The Mix: Youth Marketing Relies on Interactivity
By Martha C. White
Many marketers think of Generation Y and teens as impossible demographics. “They’re too cynical; they won’t buy into marketing messages,” they say. Or, “It’s impossible to make them listen; their attention span is too short.”
While reaching this demographic is a worthwhile goal for marketers, many don’t know how to go about it, preferring to retreat behind complaints that today’s young people are too jaded to be receptive, anyway.
This perception isn’t true, says Lucian James, president of San Francisco–based Agenda Inc., a marketing firm that specializes in teens and young adults, although he adds that the rules of engagement have shifted to favor the consumer. “The important thing to realize about Generation Y is they’ve been marketed to since they were born,” he says. “They’re extremely savvy about marketing; it’s impossible for marketers to hoodwink them.”
“It’s not just harder than ever to catch their attention, it’s harder than ever to change their behavior,” adds David Morrison, president of Twentysomething Inc. and author of Marketing to the Campus Crowd: Everything You Need to Know to Capture the $200 Billion College Market. Morrison refers to this demographic’s tendency to try many brands and stay loyal to none as “brand surfing,” a behavior that creates another challenge for marketers. “Even if you can get them to try your product or service, getting them to become a loyal customer is very difficult.”
So how can a marketer get and retain customers? Use tactics that rely on a “pull” rather than a “push” model for disseminating information, and accept the fact that this generation likes to be involved in everything. “The key is understanding your audience really well and inviting them to participate in the brand,” says James. “If you target people enough, you can have a dialogue with them.” Here are the hottest tactics recommended by industry experts and insiders:
Guerilla Initiatives Engage
Street-level promotions that attempt to engage consumers on their way to school, work or favorite hangout spots have grown enormously popular. “In today’s marketing paradigm, humans [are a] key delivery tool,” says Erik Hauser, creative director and founder of San Francisco–based Swivel Media, an experiential marketing company that runs guerilla promotions for companies ranging from Wells Fargo to job Web site Careerbuilder.com. “The downfall of [a lot of] street campaigns is there’s too much infrastructure and too much downtime. We [aim] to be as nimble and agile as possible,” Hauser explains. What makes these events work is their appearance of spontaneity, which appeals to younger consumers.
Many guerilla initiatives rely on teams of trained employees that fan out and spread a brand message in urban centers, malls, beaches and the like. Often, staffers are deployed on Segways or roller skates to ramp up the visual impact. Although guerilla marketing often includes an event element, these campaigns are as much about the buildup and the buzz as the event itself.
When apparel maker Limited Brands launched Pink, a spinoff of its Victoria’s Secret lingerie brand aimed at 18- to 24-year-old women, the buzz-generating element took the form of a giant pink gift box on a South Beach sidewalk in Miami Beach.
The only signage heralding the Pink event cryptically instructed readers to be at the box at a certain time and day. Marketers took to South Beach’s famously hip streets with fliers bearing the same message. At the appointed hour, the box opened and models paraded out for a fashion show featuring the new brand, followed by a concert.
“Through interacting and creating experiences, [consumers] are able to have an affinity for a brand beyond what advertising can do,” says Matt Britton, managing director of Mr. Youth, the marketing agency that orchestrated the Pink launch.
In another twist on the medium, furniture manufacturer Ikea used guerilla tactics to attract the interest of the collegiate crowd. The budget-friendly company outfitted a giant truck as a stylized dorm room, replacing the side panels with Plexiglas to transform the truck into a rolling diorama. This “dorm-on-wheels” showed up on college campuses in early fall for incoming students to tour. Ikea followed this up with bus trips from the campuses on the campaign route to local Ikeas, so students without cars could still get their futons and flokati rugs.
Have Mobile, Will Market
Mobile phone text messaging, called short message service or just SMS, is another currently hot tool for marketers. Twentysomething’s Morrison believes that just as the Internet is nudging out TV as a source of information and entertainment, one day cell phones will take a big bite out of what is now primarily Internet territory, offering sports clips, music videos and other content.
Although SMS technology is already on the market, it requires higher-priced phones to view and costs a premium from wireless carriers, so marketers tend to agree it will take a while to trickle down to the teen and twenty-something markets.
In the more immediate future, Morrison predicts that the growing number of GPS-enabled cell phones will lead to a spate of short-term, location-based promotions. He predicts that “impulse purchase” retailers such as Starbucks and 7-Eleven will soon be able to send an SMS “coupon” to someone within, say, a three-block radius of a store. The consumer would have a short window of time in which they could redeem the coupon by showing their screen to a cashier.
Already, many marketers are using SMS as a tactic to enhance customer buy-in and brand loyalty. One recent promotion to increase viewership of National Basketball Association games by young men was designed by marketing firm Enpocket. Consumers were invited to “play” by guessing the winner of an upcoming game. Those who guessed right were entered into a drawing to win a prize. Another Enpocket campaign, which supported Dunkin Donuts’ launch of a trendy latte drink, sent text messages to consumers in the Boston area, where the chain is based, offering coupons for the new drink to entice them to try it.
The beauty of SMS, say its advocates, is that it’s entirely opt-in, with consumers electing to receive the text messages. As a point of distinction, opting-in means customers already have a vested interest in the brand message, so companies know they’re pitching products or services to a receptive audience.
“The media consumption of this generation is different. They’re controlling their media consumption and the content they consume,” says Mr. Youth’s Britton. This means that marketers have to come up with tactics that make young consumers want to engage with them. “Brands aren’t able to rely on traditional mediums to reach young adults,” Britton says. “Interactive tactics bring brands to life and get [consumers] excited.”
Max Kalehoff, vice president of marketing at market research company BuzzMetrics, concurs and points out that even marketers without a Gen Y or teen customer base would do well to observe how this demographic is being reached.
“The youth are really at the forefront of these changes that are going on,” Kalehoff says. “They are feeding a lot of the adoption of alternative media. They’re the leading curve of the culture we’re in.”
