1. Young people power the marketing agenda online
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Aileen O'Toole, Managing Director, AMAS
Young, fickle and online-savvy. Irish teens’ and tweenies’ online behaviour has far-reaching parental and social implications – but it is also fundamentally reshaping the world of marketing and communications.
From as young as eight, Irish children are online. Among 11-year-olds, most own mobile phones. When they enter their teenage years, they’re more likely to be talking about Bebo in the school yard than who did what in a favourite TV soap.
Their networks are both local and global. Their gaming buddies may be in Japan or the US. Their grainy video footage on YouTube.com is as likely to spark interaction in Wichita as it is in Wexford.
Social networks, mobile marketing, user-generated content, podcasting, instant messaging, – young people are leading the change in media habits. And viral marketing techniques ensure widespread adoption.
Today, the hot property among Irish teens is Bebo, the social networking site that has celebrated its first birthday this Summer and now claims to be Ireland’s number one website. But next year, or sooner, it could be displaced by another interactive start-up. Children and teenagers are comfortable with new communications tools, some of which push out the boundaries of what their parents regard as acceptable. For parents, policing online behaviour is proving challenging.
Young Irish people online: the facts
So what impact, if any, does young people’s increasing use of online technologies have for Irish decision-makers in businesses and government? A lot is the simple answer. From targeting young people with a marketing campaign, to influencing behaviour and communicating key messages, Irish decision-makers who want to address young people cannot avoid the power of online media.
Internationally, marketers are now questioning the logic of ploughing so much of their marketing spend into expensive TV advertising.
They’re starting to find smarter ways to spend their budgets and have woken up to the shift in media habits among young people. International evidence shows that the more time children and teenagers spend online, the less they spend on TV. They are also interacting with brands in a way that isn’t possible on TV.
“Young people who tend to be adept at using media, constantly online and sceptical, are increasingly immune to the clichés of prime-time television and radio and mentally tune out of these nuisances,” The Economist observes. “Online, however they may accept advertising, if it is unobtrusive, relevant and fun. Insofar as they took some action to invite the advertisement, they may even find it useful.”
In Ireland, the shift from conventional to online campaigns has begun, albeit in a much more low-key fashion than in markets such as the US and the UK.
If you’re in the communications business (and what decision-maker isn’t) online is becoming the channel of choice. Top down communications from government bodies, businesses and “officialdom” doesn’t work in seeking to influence or communicate with a young audience. Bottom-up, peer-to-peer communication seeded and carried through a variety of online channels is more likely to deliver the desired result.
Aileen O’Toole, as Managing Director of AMAS, acts as a strategic adviser to private and public sector clients on their online channels.
Sources: NCTE survey 2006, Irish National Teachers Organisation study, 2006, Nielsen NetRatings, Statement from Bebo’s Irish sales representative.
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