Engaging the net-engagers
Kantar Media’s Alice Dunn takes a look at net-engagers, or ‘true media-multitaskers’ – a money obsessed group of youths that many marketers should find highly attractive and worthwhile when it comes to targeting audiences…
It is easy to assume that everyone these days – young people in particular – are regular internet users and pretty online-savvy. However, Kantar Media’s Youth TGI study reveals that there is a hard core of young people far more engaged with online content than their peers.
This is a group that both has influence online and is easily influenced online and offline. As such they represent a very attractive group to many marketers.
By using a count command, we have created a group of net-engagers. These are 11-19 year olds who agree with at least six of the following TGI variables:
– The internet is a really important thing in life
– I tend to be influenced by comments/reviews posted online by other Internet users
– Other people’s online opinions influence my decisions about purchases
– I spend at least 25 hours online per week
– I would be lost without the internet
– Online activities include setting up/updating my own website
– Online activities include blogging
– I value the opportunity to add my own content to a website
These net-engagers make up just over 500,000 – 8% – 11-19 year olds. This proportion has grown from 4% two years ago and 5% last year. This indicates that more and more young people are becoming increasingly more online-savvy, meaning a growing target for marketers.
These net-engagers are a money-obsessed bunch: they are well over twice as likely as the average 11-19 year old to say that having money is more important than being a good person. They are similarly more likely to think the most important thing in life is to have lots of money. In line with this, they are 47% more likely to think that young people should enjoy their money instead of saving it.
The combination of this thirst for money and their views on advertising make this group a worthwhile group for marketers to target. They are over twice as likely to search the net for products they see advertised on TV. They are also more likely to believe most advertising is truthful, they like to buy things they have seen advertised on TV and they like the adverts on the radio and in magazines.
As well as understanding what young people like, it is also important for marketers to understand what they are worried about. An important online worry for young people is cyber-bullying: 66% of net-engagers think online bullying is a major problem. Net-engagers are also 36% more likely than the average young person in their age group to be very worried about money.
Insight from Youth TGI reveals that these net-engagers are over two and a half times as likely as the average 11-19 year old to be willing to pay to access content on magazine websites. This indicates that they do not see paywalls as a barrier, which will be welcome news for online marketers.
Looking at all 11-19 year olds also reveals a positive picture: 8% would pay to access magazine websites in comparison to 4% of all over-20s (GB TGI). This means that it is young people in general who are more likely to pay for digital news.
These net-engagers, however, do not need to be targeted solely using the internet as a mixed-media campaign could well reach the widest audience. Insight from Youth TGI reveals that 45% of this group go to the cinema at least once a month. They are also more likely to be amongst the heaviest consumers of magazines, newspapers and radio. This group can, therefore, be described as true media-multitaskers.