Ah, young people, where are they?

Michael Hedges February 11, 2008

At the heart of media and advertising are young people and their habits. If the young have bewildered their parents since the beginning of time they totally confound media people. More research shows more confusion.

The young don’t read newspapers but, well, they do pick up free newspapers. They’ve traded radios for iPods but haven’t turned off the radio. They’ve gone mobile. They’ve gone to FaceBook. They congregate, agitate, separate and confound. Then one day, as if by magic, the young become the adults.

The German radio broadcasters marketing organization RadioZentrale undertook a study of young people’s media habits following last years MediaAnalysis (MA) radio audience survey, which showed a noticeable change in listening. The study of MA data compared and contrasted 14 to 17 year olds with 18 to 21 year olds.

“Young persons are constantly searching for new impulses and they experiment with innovative, multi-sensual media,” said RadioZentrale Managing Director Lutz Kuckuck. “Their time budget is distributed across several media.” 14 to 17 year olds more likely spend time in school, rearranging that time budget accordingly and listening to radio 115 minutes a week. That’s just about half the time spend with radio be 18 to 21 year olds, 213 minutes.

Last November at the annual Munich MedienTag programmers and consultants agreed that radio for young people needed to reinvent itself as radio usage via the internet is about 25% of all listening. The internet is where “young nomads prowl media,” said one. Every radio broadcaster must have a website, or more than one.

“Radio becomes the site’s soundtrack,” offered consultant Mario Colantonio.

Therein lies the strategic dilemma for radio broadcasters, certainly, but also for all media content providers. Social networking websites – from FaceBook to Skyblog – attract hordes of young people. To borrow a McLuanism, these websites have become the message, eclipsing all other media for creating (and disposing) identity and community. Mobile devices, internet enabled, are the drum of the new century. Stand outside of any McDonalds from Paris to Prague, from Stockholm to Sarajevo and watch young people ‘messaging’ into the ether.

So the rush is on to effectively replace old media (newspapers, radio, TV) with new media (websites, mobile devices). Young people have, according to conventional wisdom, left the old for the new, as young people have done since time immemorial.  By the end of this decade no person – on the planet – under age 30 will remember a day without the mobile phone or Web.

The ad business plays an important role in the rush to new media. Since time immemorial, the ad people have followed, worshiped, young people. Being blank-slate consumers young people, says common ad wisdom, can be moved to the next bright, shiny brand object. Hence, advertising on social networking sites and mobile phone are the ‘next big thing.’ These are, obviously, where the young congregate.

All that starts to sound like a business model until the research people cover it with cold water. Young people are, indeed, mobile and tribal but they change ‘tribes’ quickly. Where they congregated yesterday is today an empty space, or perhaps occupied by scouring adults.

For media content providers this means deciding between becoming a destination and facilitating a network. Old media has great comfort – and experience – as a destination. Turn on the telly to watch a program. Open the newspaper to read the sports scores. Listen to the radio for music. Oops, you see the problem. All of that content is readily – and more easily – accessible through new media.

The destination model is all about exclusivity and control. Pay-TV is a destination because, so far, that’s where people find the movie or program they want at the moment. The Wall Street Journal – and other specialty sources – may tease with headlines but the ‘good stuff’ is strictly behind the ‘pay wall.’ The destination model is like a Disney theme park: people get what they want, and maybe a surprise, for the price of a ticket.

The network model is altogether different. The attraction is less about finding the content and more about being the content. Networkers go there to connect, with a picture, a story, a video or a song. Visualize the 15 year olds outside that McDonalds, mobile phones in hand, sending and receiving video clips, showing their friends. Visualize a lot of arm waving: “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me.”

The network model relies on two-way technology, consigning much of old media to being simply “the sound-track.” Microsoft is going after Yahoo because Yahoo knows the networking model. If there is a mass marketing, mass media model in the future (from tomorrow afternoon on) networking is it. And young people will not just drive it, they’ll be it.

Of course, young people do tend to grow up.