TO: High-Level Business Executives
FROM: The Executive Whisper
Based on the findings of a recent national survey, if you’re trying to reach today’s teens, you can pretty much abandon all traditional marketing techniques. 
Of course, if you’re reading this, you’ve known that for some time.
Teens have fully migrated to a post-advertising age, spending less time watching TV and more time than ever on social media sites – like Facebook and YouTube – and connecting with their peers via smart phones, like the iPhone, and iTouch. Further, the increase in media multitasking (using more than one medium at a time) makes it exceedingly difficult to disrupt their entertainment with a selling message because they’re no longer held captive. Teens can divert their attention or “TiVo through” your high-priced advertisement. So, if you want to connect with today’s youth, you need to add value to their lives and encourage word of mouth, not advertise to them.
Results from National Survey
The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a national survey between October 2008 and May 2009 among a nationally representative sample of 2,002 3rd-12th grade students ages 8-18. You don’t have to read the survey. We did because we like stuff like that. Here’s what you need to know:
- The amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically over the past 5 years. (I’m shocked! There’s gambling in the casino?)
- The average 8-18 year old spends 7 hours and 38 minutes a day using entertainment media.
- Since youths spend so much of their time media multitasking, they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
- Young people spend about two hours a day consuming media on a mobile device.
- Over the past five years, cell phone ownership among 8- to 18-year-olds has increased from 39% to 66% and from 18% to 76% for iPods and other MP3 players.
- During this period, cell phones and iPods have become true multi-media devices. In fact, young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33).
- For the first time over the course of the study, the amount of time spent watching regularly-scheduled TV declined, by 25 minutes a day (from 2004 to 2009).
- But the many new ways to watch TV – on the Internet, cell phones, and iPods – actually led to an increase in total TV consumption from 3:51 to 4:29 per day, including :24 of online viewing, :16 on iPods and other MP3 players, and :15 on cell phones. All told, 59% (2:39) of young people’s TV-viewing consists of live TV on a TV set, and 41% (1:50) is time-shifted, DVDs, online, or mobile.
- Top online activities include social networking (:22 a day), playing games (:17), and visiting video sites such as YouTube (:15). Three-quarters (74%) of all 7th-12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site.
- High levels of media multitasking also contribute to the large amount of media young people consume each day. About 4 in 10 7th-12th graders say they use another medium “most” of the time they’re listening to music (43%), using a computer (40%), or watching TV (39%).
Advice for parents: The study found that young people used less media in homes with rules like no television during meals or in the bedroom, or with limits on media time. Yet, only about three in ten young people say they have rules about how much time they can spend watching TV (28%) or playing video games (30%), and 36% say the same about using the computer. But when parents do set limits, children spend less time with media – those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day (2:52) than those with no rules.
And the study did find a correlation (not causation) between heavy media users and poor grades.
