Nielsen’s latest report “How Teens Use Media” aims to rid the marketing world of ephebiphobia, the irrational fear of youth, debunking the myth that teens are wildly different to other consumers.The report challenges the popular assumptions about teens, showing that although they may be wildly different to their counterparts of generations past, they are not that different in their media use to other consumers.
A couple of things that stood out for me:
- Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S. Furthermore 92% of teen viewing was live TV.
- Teens love the Internet…but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online—far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes. Not surprising when you consider teens spend much of their day in the classroom.
- Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25–34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television.
- The average US teen sends/receives 96 text messages EVERY DAY! This is up 566% in just 2 years. With this increase in mobile usage it’s not surprising that 62% of US mobile teens say that their parents have placed at least one restriction on their mobile use.
- It’s a myth that teens consume media 10 screens at a time. In reality 77% of the time teens are consuming media they are using just one at a time compared to 69% for adults.
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2 comments:
hi tom, yeah i saw this as well. interesting report but couldn;t help it tries too hard to bolster the importance of advertising by channel in the traditional sense, kind of ignoring how things hare changing. They use so many different definitions for 'TV' when to be honest teens today couldn't car iif it's on on demand, live or a clip streamed from vimeo or you tube...
i put up my comments here...
http://hughdewinton.blogspot.com/2009/09/obsession-with-channels.html
Something about this report bothered me the first time I saw it. Then it clicked.
It feels like Nielsen seem to think teenagers should somehow be different to all other human beings - as though it's a surprise that teenagers might like things that other people like.
Why are we getting so excited about the fact that they spend 10% more of their time here versus there? Chances are, teenagers don't really care where they get their 'stuff', just as nobody else outside of media cares.
What they do care about is easy, convenient access to the stuff that they like, in the most enjoyable format available. Sometimes they'll watch a film on their iPhone because they're stuck on a long bus journey; other times, they'll watch the same film at the cinema because it's a more 'exciting' way to experience the story.
Let's stop wasting so much time getting hung up on media, and see those media for what they are: vehicles that provide access to what people really care about - the 'stuff'.
It's what they're interested in that matters. Once we understand that, we can go about connecting with people in ways that actually interest them, rather than continuing to shout at them all the time.
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