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Ypulse: How did you get the idea for Reach Messaging?

Brian Johnson: We came up with the idea of providing test prep quizzes on an IM platform, since most teens use IM on a regular basis. This was actually our first bot and as no great surprise we quickly found that teens are more interested in fashion, celeb gossip, quizzes and polls than taking tests.

YP: How has the explosion of texting impacted the IM market, if at all? Who do you consider the core IM demographic?

BJ: The IM market has definitely felt a slight impact with the popularity of texting growing on a daily basis. Especially since on early model cell phones, IMing was much more difficult than texting/sms. Now with the new generations of smart phones, this dynamic has reversed and IMing is as easy and actually more compelling than simple sms. Just look at how easy and compelling AIM is on the iPhone…the core IM demographic is 16-25.

YP: How important is it to offer something of value when using IM as a tool to reach youth? Describe a Reach campaign you think really did that well.

BJ: As long as you make the tool cool, IM is a great way to reach youth. We just launched a Britney Spears campaign on our celeb bot, GossipinGabby. In the first day, over 2,000 users adopted the Britney Expression (skin) and we directed over 5,000 users to the Britney website.

The metrics from Britney’s Takeover over 30 days included 798,000 unique users who spoke to the Bot during the campaign and viewed the Britney Expression; 8,358,400 page views of the Britney Expression; 28,621 users were sent to the BritneySpears.com site; 12,345 users adopted the Britney Expression and shared it with 98,767 users.

YP: What are teens doing on IM besides just communicating/chatting?

BJ: Digesting content – i.e. using out bots, LOL. Seriously, they are doing polls, quizzes and playing games. Teens use IM as a source to kill time in small doses as well as sty in touch throughout the day.

YP: Anything else you think Ypulse readers should know?

BJ: We have also recently launched our first sister web site www.dailygab.com which is hosted by one of our Bot persona’s “Gabby” which is proving to be a valuable alternative to purely getting their info via IM… In its first month it hit nearly 200K users and will be growing very fast as we are rapidly climbing the google and yahoo search engines.

More on Reach Messaging
The goal of Reach Messaging is to help publishers and advertisers reach millions of tweens, teens, and generation Y—where they handout most—on the internet and mobile Instant Messaging Platforms.

Make Your Message Mobile

Panelists:
Stephen Randall, CEO, LocaModa
Sarig Reichert, Vice President, Flixwagon
Thi Linh Wernau, Senior Mobile Stratgist, Nokia

Moderator: Allison Mooney, Senior Director of Trends & Research, Fleishman-Hillard

Part One
Part Two (Q&A)

Keynote: The Virgin Mobile Festival and Related Pro-Social Initiatives

Ron Faris, Director, Brand Development and Partnerships, Virgin Mobile USA

Virgin keynote

Sponsored Case Study: myYearbook Reaching Millions of Teens Through Cause Marketing

Geoff Cook, CEO, myYearbook

myYearbook Case Study

Sponsored Case Study: Hangout Industries Making Social Networking Fun: Immersive 3D Virtual Rooms

Pano Anthos, CEO, Hangout Industries

Part One
Part Two

Sponsored Case Study: Reach Messaging

Jeff Bishop, Co-Founder, Reach Messaging

Reach Messaging

How to Reach Youth on Social Networks

Panelists:
Manish Chandra, CEO, Kaboodle
Geoff Cook, CEO, myYearbook
Jordan Goldman, Founder and CEO, Unigo
Joe Marchese, President, SocialVibe

Moderator: Robin Raskin, Founder, Kids@Play

Part One
Part Two

Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have the recordings for the afternoon sessions on day two (Friday), but you can always refer to the Live Blog on the conference site for recaps of those sessions. We’ll post the audio we have from day two tomorrow.

Youth Marketing Boot Camp: How to Successfully Reach Teens and College Students (Gary Rudman, GTR Consulting)

Part One
Part Two
Q&A Part One
Q&A Part Two
Q&A Part Three

The Millennials: Myths and Realities

Panelists:
Ryan Healy, Co-Founder, Brazen Careerist
Nadira Hira, Writer, Fortune Magazine
Reena Nadler, Program Director, LifeCourse Associates
Saaret Yoseph, Editorial Assistant, The Root

Moderator: Mike Dover, Vice President, Syndicated Research, nGenera

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Behind the Numbers: What Research Tells Marketers and Media about Today’s Teens (Daniel Coates, Co-founder, SurveyU)

Part One
Part Two
Q&A

Green Youth Marketing

Panelists:
Allison Bacon, Director, Consumer Insights, AMP Agency
Jessie Mehrhoff, President, Green Teens U.S.A.
Janet Sun, Vice President, Marketing, Experience Inc.

Moderator: Holly Brickley, Strategic Analyst, Outlaw Consulting

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Note: The folks at Vice asked us not to post their audio.

The Panelists
Ryan Healy (Co-Founder, Brazen Careerist)
Nadira Hira (Writer, Fortune)
Reena Nadler (Program Manager, LifeCourse Associates)
Saaret Yoseph (Editorial Assistant, The Root)

Moderator
Mike Dover (VP, Syndicated Research, nGenera)

Myth: Millennials Feel Entitled
It’s no secret that Millennials have a different attitude towards climbing the corporate ladder than the generations that came before (with twentysomething CEOs who can blame us?), but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re looking to avoid earning our way to the top. We just expect the ascent to happen sooner than later. Healy suggested that it was this sense of self-confidence that was being confused with entitlement (he credited parents for instilling us with the belief that we can do anything we set our minds to). Yoseph took a slightly different stance, conceding that Millennials were high-maintenance, but this was only because we were high-performing as well (i.e. willing to work on nights and weekends.)

Myth: Millennials Expect To Become Rich And Famous
As Millennials came of age there was a fundamental shift in the perception of who was considered a celebrity– first, with the advent of reality TV and then with YouTube. But, as far as our desire to join that culture? Healy said Millennials are much more concerned with our personal brand and what we project on the scale of social networks (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter). Nadler added that if you look at who’s influencing Gen y, it’s parents and professors more than celebrities (echoing what we heard during the SurveyU preso on Gen Y’s political influences).

Reality: Millennials Come With Helicopter Parents
Whereas Gen Xers would opt to go it alone once they reached college, according to Nadler, Gen Y is much less willing to take a risk if it isn’t validated by an authority figure. Yoseph explained that we appreciate the safety net that comes with a support system. Parents, in turn, have responded by becoming increasingly involved in their children’s lives beyond high school. On a positive note, this closeness has translated for some into a better relationship between Gen Y and Boomers at the office allowing for mentorship opportunities. There is a point, however, when involved becomes too involved. Nadler said she’s heard both college administrators and employers begin to complain about parents’ heightened presence. Finally, there are some employers who have wholeheartedly embraced the shift. Nadler cited a recent army campaign that co-marketed to parents as well as potential recruits with the tagline, “You made them strong. We make them army strong.”

Myth: Millennials Are Post-Racial
This myth was actually a point of contention among our panelists. While Yoseph agreed that Gen Y was a diverse community, she wouldn’t go so far as to say we’ve become post-racial. In fact, she argued Millennials gave themselves more credit than they were due, engaging in cultural tourism rather than a deep understanding of race. Healy, however, argued that we were nearly there and cited our strong reaction against Sarah Palin, whom he called a culture warrior type, as evidence that we were already in, if not heading rapidly towards, a much more progressive place.

Reality: Companies Could Benefit From Reverse Mentoring
Hira (who wrote a piece on attracting the Gen Y worker for Fortune) traced one source of generational workplace tension to the fact that Boomers feel like when they went to work they came in, put on the suit and played the game. Now they’re wondering why Gen Y isn’t doing the same. As for the strain between X and Y? Chalked up to good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. But, when it comes down to it, are Millennials’ suggestions for the workplace really such a bad idea? One issue that came up multiple times was Y’s need for constant praise: (one survey showed more than 60% of Millennials wanted feedback once a month or more on their work). But, as Nadler pointed out, who wouldn’t benefit from more feedback? Other points mentioned were flexible hours (working from home on Fridays) and informal attire (to Gen Y, casual doesn’t mean unprofessional.)

In Conclusion
While Millennials are by no means perfect employees (several panelists pointed to a problem taking on a leadership role), they do have a lot to offer. Not only as smart, capable individuals, but as a collective whole with big ideas about business and business culture.

“Make Your Message Mobile”

Panelists: Stephen Randall (CEO, LocaModa); Sarig Reichert (VP Marketing, Flixwagon); Thi Linh Wernau (Sr. Mobile Strategist, Nokia Interactive Advertising)
Moderator: Alison Mooney (Sr. Director Mobile Insights, Fleishman-Hillard)

Overall Highlights

- 3.1 billion mobile users worldwide; 4 out of 5 teens carry mobile phones

- Women texting more, guys using mobile web more

- Teens picked mobile phones as the most telling sign of social status

- Kids and teens are increasingly texting more than talking on their phone (also text more than Twitter)

Key Points From Panelists

Reichert:

- Look at integrating mobile as a lifestyle experience. Anything goes for the youth market. Almost nothing is private. (See my earlier post on Dan Hart’s preso to learn more about Flixwagon and their joint venture with MTV lifecasting The Jonas Brothers)

- It’s not just pushing a message. It’s about engagement.

Randall:
- The future is connectivity. Mobile is the technology. Mobile can bridge the mobile and physical world (example given of texting in and getting Beck listening party locations back).

- The key is content plus connectivity (a summary of the argument for why teens prefer Facebook to Twitter).

- Brands who read about sexy technology (i.e. bluetooth) need to ask themselves, “Are you trying to reach an audience or are you just trying to be sexy?”

Wernau:
- The goal is to see mobile as a remote control for life.

- Technology is all about the ability to multi-task. Eventually all tech will be interactive.

- Apps have to make life better and be easy to use.

“How to Reach Youth On Social Networks”

Panelists: Manish Chandra (CEO, Kaboodle); Geoff Cook (CEO, MyYearbook); Jordan Goldman (Founder and CEO, Unigo); Joe Marchese (Social Vibe)

Moderator: Robin Raskin (Owner, Living in Digital Times)

Who’s Who

- Kaboodle: a social shopping network where visitors can go to any retailer, add products and then share picks with friends

- MyYearbook: a social networking site for teens. The fastest growing network in the US

- Unigo: an online college guidebook written by students. The largest online collection of user-generated college content (text, videos, pics)

- SocialVibe: rewards users for sponsoring their favorite brands on their profiles

Key Points From Panelists

Chandra:
- User-generated content can’t be your reach strategy. You need content creators who then engage their friends to help you get there.

- There is going to be social media optimization movement. (i.e. Facebook Connect)

- People definitely going cross platform for content. (Flickr, YouTube, MySpace)

Cook:
- Social networks are like television networks. Each network has a unique identity. Why do you watch one TV network over another? It’s content. (myYearbook does not embrace Open Social and has its own apps)

- The market is getting mature for social networking but it’s not a fad. It’s up the social network to keep innovating and stay fresh.

Marchese:
- Brands don’t reach teens on social networks. Teens reach teens on social networks. If you give them something they want then they will share your brand.

- The killer app will be when social networks work together. When you use an aggregator you can’t use the features that make each social network valuable to users.

Goldman:
- Unigo syndicates content and is a big fan of porting their content to any site and letting users take their Unigo identity with them.

- Mobile is a content capture device. Some users will come to Unigo to get content, others will use mobile to create content for the site.

- When you are offering niche content, launching with lots of it is very important (they have hundreds of interns writing content!).

“What Works In Online Video for Youth”
Panelists: Anthony Batt (Founder, Buzznet); Jason Hsiao (President, Animoto); Julie Hochheiser (Sr. Web Editor, Seventeen)

Moderator: Scott Kirsner (Innovation Economy Columnist, Boston Globe)

The Good News
- In the post-YouTube era online videos have never been easier to create and watch.

- Viewers value authenticity more than production quality (hence the popularity of vids created on mobile phones).

- Celebrity coverage and comedy generate a lot of attention on the web. Specifically, behind-the-scenes coverage and quick, smart bites of video (good writing is critical)

The Bad News
- [Most] users don’t want to create video on demand. You can have 1 million hits a month on your site and still only get 60 videos entered into a contest (Interesting sidenote: a recent Pew study showed that guys create more video content. Hsiao confirmed this with Animoto and added that girls are more interested in making comments. Batt however indicated that the top video creators on Buzznet are female)

- Web-based TV shows don’t work. Videos have to be kept short.

- Now that it’s so easy, there are a lot of bad videos out there.

In Conclusion
The first step to delivering your message is choosing the right (read: appropriate) method for your purposes. Remember to be authentic (a word that came up in nearly every session!) and provide the content your audience wants.

During Ron’s truly dynamic presentation on Virgin Mobile’s latest pro-social initiatives, Mashup attendees were not only treated to exclusive insights on upcoming projects (more on that in a bit!), they actually got the chance to give one a test drive. Before his talk, Faris asked attendees to text the word “karma” to 68405. He then informed us that every message sent equaled a hoodie sweatshirt donated to a homeless youth care of American Eagle. The simple instruction and its big altruistic payoff (read: warm and fuzzy feeling) served as a perfect demonstration of the strategic thinking that’s clearly behind all of Virgin’s ongoing and upcoming plans…

The Brand: Virgin Mobile USA

- Joint venture between Sprint and Virgin

- Over 5 million subscribers

- Focused on 14-34 year olds male and female

- Fun, irreverent

- Alternative to contract plans

The Strategy

- Providing “superservice”

- Surprising and delighting customers at every turn

- Counting on the power of viral

The Virgin Mobile Festival

- 2 days, 40 bands, 35K attendees per day

- Over 25K branded giveaways

- Comprehensive onsite experience that included domes of activation where attendees could recharge (literally and figuratively), refresh and renew. Also onsite– hospitality angels dedicated to providing helpful info and “surprising and delighting” fans (i.e. providing sunscreen, spraying them with mist to help beat the heat)

- VIP Treatment: Virgin partnered with mobile social company Buzz’d to provide participating attendees with exclusive info and possible prizes (over 12% of attendees downloaded the app)

- RE*Generation/Pro-Social factor: fans could visit a Pro-Social Charity Dome featuring an art gallery of various artists’ visualizations of homeless youth. 20 charities were represented and over $180K was donated

More on HY-TV

- To demonstrate how Americans need to shift their priorities from reality TV to real issues, Virgin has taken popular shows and spun them with a homeless youth angle

- HY-TV shows include “American Idle,” “Meal or No Meal,” “The Simple Strife,” “Life Swap,” “My Street Sixteen” and “Project Runaway”

- Similar to the KARMA demonstration, viewers can text their donations to homeless youth programs that will receive 100% of the proceeds

Final Thoughts
To say the least, Virgin Mobile has done an impressive job of dreaming up innovative ways to reach their target audience. This can only bode well for their ability to leverage those same mobile marketing strategies that made the Virgin Mobile Festival such a booming success (in the face of a downward trend in music festival ticket sales to boot!), and spread awareness for a deserving cause.

Background: Screens and Teens

-31% of in-home internet activity occurs while watching TV

-45% teens IM or message friends they know are watching the same tv shows

-35% of 9-17 year olds have participated or played games that they were informed about while watching TV shows

TV 2.0 Strategy: The Layer Cake

Hart graphs the viewing experience from surface (consume programming) to middle (sharing and connecting) to core (interacting online and playing show-related games,) explaining how the deepest level not only provides a new experience for devoted watchers, but also draws newer audiences into the multi-faceted “world” of the show.

In Action : BackChannel and FNMTV

BackChannel
A “competitive chat” that encourages viewers to watch-while-they play and see their own and others’ snarky comments appear on TV in real-time with prominence based on points awarded by the online players. Currently, it’s only available for “The Hills,” but it seems Paris Hilton and her search for a new BFF is next in line for the BackChannel treatment.

FNMTV
Harking back to the channel’s roots and namesake, FNMTV (Friday Night MTV) is a music video program hosted by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz that premieres 4-6 new videos a week along with viewers’ instantaneous feeback.

Background: Teens Go Mobile

-50% Teens mobile by age 13

-47% of teens said their social life would end without texting

-50% teens consider their mobile as an entertainment platform

MTV Mobile In Action: Lifecasting and Twittervision

Lifecasting the JoBros
MTV partnered with Flixwagon (another Mashup panelist) to deliver a nonstop blogging event that captured The Jonas Brothers via video phone from waking up to heading on stage at Madison Square Garden. Over 1 million users signed up.

Obama Wins on Twittervision
As part of MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign, on election night an interactive TwitterVision map appeared on a giant HDTV in Times Square flashing messages from viewers across the country, the Choose or Lose Street Team and MTV news correspondents, along with video blog posts.

In Conclusion

Throughout the 80s, 90s and early oughts MTV played an integral role in defining youth culture. With these thoughtful initiatives and others in the same vein, Hart and the channel (whose recent struggles are no secret), are making a valiant effort to keep it that way.

The Basics

- “Zigging where X zagged” Y defines themselves by correcting the recklessness of their predecessors
(i.e. reinforcing community, bonding with parents/grandparents, making positive change)

- A pampered and protected Generation Y-ers will stay under the shadow of their helicopter parents until they are good and ready to come out (On average, female college students call home every day of the week., while guys limit themselves to five times.)

- Gen Y is multi-cultural, multi-tasking and multi-lingual

- First generation to be more technologically advanced than their parents

By the Numbers

- Gen Y is almost 100 million strong

- This year was the largest starting freshman year in the history of US academia

- College students in America outnumber every state’s population with the exception of CA, TX, NYC (Dan poignantly asks, “What candidate could afford to ignore a state of that size?”)

Campus Politics

- Students’ political leanings came as no surprise (60% self-identify as Democrats, over 50% view themselves as liberal)

- But the numbers of those who not only registered to vote (91%), but actually followed through (around 86%) definitely made some ears perk up

- Even more inspiring were the stats behind students making an effort to stay both aware (70% follow political news very closely to somewhat closely, with nearly 60% saying they watched the first presidential debate) as well as active (53%)

- Dan suggested that while students turned to mass media to keep them informed the MOST influential institution in terms of political engagement was the family (70%), with parents (67%) weighing in as the most influential individuals

- Facebook’s role in it all? The primary means for “grassroots engagement,” Dan deems the social networking site “the new yard sign,” listing various ways students used the site to promote their candidate (i.e. changing status, joining a group, adding a Facebook app, changing their profile pic, becoming a supporter/fan, RSVPing to an event

The Takeaway?

The future of this country is in the hands of millions of millennials. They are well-informed, well-connected and, yes, well-intentioned. So, reach out to them in a thoughtful, honest way, and it will be paid back in dividends.

P.S. The map in this post was produced by Future Majority and is one in a series of charts illustrating the impact and partisan loyalties of the youth vote.

New! Marketing to Teens: How Generation Y is Advocating Innovative New Marketing Techniques Without Even Knowing It (360 PR)
Gen Y Totally Wired: A Ypulse Digest (Tara Cousineau, PhD)
Ruminations: 2008 YPulse Mashup Boston (Derek Baird)

Meredith will be blogging recaps of various sessions throughout the week, but while it’s fresh in my mind, I thought I would reflect a bit on our last panel — the youth panel, which I moderated. It’s a bit like blogging, reflecting in reverse chronological order. Our panel was half BU students and half Boston high school students from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. These panels offer a peek into the thoughts, opinions and media habits of young people but can’t ever be fully representative of “all teens” or “all college students.” Still, it’s always fun to hear from young people themselves at these events.

Youth consume local news online, too.
I’ve seen studies about how young people consume news where local TV news ranks pretty high as a source of information. When I asked the teens about websites they visit other than MySpace or Facebook, a couple of them mentioned Boston.com and The Boston Herald (we also had a couple of big Boston sports fans on the panel as well). Even though this generation is growing up with a more global perspective, they are still living at home, going to local sports events, volunteering at local charities (when asked about getting involved in causes online vs. in person, our panel overwhelmingly chose “in person.”) and are very much a part of their community. They want news that impacts them, which is why I think more young people tune in or search for local stories. Sites other than MySpace and Facebook mentioned by our panel as favorites were: Colbert Nation, College Board, New York Times, CNN, MSN, Veoh, Hulu, Twitter, Wired, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Lifehacker and Gizmodo. The college students were much more like “early adopters” in their tastes than the high school students (some big socio-economic differences as well).

There are still “Tech Nots”
With all of our talk about Totally Wired youth, we forget that there are some teens who choose to not participate or unplug. We had one of these high school students on our panel. She barely used the internet for anything outside of school work. She also was one of the teens who spent the most time reading books for pleasure. She’s not on MySpace or Facebook and did not text. We also had another high school student who did not own a cell phone. I wasn’t sure if that was her preference or for financial reasons. My guess was the latter.

Communication Tools Are About Efficiency
Youth are in developmental phase in their lives where socializing with peers is what’s most important. They are also incredibly busy. When I asked the young people on our panel how they stay in touch with each other, what I heard were the usual response (IM, textbook, Facebook and some email, mostly to communicate with adults), but I also heard the repeated need to blast or communicate with “all my friends at once.” Phones are still being primarily used for voice and text, though some of these teens text more than talk (200+ text messages a day). That said, two of our college students had iPhones with data plans and one student had a music phone. As PDAs become more widespread among youth and if the price of data plans drops, I think we’ll see more young people surfing, gaming and even watching video via phone.

HBO a hit…with youth?
When I asked about TV, I was really surprised by how often HBO was mentioned. There were two shout outs to “Entourage” as a favorite show and one to “True Blood.” The only CW show mentioned was “America’s Next Top Model.” When I asked how they watch TV – some still watched the old fashioned way, but I also heard HBO on demand, YouTube, Colbert Nation, SNL videos (online), and “Lost” on ABC.com.

No pop-ups, email or ads with naked, skinny girls
We all hate pop-ups and so do youth. Netflix, stop the insanity! Our panel also did not like email advertising – goes “right into the trash.” They notice when TV ads suddenly get very loud, one panelist definitely noticed the music on CW ads (and would go try to find the artist), and another mentioned “don’t talk down to me.” They want more racial diversity in ads, appreciate unique artsy ads as well. Update: I forgot to mention one of our panelists said he LOVED Facebook ads….

Health information? Just like our recent survey – Web MD and Google
Only two “health” sites mentioned by our panel….(also mentioned were mom and dad)

Books – it’s all about the cover not the Kindle
One panelist said “nothing can replace the physical book” when asked about the Kindle. They want books on their shelves.

Still downloading…
Most of our panel downloads free music or movies from sites like Bit Torrent and Limewire, except for one of the college students who was busted by the RIAA (ouch). The other college students download from home (not school) for that very reason. I was surprised that two of our panelists mentioned Pandora as a music source (my personal fave). And our “Tech-Not” panelist says she does buy Britney Spears music “cuz she needs our support.”