THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGES

If you’re trying to market to today’s kids, research suggests the medium may well be themessages.

“Multi-messaging” is the best way to reach the “millennial generation,” said Tim Mask, an account planner at Maris, West & Baker in Jackson, Miss. Multi-tasking, multifaceted youth have grown up bombarded by information flowing through cell phones, television, video games and the Internet, he said.

Mask’s research, presented most recently at the KidPower Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla., suggests that marketers have yet to come to terms with millennials, a cohort with a wide range of activities and interests that both expects and enjoys a multitude of messages.

There is no “silver bullet,” Mask said, “no single message around which a marketing strategy and brand development scheme can be based … You’re dealing not with one audience, but many.”

“Marketing to Millennials,” a youth-marketing strategy report created by the agency, is available free of charge at www.mwb.com/youth.