Connecting With Youth Post Three
Posted by left_blank on 06-17-2005
Conference coverage by Shia Kapos:
I’m a journalist and except for the facts I’ve gleaned from interviewing marketers, I have a bird’s-eye view about marketing campaigns, terms or target audiences. So when I hear the word “viral” uttered with enthusiasm, I have to politely smile and pray I don’t catch anything. Viral was the word of the day here at the “Connecting With Youth: Fresh Approaches to Youth Marketing” conference in Chicago. Viral marketing campaigns, also known as Buzz, Word-of-Mouth, Peer-to-Peer and Roach-Baiting (ick!), enlist teens to pitch their messages. They tell friends about products and freebies associated with those products and in return they’re rewarded with gifts and prizes.
Red Bull’s success, for example, proves that brand preferences come from your peers. The drink’s marketing campaign is a case study of a successful viral campaign (OK, from here on out I use the word “buzz”). Selected college students nationwide held Red Bull parties and then reported the results. It sounds like a win-win for everyone. The company gets real-life product placement and college kids get to party — for free! But doesn’t that seem disingenuous? Again and again conference speakers have harped on the importance of
“keeping it real” and “be honest” because this demographic is smart and can recognize a gimmick. But how is it real when you give students freebies to push your products? Or is the question whether a freebie is payment?
Newsletter readers: Come to Ypulse.com to read the rest of this post in the extended entry.
One answer may be in how you “select” your core teen marketers, according to a few speakers brave enough to broach the subject.
“It works best when you get them to come to you,” says Joe Diamond, VP of direct marketing at Alloy Media & Marketing, which used a buzz campaign to offer 500 teenagers and their friends a makeover and party tied to the premiere of reality TV’s America’s Next Top Model.
Most importantly, he and others say, you’ve got to know the rules for advertising to kids online. If it’s an ad, it needs to say so. If you’re collecting information from kids 12 and younger–even an email — make sure you’re getting parental consent. And you’ve got to make sure the web site on which your marketing is in compliance, too.
Once kids get older, the rules seem to get squishier. And by the time they’ve hit college, well, teens are putty in marketers’ hands.
“They’ve just left the influence of their parents. They’re establishing their identity. They’re getting brand preferences and we want to be part of that,” says Sheereen Miller, the senior marketing manger for Sports Illustrated’s college edition. (I saw her grin at this!)
SI has created an “internship program” in which students get credit for passing out fliers, sending email blasts, IMing or chatting up products or events sponsored by SI advertisers. Advertisers enhance their brand in a hard-to-get market and kids get to attend a free volleyball party with all the Doritos they can eat. My bet is that in five years, they’re serving the latest in Tostitos scoopers at a party. And the reason for their choice? It was on sale.
Here’s some interesting info about how the old stalwarts of business are adapting to teens:
* Campbell’s soup is replacing pictures of puky soup bowls with cool cartoons.
* Sports Illustrated campus edition goes beyond the field and tells readers what Jessica Simpson wore to the Super Bowl.
* The Upper Deck Company, maker of baseball cards, has found huge success in marketing to camp counselors. The product? Kids’ own pictures on baseball cards.
* Cingular Wireless offers study break lounges at college campuses during finals time. It serves free food and offers massages, hoping college kids will remember how much Cingular cares for them.
* Burger King’s subservient chicken campaign is weird and off the wall and apparently a branding bust. But it is pretty funny. For a view of this bird, go to www.subservientchicken.com and ask it to dance. It works!
From Anastasia: Shia Kapos is a Ypulse reader and Chicago-based freelance journalist who has written for publications such as the Chicago Tribune and People magazine.
Complete Connecting With Youth coverage:
Connecting With Youth Post One
Connecting With Youth Post Two
Categorized under: Youth Marketing