IPC Looks Into Teenage Minds

IPC’s Bridget Marrison has led a study into the importance of magazines in the lives of young women today, proving to agencies that they are bypassing a very important market.

Speaking to MediaTel this week, Marrison outlined the research which examines subjects as diverse as average monthly disposable income to ‘who’s hot and who’s not’ – a thorough examination of teenage life-styles.

The results – currently being presented to agencies with an accompanying video- claim that the young women’s market is increasing, with predictions that the amount of 10-14 year old women looks set to increase by 6.3% between 1995 and 2000, implying that in the long term more young women will enter the consumer market.

• Although the general women’s magazine market has declined by 3.6% in terms of volume between 1987 and 1992, the young women’s titles have seen an uplift of 22.7% in volume terms

The study cites case studies outlining how advertising in young women’s mags can benefit the advertiser, using the ‘Emmerdale’ campaign as a prime example, the objective being to attract 12-24 year olds to the soap. The ads ran in IPC young women’s titles including MG, Mizz and 19, over six weeks between April-May 1992. The BARB audience research figures increased significantly following the campaign, with the younger audience rising by 16%.