Social Pioneers – a break with tradition?
Dylan Mouratsing, global insight manager at kinetic, unveils the findings from his latest research project into the attitudes and behaviours of young people to advertising and brand presence within social media, which found that TV ads and OOH are the leading media channels, while consumers are sceptical of brands operating on Facebook…
Facebook and, to a lesser extent the whole social media sphere, is the current darling of the media world, so advertisers have been keen to understand how their brands may connect with consumers using this rapidly-evolving platform. Social interactions shifting online has massive implications for the rest of the media world. So, together with JCDecaux and insight consultancy Work, we sought to understand the consumer view of media and brands from those at the heart of this behavioural shift.
At a generational level, those that grew up with MTV demarcated Generation X, and the end of the 20th century brought about so-called Generation Y, or Digital Natives. We suggest that a new generation growing up connected to one another, not just by email, SMS and IM but also Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest deserve their own moniker – Social Pioneers.
Why have social networks become so popular? And why were they of interest to us?
The addiction to social media means one in three Facebook users access it while travelling, fuelling an increasing chunk of on-the-go internet usage. Our UK online panel pegs mobile internet penetration at 45% in October 2010, versus 25% as recently as August 2009. This group also spends over an hour more per day ‘Out of Home’ than the average adult.
In the 2000s, people’s mindsets affected what they chose to access, such as MySpace for music lovers. In the last five years, the surge of social network users has spread across demographic groups and appears to be influenced by two deep-rooted psychological needs: the need to belong and the desire to express individuality.
Our approach
Our chosen ‘Social Pioneers’ are all aged 16-24 and at different life stages – work-based training, school, college, university and work. They are all active social network users. The individuals were selected based on their creativity and extrovert nature.
Work developed a ‘spy’ methodology – although we had just six direct participants, they ‘infiltrated’ their peer groups with specific missions to observe and collect information. Between them they had over 4000 Facebook friends. Fittingly, Facebook itself was used as the centre for briefing our spies and collecting their feedback over a six week period.
Results
The handset is now their essential gadget, with the browser and social apps being core functions. Facebook Places, FourSquare and now Facebook Deals tap into this trend; tying offline and online worlds together to benefit the user and business alike.
We discovered three types of relationships on social networks: True Friends – consisting of 8-10 people our Social Pioneers would have a relationship with offline. Acquaintances range in the hundreds, with little intent or desire to develop the relationship further. Specialist networks represent an online relationship, sparked from a personal interest or common ground. Our Social Pioneers claimed, as word of mouth research has proven, that it is the Friends group that have the greatest influence on them.
“Friends post things on Facebook but you’ll only take notice if it’s your close friends. You trust their opinions more”
When asked which brands they liked and engaged with the most, they consistently opted for major brands they experience on a daily basis. In response to “what could shape your opinion or action?” to various product categories, they ranked the full spectrum of advertising channels. Unsurprisingly, close friends and friends they see regularly consistently rank highly. Brands on social networks appeared to be on a par with ‘acquaintances I see occasionally’. Most interestingly TV ads and OOH were the leading media channels.
Our Social Pioneers were sceptical of brands operating on Facebook. They appreciated the value of being kept up to date with new products and offers via advertising but rejected brands attempting to be ‘friends’: Tone is critical to success in this space.
Implications for media
TV hasn’t been a single-screen, linear experience for Social Pioneers for a while now – YouTube enables them to catch up on favourite shows. Perhaps surprisingly, they were also happy to admit to enjoying ads they had been sent by friends, often seeing them online before TV. The shift online is consistent for other media, particularly radio and magazines.
From their media diaries we were able to look at where social media interactions occur. YouTube was mostly an in-home experience, but Facebook is more an on-the-go mobile medium.
The mobile updating of their status, having conversations and uploading content, is not confined to a minority. This is a behaviour, rather than a strict demographic, and the behaviour appears contagious – today 46% of Facebook users log on away from home .
When asked to talk about advertising they liked while ‘Out of Home’, they appreciated learning where and when new products become available, and they liked the anticipation that comes from an upcoming launch announced on the street.
“Billboards can create a buzz cos you walk past them every day – they have a mass audience”
This knowledge presents advertisers with an immense opportunity. Some of our Social Pioneers already interacted with QR Codes, the 2D barcodes that when snapped by smartphones deliver a new phone contact or take the user to online content such as a film trailer. It is a quick way to access other elements of a campaign, and therefore makes the sharing of content easy.
To summarise – we know more social interaction is happening online, but that this is often happening on the move, on smartphones. Word of mouth remains a foundation of brand building, and the core components of the best brands among this group are similar to other groups. Traditional media channels have proven their ability to deliver on these attributes over decades, but this study shows an appetite for increased interaction and discussion. As we have seen, YouTube adds another dimension to the TV experience, and Facebook is placed to do the same to brands which are seen Out of Home.