mobileYouth.org chart of world 1.2 billion mobile youth

There are 1.2 billion mobile owners aged between 5 and 29 in the world. Their numbers will increase by a further 300 million in the next 3 years, 75% coming from Asia. We've been studying mobile youth culture since 2001 covering over 60 countries. Enjoy! Graham Brown. twitter @grahamdbrown

mobileYouth.org chart of world 1.2 billion mobile youth

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Key 2009 Youth Mobile Trend 2009: Tribes

To call it a 2009 trend is stretching it a little... tribes have been round since men threw sticks. The reality is, however, that tribes have been traditionally based on geographically and ethnic lines whereas today Facebook and Mobile enable youth to connect along lines of lifestyle interest - e.g. skating, love of Apple Mac etc. Based on Seth Godin's concept of "Tribes" (book), mobileYouth explores the implications for youth marketing.

Latest youth mobile trend? A decline in handwriting?

Josh Dhaliwal from mobileYouth on BBC breakfast



View the video on Blinx/BBC website

Technorati Tags: mobile life report, youth handwriting, youth writing, josh dhaliwal, bbc

How does a large brand build relevance with Youth? (Scion)

Youth Marketing is all about something you do with not to youth." Graham Brown (mobileYouth 2008 Report)

Following my earlier riff about trends in the marketing of Great Youth Brands (last time was Red Bull), I'd like to talk about one of my favourites.

This is the key question - how does a mass market "everything to everybody" brand build relevance with a specific segment - such as Youth?

Consider this challenge facing the largest and most profitable automotive manufacturer in the world - Toyota.

Toyota cannot roll out customized fat pipe blinged rims low riding coupes for the mass market because their core value of reliability is also one of a generic appeal - they will alienate your grandmother and the school teacher.

So this is how Toyota does it - meet Scion - the Toyota sub-brand that no one knows is actually Toyota (unless you study the marque a little harder).

Check the video - this is real ownership and consumer generated content in action, this is consumer ownership of the brand - creating rather than sponsoring events, local Scikotics, magazines etc.

Youth Trends in Mobile Social Media (Presentation)

Finally launches tomorrow. Here's what we are advising our clients on this research area:

1) Clarity: Enter Social Media with clearly defined organizational goals (e.g. reduce churn rates, time to market with produce development, improve your net promoter score etc)

2) Incumbents: Invest your efforts into established internet Social Media with mobile presence as opposed to pure mobile social plays (yes, web 2.0 techies love them but you're goals needs to be generating enough social proof to persuade planners to commit to the channel - and pure plays are not there yet)

3) Utility: Think "how can mobile generate further social utility for your consumers using social media?" as opposed to "how can we create mobile social media"? ~ your efforts need to further enhance and fulfill the 2 key fundamentals of youth consumer behavior (as highlighted in the report). That's the Value Add we're talking about in the report.

4) Many Small Niches: Build a portfolio of Social Media offerings that are lifestyle specific (either lifestyle focused apps on generic platforms) or lifestyle-specific platforms (eg Student or ethnic social networks) that match your core marketing objectives. Focus on brand consistency in your message and deliver consistently to your marketing beachheads within these segments.

5) Go Micro: Focus on integrating your efforts at the lowest common denominator - ie what is the one thing your service does well and focus on that rather than being a generic "everything to everybody". Utilize micro platforms such as Twitter as they gain popularity with youth to incorporate your mashups & applications.

6) Redefine your KPI: Going Social with existing industrial indicators (eg ARPU and market share) is merely meatball sundae thinking. You need to look at new metrics to reward your activity alongside traditional ones - eg Loyalty, Churn rates, Net Promoter Score, Lifestime Value etc.

Excerpts from the full 76 slide report available here for viewing online. Covering: mobile youth, social media, mobile behavior, web 2.0, loyalty, mobile advertising. More background here on the mobileyouth report part 3 on mobile youth social media



Technorati Tags: mobile youth report, youth research, youth social media, social media, mobile social media

Twitter Youth Trends Report

Innovation has always been the prerogative of those who could think differently. My last post on taking risks bears this out.

I've enjoyed our recent posts about trust and youth marketing (more resources here). One of the challenges in marketing to youth is the changing landscape - youth always gravitate towards more trusted networks. When marketers got hold of email they migrated to Myspace and Myspace to Twitter. Now following our series on Youth Trends, let's look at the trend of Twitter in our new research.

Interested in Twitter?
Check out mobileYouth's own Graham Brown and Josh Dhaliwal on Twitter

One of the key research findings from our mobileYouth 2008 Social Media report was the exponential growth in Twitter usage by youth. We now see Under 25s as the heaviest users of Twitter!

Is Twitter SMS 2.0?
From being predominantly the domain of 25-34 year old techs, Twitter has burgeoned into a valid youth platform. Here are some interesting findings:
* Youth twitter usage rapidly adopting similar patterns to SMS usage implications for operator charging, marketing channels, PR abound...
* Under 25s now constitute 25% of twitter usage - the largest single age group
* Japanese youth have rapidly adopted twitter into their daily social activities. Go watch the public Twitter feed and witness how much Japanese content passes through.
* Twitter still has a long way to go to reach the lowest common denominator that made SMS fly but it has the advantage of a core consumer beachhead to play with.

Report links
* Download the Report PDF
* Social Media Presentation here
* Recommendations from the Social Media Report
* About the Report

Technorati Tags: twitter, social media, youth marketing, mobile youth, mobileyouth

Trends in Youth Marketing - Take Risks, Walk on Water by Graham Brown (mobileYouth.org)

by Graham Brown

Youth marketing is always redefining the parameters of what is acceptable. Bright individuals will always push the envelope however there will always be a marcomms department to keep them in check. That was one of the themes of my recent presentation to Vodafone on Youth, Loyalty and Trust and follows on from the Great Youth Brands Series on MobileYouth featuring Red Bull, Jones Soda and Toyota Scion.

Common sense dictates that if a brand gets it wrong, it's time for damage limitation with the marcomms department leading the charge.

That's how ordinary brands deal with extraordinary issues - in average ways producing very average results.

However, I'd like to focus on how great youth brands are breaking the mold and doing something out of the ordinary.

Perhaps the best example to date is how EA dealt with the apparent glitch in the latest release of Tiger Woods 08 that including the "Jesus Shot" - where Tiger could walk on water. Obvious mistake. Not just an obvious mistake, but a well known one - one youtube pundit (Levinator 25) made it public amassing over 600,000 views.

Embarrassment for EA? Yes, if it was handled using Common Sense.

However, check this out for sheer marketing brilliance

Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water

This is the result of individuals within an organization taking risky decisions to produce extaordinary results that substantially impact the brand in a positive way - that's what I call Uncommon Sense. That's the result of bypassing marcomms and challenging the notion of "that's how it's always been done".

Ask yourself, would youth react positively or negatively to this communication from EA then compare to what an average brand would do - ie a cover-up.