Teenage obsession

This has seen a remarkable shift in the ways teens communicate with each other and with the world around them. For marketers, communicating with this overtly media savvy and selective audience has never been more challenging. But if Rupert Murdoch, at the age of 76, can adapt to the digital landscape, then there's hope for us all. Surely.

News Corporation's US$580 million acquisition of MySpace in 2005 marked a turning point for the world's largest media company, which had traditionally been slow to adapt to digital change.

"Young people don't want a godlike figure from above to tell them what's important. They want control over their media instead of being controlled by it," Murdoch was quoted as saying at the time of the MySpace buy.

But what does it mean to be a teenager today and are brands applying the right tools to tap into this lucrative audience?

"Youth trends are obviously changing, but youth will always be youth which ever generation you look at," says Ricky Owe, general manager SPE Networks Asia, which runs the Animax network.

This theme is quickly filtering into to many media organisations from newspapers to magazines, radio stations and pay TV companies which now offer content via a multitude of platforms as part of their overall offering to lure advertisers back into their fold and reengage a younger audience.

But aside from big media groups and brands such as Coke and Nike, it seems marketers have been slower to adapt to the new digital mantra.

Terry Tsang, creative director of McCann Erickson Hong Kong, says the local market has been slow to adapt to changes and argues brands have largely failed to successfully tap the teenage market.

"I think in Hong Kong, there are not many brands really talking to teens, besides the big brands like Nike," he says.

"Teens today are so different, their life is so diverse, besides watching TV, they hang out on the street, they like to hang on out with their friends, use their mobiles and search on the web. They're so different. Conventional advertising can not reach them. The teens like the DIY thing, they don't want to be shown a picture, so we want to give autonomy back to teens," he adds.

But just what are some of the key drivers for youth today? Amit Jain, executive vice president & managing director MTV Networks Southeast Asia China & India, says one major and common trend in teen market is music and fashion.

A number of major brands including the likes of Nokia and Vodafone are today jumping headfirst into a music driven strategy and are partnering with media groups like MTV to lend credibility to the music platform.

"Youth fashions are firmly rooted around music, and surrounding music are lifestyle, fashion and technology, internet networking, these seem to be the key youth fashions in Asia," Jain says.

"We are partnering with some of the telcos and a lot of these companies are big time into music. They see it as a big revenue driver."

While music for MTV and telcos is a good fit, Tsang argues that there are a lot of barriers to entry when considering a music strategy.

"There are a lot of obstacles between clients and all the record companies, its not as easy as it should be. We always want to propose something around music, but always have trouble executing it," he says.

Owe argues that animation, gaming and technology are three strong themes for teens today, in particular for Asian youths.

"Music has always been a strong part of who teens are, but animation in particular has been strong for Asian youth" he says.

"In markets like the US and Europe, animation might be new, but in Asia animation is not new, they are really familiar with it."

But he also admits that more recently fashion has become important.

"I think fashion has become extremely important to youth, they see fashion as a way of expressing themselves, they're much more fashion conscious. Music and fashion are very much linked in together.

With this in mind fashion brand Levi's recently launched an online initiative called ‘Levi's World', where Tequila\ Hong Kong created a virtual world at levisworld.com.hk, where members can create their own avatars and customise their personal look, including gender, body share, hair colour, skin tone and, of course, a wardrobe supplied by Levi's.

In Hong Kong the site went live with an "online red carpet" launch party and leading up to the launch a series of in-store executions, print ads, online banners and animated clips on YouTube were launched. Within 48 hours, more than 5,800 people had responded to the campaign.

"For too long, brands have undermined social networking sites by trying to dictate the online conversation," a Levi's spokesperson says.

"Levi's has disrupted this convention by creating a Levi's world where consumers can immerse themselves, initiate their own online conversations and experiences without prejudice."

Another big brand to successfully tap into local trends is Coca-Cola, which through its 360 Days of Happiness campaign saw the beverage maker launch a series of tactical executions around the city targeting a teen audience.

"When we took up the Coke account for McCann, we were quite dedicated to explore every channel and contact point that reach the teens. We wanted to do something that is unconventional and something no advertiser had ever done before," Tsang says.

"The real beauty of this campaign is that it's the teens who create ads for us. It's they themselves who advertise for us."

But he admits that all tactical executions were complimented with major above-the-line support.

"We're trying to explore these niche channels, but still do things in the mass media. Everything has to come together to create an integrated campaign," he says.

One major trend which can not be ignored is the explosion of online channels and the social networking communities that are now being shaped around it.

"Clearly things like YouTube are taking a lot of mind space from the youth, that's a reality," says Jain.

"I think our challenges are how to work with the new reality, there's no point of wishing it away, it's a key youth habit and behavior.

"Communicating brands to multi-tasking youth is not enough. You need to get relevance and you need to connect and that is driven by creativity. You need to adapt to this multi-tasking dialogue, which takes in place, timing and relevance. You don't reach them on one platform, you use several with a number of ad sizes with different partners."

Jain says while much hype surrounds the internet MTV research shows that communities are very much an important part of the online experience.

"Youth research tells us that 90% of teens spend most of their internet time on less than eight websites. They're not going to go all over the place."

So where exactly are they getting their information from? A new study into how and where teens get information today from marketing and brand research group Cimigo, showed word-of-mouth was considered the most helpful information source prior to purchasing mobile phones, sports goods and consumer electronics.

Across all three categories 40% of teenage consumers rated word-of-mouth as the most helpful source of information for sports shoe purchases, with 31% of teens rating word-of-mouth as the best source for both mobile phones and consumer electronics goods.

"These results would seem to indicate that non-traditional advertising media that focus on ‘buzz', such as social-networking sites, are indeed effective with teens," the research showed.

The research also found that magazines were the second-most useful source of information for teens when purchasing non-mobile phone consumer electronics.

Staying ahead of the changing market is no easy feat and does require a significant and constant research investment. Speaking to your audience and engaging them through round tables and focus groups is important.

"Who knows what's going to happen in coming year or next two years, the most important thing to be successful in the youth market is to keep up with what's going on. It's really difficult to say at this point in time what's going to happen in the next few years," says Tsang. "It's not as easy."

Jain says for MTV, research continues to be a major part of how the company operates.

"Research is a very significant investment. At any point in time you need to be reading the tealeaves. I can't say that we get it right every time, but continued relevance with the youth is one of the most difficult acts which any media and advertising group is faced with. If you don't change you get left behind."