JoBros and The Salvation Army (team up this holiday season to promote the charity’s new virtual red kettles. Plus Seventeen magazine partners up with Dell to offer readers an exclusive chance to buy a Product RED laptop — partial proceeds go to the Global Fund to help fight AIDS) (Trendhunter) (Derek Baird: Barking Robot)
- Banking the Gen-Y way (would take place over IM. Also IT doesn’t meet Millennials’ needs) (Ars Technica) (ReadWriteWeb)
- Mixed martial arts (carves a niche at some high schools…as long as they don’t actually hit anyone) (New York Times, reg. required)
- Doing good pays (for college. Tufts program helps grads pay down their debts in exchange for working in public service. In bad news for college students, Tennessee’s new anti-P2P law will cost colleges $13 million) (USA Today) (Ars Technica)
- X-Men meets the OC (the creator of “Gossip Girl” and “The OC” is set to pen “X-Men: First Class,” a reboot of the superhero franchise featuring a new, young cast) (E! Online via Yahoo! News - thanks Derek!)
- National Geographic (launches a video games division that will partner with Sony and Bandai to produce family-targeted games) (Cynopsis Kids)
- Amy Poehler’s ‘Smart Girls’ launches (with a trailer and two bonus videos. Interesting to note it is being “presented by” Barbie)
- New social networking site (called A Stroke of Pink…for teen fashionistas-in-training.) (press release)
- Tracking teens’ taste (in websites. Survey shows not much changes when they get to college. Plus another study breaks down the role tech plays in teens’ lives) (eMarketer)
- The IFC Media Project (is a six-part series hosted by MTV correspondent Gideon Yago that takes a look at what goes into the news. Check out the New York Times, reg. required, coverage here.)
- JuicyCampus banned (from Tennessee State University - look for more campuses to follow suit) (Tech Crunch)
P.S. Check out the Teens in Tech Conference happening in January.
P.P.S. Don’t miss Anastasia’s column over at BusinessWeek Online on our recent survey about how youth find health info online!
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Ypulse has partnered with Alexander Steed (Alex), a Gen Yer planning an ambitious journey across the U.S. to interview other young activists who are tapping into technology to help create social change. Here is his third dispatch from the road…
I would suggest to anyone trying to market positive community and civic opportunities by establishing any sort of substantial connection with the Millennial generation - connections important with regard to selling an idea, a volunteer or giving opportunity, or any other buy in for an organization - to learn as much about the generation as possible. Anastasia’s blog is, of course, a great place to do this, and now that I have had an opportunity both to meet with Eric Greenberg, and read his book Generation We [you can download the book], I can confidently say that I can’t imagine a more authoritative study on my generation. It is thoughtful, thorough, deep, and extremely easy to digest. Further, based on what I’ve seen on the road, I can attest to the fact that it is quite factual in its assessment of Generation Y.
In Generation We, Greenberg offers one of the most comprehensive studies of the generation’s attitudes towards politics, society, doing good, civic responsibility and more. If you’re out to engage the Millennials, the largest generation America has yet seen, you need to know who they are and why they care. What have we been influenced by? How do we feel? What moves us? These questions are important to answer when going after the hearts of these young globalists. It is not sufficient to just go after us where we are (the Internet ); it is imperative to understand who and why we are. Greenberg has done an amazing job of illustrating just this.
What’s also extremely interesting is that Greenberg has issued a declaration of potential for the generation. He takes generational concerns and turns them into digestable and actionable suggestions for movement. I met with him recently and he explained that it isn’t up to him to make these decisions, as he is just an observer - a researcher. It is up to young people to take what is meaningful to us and to turn it into action. Perhaps, in looking for how to reach out to and resonate with the Millennial, you will find the appropriate language and sentiment already articulated in part in Greenberg’s book. This work is a comprehensive guide to understanding what sticks and what doesn’t with this emerging force. I cannot recommend diving into it soon enough.
We’ve got new research for sale over at Ypulse Research from Mobile Behavior’s Next Great Thing, an Omnicom Group company. Our friend Allison Mooney, who is the director of trends & insights, has written a Ypulse Guest Post to share some of the highlights. You can now purchase the report from Ypulse Research. For readers new to Ypulse, Ypulse Research resells white papers and reports about tweens, teens and early twentysomethings from our partners in the youth research space. We will be producing our own quarterly series of interview-based white papers beginning this winter.
Highlights from Mobile Behavior’s NGT Global Youth Survey
NGT’s Global Youth Survey was designed for a selfish reason: We were curious. We simply wanted to hear the opinions of young people on topics that interested us. So with the help of our international network of offices, we assembled panels of teens and twenty-somethings in seven countries (Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and the US). Our survey quizzed them on entertainment choices, communications preferences, social media habits, cultural influences, noteworthy fads, and thoughts on advertising. In our report, which we’ve now chosen to offer publicly, we boiled down everyone’s answers and teased out the resounding trends and themes. Here are a few:
Network Effects
Most respondents choose the social networks they use based upon what is popular among their friends and peers. “I originally chose Facebook because a lot of my friends were already members. I like it because it is very easy and enjoyable to use. It’s like a free version of FriendsUnited,” says one 23-year-old respondent from the UK. While it seems MySpace is falling out of favor, a couple other British 20-somethings preferred it for its customization options. “I like using MySpace because it allows you to be more creative with your profile and it’s more sociable,” said one.
Online communities and social networks are a forum for creating and sharing content, and it seems that the older a person is, the more likely he or she is to contribute. Most of these communities were focused on celebrities, gaming, church and school groups. Communicating with like minds online, whether they are friends or strangers, is one of the main drivers of social networking. As one respondent from Malaysia pointed out, “My communities should have similar interests, if not, it will be duck and chicken talk.” So true.
My Cell, Myself
Young people all over the world are leapfrogging over the PC straight to the mobile phone as their “first screen” for entertainment, communications, news, and social interaction. Global mobile usage is growing so rapidly it is outpacing both TV and Web consumption. For tweens, teens and 20-somethings, the “Connected Class,” the phone is becoming an extension of themselves, a part of their identity. 68% of our survey respondents say that their mobile device is their most essential personal device (followed by Laptop/PC at 40%).
The predominant use of the mobile phone was text messaging–-an easy, discrete and often cheaper way to chat. 48% of survey respondents said that their most frequent use of their mobile is SMS/text messaging, compared to 40% who picked voice conversation. Though texting is growing popular in all regions, it was especially popular in Singapore.
Engaging Ads
TV commercials were the most popular form of advertising, though the experiential approach–giving free trials and samples–are equally as effective in Hong Kong. “The best kind of advertising would be giving free samples and television ads that use interesting and new ideas,” says a 20-year-old female respondent. Limited editions are popular in places like South Korea and Hong Kong. “The most effective kind of ads would be supported by stars like Edison Chen and Juno. They release ‘limited edition’ items that lure youngsters to buy their merchandise,” according to a South Korean teen. (Note: this was said prior to Chen’s infamous sex scandal, which has soured him in the eyes of former fans.)
And the least appealing form of advertising? It seems that across all areas surveyed the least are flyers and online pop-up ads. “An ad shouldn’t pop up and annoy you while you are trying to get something done online, it should intrigue you when you want to be intrigued,” said a U.S. respondent. A well-stated argument in favor of effective targeting, which we see as the future of advertising.
About Allison Mooney
Allison Mooney is the director of trends & insights at Mobile Behavior’s Next Great Thing, an Omnicom Group company. In addition to regularly contributing to NGT’s blog, Allison has also written for publications like PSFK, Radar, and Glamour. She served on our last two Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup event advisory boards and most recently moderated our “Make Your Message Mobile” panel in Boston.
