Forum Moderators: buckworks
Stephen Pearson saw his children's grades slip. His older daughter was falling asleep in school, after staying up until the wee hours chatting with friends online.
The article goes on to state that 18% of parents, or roughly 1 out 5, believe that their kid is wasting too much time on the internet. Traditionally, kids have always been a popular demographic for advertisers, but I don't really see much activity online trying to market to them.
So, what I'm wondering is, do you think teens are a viable demographic? What are your thoughts on this?
but I don't really see much activity online trying to markt to them
Probably because not many teens have a credit card. Targeting teens for branding purposes could work, I guess.
18% of parents, or roughly 1 out 5, believe that their kid is wasting too much time on the internet
Perhaps these guys would be worth targeting, though ;)
For ecommerce, i.e., sales on site, the thought is that the lack of credit cards makes them a less attractive target demographic. However, for branding campaigns, online marketing is really turning to make use of the time teens spent online. That said, I've also seen articles that indicate that the type of online activities that teens traditionally (supposedly) do, chat, etc., aren't the best ad venues.
Perhaps these guys would be worth targeting, though...
That's the subject of one of the companion articles [oaklandtribune.com]: Software that blocks internet access.
On the one hand, you would think a teen would be a great impulse buyer. But if they're just online saying, "Wazzup, dogggg..." well I don't really a see a percentage in that.
Thwarting teenagers from doing what they want- Times never change, eh?
(hmm... might be some percentage in there somewhere)
Not if they have to borrow dad's credit card.
Wazzup, dogggg...
I've got two teenage kids. Neither of them ever say anything that intelligible :)
I don't see why that wouldn't work online with teens but the impulse buy is definately out IMO..
Nick
As for the types of Web sites teenagers are spending time with, comScore Media Metrix determined at the end of 2002 that teens between the ages of 12 and 17 spend an average of 26.6 minutes each day with instant messaging (IM) applications, 24.4 minutes per day with game sites and a whopping 41.5 minutes per day on sites with some sort of corporate presence.
I observed their behaviour.
My brother spends most of his time playing multiplayer games. Some time on instand messengers. The rest surfing the net, looking for funny sites. Plays a lot of simple flash games. Watching flash animation cartoons (stick death, strongbad, etc...). Downloading MP3s.
My sister spends ~80% of her time on popular instand messenger. A lot of time on few of those websites where you can make your profile and meet people online. Also looks for funny stuff. A little bit of fashion. Downloading music.
This also applies to many other teenagers that I've seen.
If they are shown ads while having fun, there is a greater chance that they may associate the experience with certain brands > Brand loyalty as a result of emotional attachments.
Like martini said, perhaps better to think of it as something else other than ecommerce.
> ...Also looks for funny stuff.
Some teens will surely come across rcjordan ugly and hairy sites.
Offer a package "family account" where the account holder (bill payer) can allocate funds for purchases by other account users (rest of family).
You would need to offer stuff for Mum, Dad and the kids though.
Integrating features for the kids to get them on the site (ie logged in ala MS passport) and having products to sell as an optional feature.
Of course, dealing with minors also severly limits your site with regards "good taste" and appropriate content.
But I think if parents could log onto a site and allocated even 20 quid a month for their kids to spend (perhaps purchases would be authorised via parents email), then it could work.
Scott
I don't know that teens are much different from adults, though. Most adults surf the web from work (raises hand) while teens surf in their spare time, and so they're more likely to be overtly chatting or watching Flash movies, but other than that I don't know that targeting them where they differ from adults would be very effective. Campaigns directed overtly at teens tend to be annoying, condescending, and somewhat "off" in tone, which ends up being counterproductive. I've watched some absolutely horrible efforts, particularly the sort peppered with "whassup dawg" slang, usually misused. You have to have a very good ear for it, and it will be out of date in seconds. Ugh.
I don't have experience with them, but I've seen checkbook deduction services promoted, i.e., a service that lets a customer provide checking account info to process an online payment. That might be worth a look for this market.
Viral or grassroots marketing is often aimed at teens, too, in that it is less obvious and more peer-like.
I've got one large site that draws a fair amount of teen traffic, although e-com isn't a big part of the revenue stream.
I doubt this is the real reason. More likely, the purpose is to *educate* them for when they do have that disposable income.
The *GAPS of the world* want to make sure babies know what to do with it when they are no longer babies.
The parts in between are experiencing falling housing prices (relative to inflation) and lack of jobs. I lived in New Mexico for a time and was absolutely shocked at the rate of housing inflation/deflation (rental prices were actually going down in Santa Fe in 1999), as well as the general lack of gainful employment.
I've been plenty surprised to be standing in line behind a bunch of teens in San Francisco who whip out their credit cards and charge up far more merchandise than I am waiting to pay for (in cash).
One piece of evidence: Movie producers are very reluctant to release any would-be blockbuster movies with an R rating now. Due to better age enforcement by theaters, sub-17 kids are excluded, and they comprise the most dependable group of ticket-buyers.
mmhh... build a relationship over time.
So it seems it's not impulse purchase only, but also how much a shopper is willing to spend on a brand over a period that lasts a life time. Speaking about bonding...
Great article DG.
It has everything from sponsor signups (ie sign up with a mailing list to get spam), offline merchandise, sponsor branded games, to branded products worked right into the game. Everything mentioned in this thread is there in some form or another (particularly brand awareness). The whole site also seems pitched well, it doesn't talk down to the kids but is quirky enough to grab their parents.
And it works. In my experience other users often don't even realise how commercial the site is. I think a lot of this comes down to what robertito62 mentioned, working in the marketing aspect while the users are having fun. There is also a large degree of interactivity between players which helps hook in the younger market.
Note: I'm not associated with this site in any way except that I used to play. I'm not trying to promote the site itself (because it gets kinda dull for us older types *grin*) but mention it as a case study for doing things well. And it's so well known, with over 50 million players, that anyone interested in the teen market has hopefully already heard of it.
