MRG Youth Evening

The MRG Evening Meeting held on 9th February tackled the subject of Youth, with Sofie Mallick and Liz Williamson of EMAP METRO presenting their new survey Youth Facts 4 and Noel Gladstone of Nickelodeon talking about how technological developments are changing the way Nickelodeon interacts with its viewers.

Sofie Mallick from EMAP presented Youth Facts 4; the three previous Youth Facts provided data on spending power, product usage and media consumption, which have since been provided by Youth TGI, so Youth Facts 4 is intended to show – how youth read magazines, how they relate to different styles of press advertising and how brands fit into teenagers’ lives.

How Do Youth Read Magazines?

The majority of magazines are read in the bedroom, by 46%; 60% of respondents tend to read them on their own, or with a friend (19%). The peak time for reading is in the evening when they get home, 27%, or, more generally, ‘When I feel like it’, 32%. The main reason for reading magazines is mainly for entertainment, 24%, and to fill spare time, 27%.

The company in which a magazine is read also depends upon its subject matter; computer and football magazines are more likely than average to be read with friends, and real life stories are more likely to be read in private.

The average time spent reading a title which was in possession at the time of the interview was 1hr 49 minutes, with 72% of it read. 44% keep it “for a long time” after they have read it.

How do youths relate to press advertising?

72% said they found advertising useful, with 7 out of 10 claiming to have taken some kind of action as a result of seeing an ad. The research found that for advertising to work for youths there are 3 stages:

• To attract attention, by using novel images
• The ad is screened for relevant product and entertainment value
• High level of involvement

Ads that were consistently praised by the youths included Mars, Nike and Diet Pepsi.

EMAP came up with a set of guidelines for advertisers aiming at youths;

1  Don't let them get bored                
2  Be creative and novel                   
3  Don't cut corners, tailor the campaign  
4  Keep up with the times                  
5  Keep it simple                          
6  Make it fun                             
7  Don't be condescending                  
8  Make sure free gifts are worth having   
9  Use bold colours                        
10 Don't use teenage cliches.              

The Role Of Brands

Teenagers are full of pressures, and need to be accepted by their peers; this means they want the right clothes, magazines and brands.

Brands could be categorised into 4 types, according to their popularity with youth; there were undesirable brands, which tended not to be advertised, or advertised badly; there were normal brands, which make no statement and are advertised in parents’ magazines; safe brands, which are expensive and tend to be advertised on TV, eg Coke; and the new highly desirable innovative brands.

Noel Gladstone of Nickelodeon talked about how technology is changing research; Nickelodeon is aware of how much children use technology in their every day lives, and by the use of technology themselves, this allows them to keep pace with children.

One use is through a computer called ‘Lips’ which provides instant graphics from the live studio which is based in the Trocadero; this allows instant reaction to the kids or viewers.

Another use is through ‘Watch your own Wednesday’, which is, said Noel, similar to video-on-demand, where children ring to choose what they watch; up to 50,000 calls are received in 1 day.

Nickelodeon have also built up a database of viewers, with 250,000 kids. On December 31st they were faxed, with a 78% response rate. Kids can also communicate with the channel by E-mail, which is four times more cost effective.

Questions were led by Kate Lynch who asked if the EMAP research had uncovered any evidence related to the growing number of messages today’s youth are being bombarded with; the survey seems to suggest that messages that they are not interested in are simply ignored.

Julian Edwards from the Media Consultancy pointed out that the majority of quotes in the EMAP survey seem to be from 11-16 year olds, yet there is a big difference between an 11 year old and a 19 year old; he wanted to know what differences there were between the younger and the older youths in the survey. The main differences were that the older respondents were more into specific interest magazines; the younger read more general titles, to decide what to get into.

Peter Bowman commented that when his agency did the Sega “In Your Face” campaign, they found that the advertising worked better away from traditional kid’s media, like Nickelodeon, for added shock value.