Teenagers everywhere vex and perplex adults—most especially marketers who are trying to sell them something. Despite the challenge, they continue to throw adspend at these kids because, not only do their numbers grow every year, they are also developing a very intimate and complex relationship with media. Now, if only these marketers and advertisers could push their buttons with some degree of accuracy.
But with Media Index Teens—AC Nielsen’s study on the Philippines’ 13- to 19-year olds —perhaps they finally can.
The toplines of this new research reveal that Media obviously plays a great role in the lives of this 12-million strong segment, but its consumption by teens shows how fragmented media has become.
The percentage of teens that read print, listen to radio and watch TV has remained almost the same over the years, but much has changed in their relationship with below-the-line media. In fact, their consumption of traditional media has flattened while exposure to Outdoor and Internet has increased.
Teenagers are perhaps the perfect models of the digital lifestyle. Most of them are very gadget-savvy, especially with cellular phones, media players and digital cameras. They do not mind spending bulk of their money on acquiring the latest model. MP3s are becoming essential to their daily lives since most of them are plugged to their iPods or players for most of the day.
Going online is pretty major for these kids. The more affluent ones spend most of their virtual time at home, while the rest spend most of their allowance at Internet cafes. Yahoo! is their search engine of choice, but social networking sites like Friendster and Multiply are not far behind in their list of favorites. To engage the teens of today, these new channels are vital in terms supplementing the usual marketing efforts.
It is quite surprising that despite the percentage of wired teenagers, most actually enjoy an active lifestyle. They engage in sports and relish face-to-face interactions with other people.
Teenagers are becoming more complicated than ever, but so long as advertisers understand their relationship with Media, perhaps they won’t be so difficult to fathom.
