - where Tiger could walk on water. Obvious mistake. Not just an obvious mistake, but a well known one - one youtube pundit (Levinator 25) made it public amassing over 600,000 views.

Embarrassment for EA? Yes, if it was handled using Common Sense.

However, check this out for sheer marketing brilliance

Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water

This is the result of individuals within an organization taking risky decisions to produce extaordinary results that substantially impact the brand in a positive way - that's what I call Uncommon Sense. That's the result of bypassing marcomms and challenging the notion of "that's how it's always been done".

Ask yourself, would youth react positively or negatively to this communication from EA then compare to what an average brand would do - ie a cover-up.

Trends in youth marketing?

What are the key trends in youth marketing?

Youth marketing is no longer about saying you are for youth (as in this Vodafone example) - it’s all about proving it. Look, for example, the extent to which political pundits go to build a dialogue with young voters. It’s a lot easier to say “we’re cool”, but does it work anymore?

From mobileYouth's 7 laws of youth marketing here by Graham Brown

Technorati Tags: trends, youth marketing, marketing trends, mobile youth, next great thing

Profiting From Piracy

"How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism"

Published by

Original source : http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Threebillion/~3/427...

Marketing Trends by Graham Brown of MobileYouth.org and Luke Mitchell of Reach Students

The following is an opinion piece edited by author Graham Brown

• Want to find out more in our global Youth Trends Report?
• Need powerpoint presentations on Youth Marketing and Mobile Trends?
  

The fitness landscape that determines success in marketing to young consumers is changing. 10 years ago, the TV provided the de facto advertising channel to win the hearts and minds of this often difficult to reach demographic. Since 2007 alone, the rise of social networking, flat rate data plans both on mobile and internet as well as a widespread growth in niche media content means that marketers are now increasingly challenged when it comes to both communicating with and understanding youth.

But fear not, because we bring you insight from two of the youth marketing industry's key commentators to shed some light on what's hot in 2008 when it comes to trends in youth marketing.

Graham Brown author of mobileYouth and Luke Mitchell from Reach Students bring you the 7 key youth marketing trends to look out for in 2008.

#1 "Free" is a viable business model

Given the increasingly challenging task of reaching out to young consumers, more brands consider the "free" route (eg ad supported or cross-selling) as a viable alternative to paid downloads.

Recent download data from NIN and Radiohead's respective attempts at "pay what you like" charging models demonstrates that allowing the consumer to decide what value should be placed on the relationship and content can be both profitable and a shrewd PR move.

But it's not just music artists trying to crack the "free" nut but delving deeper we find well established brands from RyanAir to Google to Skype making money out of young consumers by giving away goods and services others would traditionally have paid for.

Blyk's attempt to crack the mobile industry nut claims that rather than bring to the telecoms table yet another fledgling MVNO, the startup says the operator's position is a response to a market need - on the one hand young consumers are keen to have subsidized phone bills and the other we have a line of brands queueing up to build a dialogue with young consumers.

Youth indifference may well prove to be a brand's most significant cost factor so offering a service for free with the promise of cross-selling related services may well provide the first tentative steps in addressing that challenge.

#2 Transparency

When things go wrong, as they inevitably do, legal eagles compete with internal marcomms departments to issue the highest volume of memos all in the name of Brand IP and protecting corporate interest.

Some of the more innovative brands, however, are going long on being transparent about their values and mistakes when communicating with youth. Household names such as Jet Blue, GAP, Starbucks are learning the hard way that covering up no longer works and consumers, especially the younger ones, warm to companies that admit their human fallacies.

Consumers are tired of being both whitewashed and stonewalled. In an era when youth expect access and brands are willing to provide it, the company CEO that appears on YouTube confessing they'd "screwed up" may lose a few investor friends, but wins the long term hearts and minds of the consumer.

After all, he is like us - human. And people buy people, not brands.

#3 Facebook fatigue

It's now all about 30 somethings in the world of Facebook. Youth are already exploring new avenues more relevant to their lifestyle - such as Bebo. Do we yet have a student specific SNS?

MySpace's partnership with MTV to platform young musical talent from the social network is a PR victory in the face of a Facebook population disillusioned with their parents and corporates hijacking the party.

Back in the 80s, youth witnessed their parents squeezing into a pair of Levi's 501s. No longer was the "original jean" cool because it failed to evolve its consumer relevance in as much as SNS sites seek the latest widget to keep themselves alive.

MySpace continues to thrive despite the naysayers, Facebook however is not the youth player it once was.

#4 The rise of the moderates

You know that student activism is finally dead when even NUS suggests a radical reform of its own organisation. It wants to move away from discussing minority issues and global affairs, and instead reflect the everyday interests of its members.

Individually, most students have a moderate and parochial political outlook these days, more concerned with the price of their Bacardi & Coke than any ethical questions that may come served with it. But now this swell of moderate opinion has become a determined movement.

Look out for a new generation of young leaders, keen to show the world how pragmatic they can be.

#5 "Inner circle" brands

Once young consumers were thought to be naïve and persuadable. Then they were savvy, fickle and cynical to brand messages. What followed was a stalemate where wise brands and young consumers knew each others' hands and knew it would be foolish to pretend otherwise. Then things got complex.

The brands that are winning now have been allowed into a collective inner circle, one where they carefully manage very sophisticated and very considered relationships. Recent research by Opinionpanel discovered a maximum of twenty brands that students were willing to be Facebook friends with. They included Sony, H&M, Apple and Innocent.

But there is also space in the inner circle for maverick brands who don't give a damn for high-level marketing approaches. In convenience foods this year, watch as sales of plain, honest and simple Pukka Pies rise, while youth 'try hards' like Pot Noodle fall.

See how brands such as Scion and Red Bull are building relevance with youth in our Great Youth Brands series.

#6 It's cool to be a suit

In the eyes of the young, businesspeople were once the least cool people in the world. Now it's okay to want to be a suit.

Thanks to Dragon's Den, The Apprentice, a second wave of internet entrepreneurs (spiritually led by youth icon Mark Zuckerberg), media dramatisation of financial news and ever-increasing opportunities to make money from your bedroom computer, business is somehow sexy.

Witness the clamour of smart twenty-somethings trying to get in to London's must-see gig of last term. Not "Hot Chip" at the Electric Ballroom, but investment bankers BNP Paribas at the LSE.

#7 Youth turn off the box

The current generation of young consumers are perhaps the first that have had real choice in their media consumption. TV, although remaining a significant channel of influence in their lives, is increasingly being squeezed out by other distractions. Facebook, MySpace, WII, homework, after-scool activities, commuting and just good old "hanging out with friends" compete with TV for youth attention.

And it's not just the decreasing time spent watching TV, it's the quality of that time. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 25% of high school students were actively involved in another form of media (playstation, computer etc) whilst "watching" TV. Add to that the increasing fragmentation of media channels (MTV1, MTV2, MTVBase, MTVU etc) you find a situation where advertisers can no longer identify clear front-runners for their marketing spend.

About mobileYouth

(Graham Brown) mobileYouth is a 7 year ongoing research project into how technology such as mobile phones fits into the social universe of young people. mobileYouth helps companies such as Vodafone and P&G understand how to better develop and market youth products.
http://www.mobileYouth.org

About Reach Students

(Luke Mitchell) Reach Students is a digital marketing consultancy focused on the intelligent youth audience. Recent clients include the Cabinet Office, Cancer Research UK, Parcelforce Worldwide and the University of Salford. It publishes case studies, resources and opinion at http://www.reachstudents.co.uk and has been issuing its popular student marketing e-newsletter since 2002.

Technorati Tags: mobile yout, mobileyouth, youth marketing, youth trends, marketing trends, youth mobile, graham brown, luke mitchell, reach students, student marketing, brands, youth brands