IQ News: Analysis - Setting Their Sites On Generation "Y"

Should Marketers Hop On the Teeny-Bop Bandwagon? There's a youthquake trembling across America and the seismic tremors rumbling through the corridors of pop culture and the economy are affecting everything from movies and television programming to spending habits and purchasing trends. Little wonder, then, that advertisers have finally caught on to the country's current obsession with all things Teen by aggressively chasing the mindshare and dollars of the "it" demo of the moment, Generation Y, a.k.a. teens age 12 to 19. According to U.S. Census projections, Gen Y is 30 million strong and growing, nearly three times the size of the aging and passƒ twenty- and thirtysomething Generation X. Add to Gen Y's enormous cultural influence the expendable cash burning holes in their $150 Tommy Hilfiger jeans and they become a big-time target, indeed. "The demographic of Generation Y, growing as rapidly as it is, and the emergence of the Internet really highlights the importance of Gen Y in the entire economy," says Jim Johnson, chief operating officer at Alloy, the New York-based offline girlz and boyz-gear catazine that boasts 2.5 million members on its e-commerce site. While Hollywood and trend watchers have already jumped on the teeny-bop bandwagon, it was only recently that Web companies finally stepped up to the tattooed, pierced and hair-jeweled masses by addressing this lucrative audience with Web sites featuring sticky teen-oriented content and compelling e-commerce offerings. So what's taking big name advertisers so long to identify and serve this highly prized audience on the Web? The somewhat stealth nature of Web enterprises aimed at teens is perhaps due to all of the bad press and negative media attention focused on the many minefields teens must navigate through while they're online. In the wake of schoolyard shooting sprees, such as the Columbine tragedy, old guy and gal pundits were often quick to point out the evils of this thing called the Internet and equally quick to vilify teen users for spending more time online looking for bomb recipes--and the hate mongering Web sites that host them--than for using the Internet for homework and Bible study. In reality, though, adults may not have given teens enough credit for their ability to discern what's good and what's bad content online. "I think the thing adults need to know about Generation Y is that they're a generation of multimedia, multitasking people," says Susan Mernit, director of new media at react.com, the New York-based Gen Y e-'zine. "Teens are typically on the phone, with the computer on, surfing the Web, instant messaging or chatting and either listening to music or watching the television, all at the same time. That's just standard operating procedure for them." So while the exact same attention dividing activity was termed "slacking off" a half generation ago, the born-with-a-mouse-in-hands Gen Y-ers have cleverly recast their split-focus endeavors as "multitasking." Contradictory to teens' spread out approach to receiving and participating in media, purveyors of teen content are convinced that teens really are paying attention and advertisers are breaking through the clutter. And unlike their slacker predecessors, Gen Y is actually getting involved. "There's a gorgeous convergence going on here," says Dan Pelson, president and CEO of Bolt.com, which now claims 1 million registered users to its service. "It's teen empowerment with technology, media and communications. The argument that the Internet and teens are bad news together we think is bulls--t." The grown-up media preoccupation with the hazards of the Internet may be grounded in some anecdotal evidence, but the simple fact is that teens today have the attractive one-two punch of thick wallets and plenty of free time. And despite their overall cynicism, teens are, in fact, receptive to marketing messages, as long as those messages are pertinent, well-executed and enticing. "I think teens today are more jaded, a bit more skeptical than we were at that age," says Brad Mehl, vice president of marketing at Bolt.com. "Teens readily reject false images. If a marketer is being dishonest, it will ring false to them. They have highly sensitive B.S. detectors that just go off the charts if they're lied to." Card-carrying members of Generation X may look at their upstart rivals with a bit of envy or scorn, but the reality is that Gen Y-ers simply spend more than their predecessors, and they are flexing their collective purchasing muscle to the tune of $141 billion annually, according to Mediamark, New York. While advertisers may have found in Gen Y the new marketing Holy Grail, the young group has proven to be both elusive and fickle, possessing a media savvy unlike previous generations of teens. Fueled by equal doses of ironic skepticism and the pseudo-intellectualism of shows such as "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek," Gen Y-ers don't carry the stigmatizing label of slackers that their Gen X forebears do. The question remains, though, can companies effectively reach the teen market on the Web? "It's very difficult to reach teens through traditional media outlets," says Pelson. "They're in school all day and then they're hanging out with their friends. They're not in a dormant situation where they're going to be sitting in front of a television a lot." Nielsen Research has found that younger teens today watch less television than 18-49 year-olds but spend more time online than any other demographic. Marketing to teens on the Web therefore gets them where they live, or at least where they surf. "Traditional media products for teenagers, by and large, are dumbed down," says Margaret Gould Stewart, general manager at community site Tripod. "They don't treat teenagers, generally speaking, like they are smart young adults who are capable of absorbing complex concepts. But at the same time they're dealing with the realities of drug and substance abuse, violence and teen pregnancy that even 10 years ago teenagers weren't dealing with in such major numbers. So I think teenagers are sort of caught in the crossfire." Stewart thinks the Web offers an effective alternative to traditional media. Tripod, a part of the Waltham, Mass.-based Lycos Network, recently launched TeenSpeak, an area that gives teens a forum to talk about their issues. Mernit believes the current teen revival is neither a detriment to society nor does it signal a decline in the level of discourse. "I personally don't think it's a dumbing down of our culture," she says. "On one hand, there's a greater acceptance of vulgarity. On the other hand, I think the Web has facilitated a huge push toward literacy." For advertisers, it's a matter of whether or not teens will buy what they're selling. "Teens, I think, tend to be as brand-loyal as anyone out there," says Pelson. "People tend to say that they are brand disloyal, but if they trust the brand, they are extraordinarily brand-loyal. If they don't trust the brand, they run away screaming. There's no middle ground." Mernit agrees, with a condition. "They can be very loyal--but loyalty in their world represents six to eight months. During that six to eight months, they will only listen to that radio station, they'll buy that brand of jeans, and then they'll move on to the next brand. This is not a generation that's shopping on price. It's completely the opposite. They want style and they want what they think is quality." Still, the marriage of teens and the Internet looks like one that will last, at least until the next fad (can we say broadband?) rolls along. "Teens are unquestionably the drivers of this medium," says Pelson. "They've made the Internet absolutely part of the fabric of their culture today. It's their rock and roll. In the '50s, my parents were focused on being in a band. Today it's being an Internet developer or doing your own Web site."

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IQ News: Analysis - Setting Their Sites On Generation "Y"

Kipp Cheng

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