MEDIA COPY
Mobile
Mobile
Youth
Youth
2009
2009
Part 1
P t1
Insights into
g
Youth Mobile Trends
and Mobile Behavior
1

“The
world
doesn’t
needd
another
brand
brand”
(Jones Soda Founder
Peter Van Stolk)
2

“We are not in the business of keeping media
companies alive We’re in the business of
alive. We re
connecting with customers”
(Trevor Edwards VP Global Brand Nike)
3

This is a media overview of
the 2009 mobileYouth report:
Insights into mobile youth trends and mobile behavior
GET FULL COPY
or email josh.dhaliwal@mobileYouth.org
+44 207 386 3635
4

Over 100
Presentation
Slides
Data,
Charts &
&
Insights
5

What’s the buzz in 2009?
Beachheads – How is competitiveness defined by your ability to identify a beachhead?
Attention – Is Attention your biggest cost in youth marketing? How do you address this issue?
Dialogue – How can mobile brands build it and what are the tangible benefits to the bottom line?
Crowdsourcing – What role for youth in the integrated product development/marketing cycle?
Pipelines – Is the “are we a smart or a dumb pipe?” question relevant?
Is the “are we a smart or a dumb pipe?” question relevant?
Platforms – How do brands like Red Bull, Jones Soda, Threadless, Rock Corps,
Apple Scion, Mountain Dew and Boost Mobile
build long term and profitable relationships with youth?
Nomadic youth – What are the dangers associated with tracking and
building your brand around nomadic, discount‐hunting youth?
Social Currency Why exactly do youth buy from you?
Social Currency – Why exactly do youth buy from you?
Advocacy – Can youth become your most effective marketing channel?
Ethnography – Why do you need to stop paying attention to
focus groups and start focusing on where the real insights are?
6

“The stark realization for mobile execs is that youth don’t wake up
thinking about their brands” (Graham Brown, mobileYouth)
7

A few key facts about youth
Youth today spent $270 billion a
year on mobile – 10 times more
than the entire global recorded
music industry
iid t
By 2011, there will be 1.3 billion
youth owning a mobile phone –
more than the population (of all
pp (
ages) on the internet
Youth are
spending more
on data and less
on voice – with
data ARPU
accounting for
over 50% of the
over 50% of the
monthly spend
in advanced
markets
8

“We are moving from an
era of finding customers for
our products to one of
finding products for our
customers”
(Seth Godin)
9

Youth is too broad a term,
Y th i t b d t
let’s get specific
In the report we study teens (12‐17), students (18‐22)
and young adults (23‐27) as well as ethnic minorities
(Hispanic, Asian, African American) and gender.
Our initial findings are covered in following slides:
10

“35 year old Blackberry/Iphone owning media execs
keep telling us on Twitter, Facebook or their blogs that
‘this generation’ is the ‘connected generation’.
g g
Somehow, there is a sense of irony there
that underscores how much
we don’t know about youth”
(Graham Brown)
11

Teens – 272 million mobile owning faces in the Crowd
Despite industry myths about teens being “tech hungry early adopters” they are a conservative consumer group,
favoring tried and tested technologies. Teens fear social isolation and are reluctant to push the technological
envelope unless peer group leaders first display tangible benefits.
Teens respond to mobile marketing but mainly competitions and offers. When on parental contracts, they are heavy
mobile internet consumers; boys prefer mobile video and audio (particularly Hispanics and Asians).
Key underserved trend in teen
mobile usage: speakerphones.
Teens crave the shared
experience (surf together,
share photos on the camera
share photos on the camera
and listen to music
communally) and the
speakerphone is a key tool to
reinforce peer group bonds.
12

“Attention is your
biggest cost”
(mobileYouth 2009)
13

Students – 341 mn hard to reach mobile owning alternatives
Direct marketing is less effective with students. To reach students you need to employ Platform marketing strategies
(explained in depth in the report) such as creating (not sponsoring) events. Red Bull, Nike, Jones Soda, Scion all excel
at this approach.
Key underserved trend in
Students watch less TV than adults, use less
Students watch less TV than adults, use less
student mobile usage:
email and (importantly) respond to both
Bluetooth has emerged from
mobile marketing and SMS less. 20% report
feature to benefit in student
that even though they “opt in” to mobile
life and a growing channel for
marketing, they found it “intrusive”. On the
sharing content between
sharing content between
whole, students favored h d t b d
hl td tf d handset brands
peers.
that were reliable and rugged rather than
flash.
Student communication is
based around alternative
based around alternative
channels to the
mainstream – Youtube
rather than TV and Social
networks rather than
Email.
E il

“We live in a network
era awash with industrial
b a ds e y g on
brands relying o
industrial agencies
measuring campaigns
on industrial metrics.
This is the Pipeline and
that’s why youth are
turning us off”
(Graham Brown,
(G h B
mobileYouth)
15

Young Adults – 387 million innovative mobile owning loners
With a decreasing social circle and rising work pressures, Young Adult use of TV and both fixed and mobile internet
With a decreasing social circle and rising work pressures Young Adult use of TV and both fixed and mobile internet
increases significantly.
Young Adults are a key Iphone owning demographic although not the largest. Their social need for significance being
higher than younger consumers drives them to purchase and use technologies that offer display benefits e.g. Latest
handsets or camera phone and mobile games to show off handset. At this level mobile is competing with auto brands,
credit cards and designer brands.
Where younger media use centred on the shared experience Young Adults
seek display and significance manifesting as solitary tendencies e.g. This is
the only demographic that uses Flickr to any notable level
y gp y
Young Adults are
the most responsive
the most responsive
to mobile marketing
and use more email
over SMS but email
use is still very much
a need‐to‐have as
dt h
opposed to a want‐
to‐have.

Young Adults – open to relevant mobile marketing and
innovation
Young Adults are the most responsive to mobile marketing and use more email over SMS but email use is still very
much a need‐to‐have as opposed to a want‐to‐have.
Where younger media use centred on the shared experience Young Adults seek display and significance manifesting
as solitary tendences e.g. This is the only demographic that uses Flickr to any notable level.

Why youth?
* It’s a truism but they are the future. Why do banks invest heavily in student marketing? (because you are
more likely to get divorced than change bank account in your lifetime). The average age of the Harley Davidson
owner in 2008 is 51. By 2018 that average will be 57. Eventually, the brand which focused on the high spending
consumers of today is going to run out of customers and find itself unable to re‐engage youth because the
Japanese have been carefully investing their marketing efforts in their own backyard with the next generation.
* Most grass roots technological breakthroughs occurred
not in focus groups or company “insight labs” but on the
streets with young consumers
* Record labels in the late 90s ignored how youth
consumption patterns were changing and today find
themselves both playing
ca c up
catchup with a host of market challengers and competing
a os o a e c a e ge s a d co pe g
for a declining global market
18

“A really cool, funky ad
may capture your
attention, but it still
doesn’t make you
ca e ( ou de Jones
care“ (Founder Jo es Soda Peter
ete
Van Stolk)
19

Did mobile operators leave the backdoor
open?
open?
Low levels of trust (only
27% trusted operators)
combined with focusing on
bi d i h f i
technology over the basics
(customer service, loyalty,
handset choice etc) has
led to youth disaffection
y
with mobile brands:
* Youth ARPU is in decline
(ARPU Ceiling)
* Youth are not buying
* Youth are not buying
into the next generation of
data services
* Youth churn levels are at
an all time high
20

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of
times people don’t know what they want until y show it
pp y you
to them” (Steve Jobs, CEO Apple)
21

So what? Youth
aren’t our core
market...
kt
SMS, Ringtones, MP3, peer‐to‐peer, Facebook, Myspace and Hotmail
were all brought to the market by young consumers. While youth may
not be the highest spending customers, they are at the vanguard of how
tech products will be used tomorrow.
S S as ge e a ed $
SMS has generated $1.1 trillion in revenues since launch. Without youth
o e e ues s ce au c ou you
support in getting it off the ground, SMS would still be a tool for
network announcements and the mobile industry a lot poorer.
22

“I don’t know where they got my
name but I kept receiving texts
asking me if I liked this perfume
or that car brand. I tried to stop
it but they kept coming. Luckily
t t ey ept co g uc y
after about 2 months it stopped.”
Guillaume M, 24 DJ, France
23

Will operators lose revenue?
Brands that have geared their organization to grass roots activism and support, brands that have build trust over
the long term and brands that are passionate about youth experience and service are in a strong position to offer
services and, importantly, have the attention of youth. Nokia’s Ovi, Apple’s mobile app store and Itunes are two
examples of grass roots brands that are well positioned to cannibalize youth data revenues from operators.
p g p y p
10 years ago youth spend on mobile was negligible. Now US Students, for example, spend 13% of their 4 month
semester budget on mobile. Something had to give, they didn’t print the money. As a result of mobile’s slice of the
pie growing, other industries have lost out (examples):
* Cigarette consumption has fallen in teens since 1999 – the year youth ownership appeared on the mobile
* Cigarette consumption has fallen in teens since 1999 the year youth ownership appeared on the mobile
industry’s radar
* Global recorded music sales peaked at $40bn in 1998 and has fallen since to just over $27bn in 2008. RIAA
estimates put the number 1 threat (piracy) at $4.5bn annually. However, with mobile revenues 70 times higher
than piracy – which is really the bigger threat?
.
Just as mobile displaced
categories in the industry pie,
categories in the industry pie
so are other brands equally
capable of displacing mobile
should it lose its relevance with
youth
24

“Marketing and Product have converged. The
consumer doesn’t separate the experience”
(Ajaz
(Aja Ahmed Fo nder AKQA)
Founder
25

Is mobile on track with youth?
Youth still show a strong emotional attachment to youth but it can’t be taken for granted. Iconic youth brand Levi’s,
for example, operated a 50% market share in 1987. Today Levi’s stands at 9% and #7 in the global rankings. Not all
brands have a lifecycle – Nike was #2 in 1986 following the launch of Air Jordan, behind Reebook, and today remains
#1 in its category despite globalized competition.
Being Levi’s “cool” is simply not
The problem is that mobile is simply not enough for mobile to grow the
geared towards relevance – the vast
$300bn market, neither is being
majority of youth brands only know
“good”. Brands must strive to be
good . Brands must strive to be
industrial marketing strategies which is a
industrial marketing strategies which is a
relevant.
major problem despite the availability of
case study evidence on how to build
relevance from progressive youth brands
such as Nike, Apple, Red Bull, Threadless,
Jones Soda, Scion and Mountain Dew
26

“Ask yourself –
what is the social
currency of my
product?
product?”
(mobileYouth 2009)
27

Where is mobile going wrong?
Pipeline marketing. Big mistake. If you’re only counting your 4% success rate you’re trying to collect water from a
firehose with a sieve. 20% of those that “opted in” in marketing messages found them intrusive.
Once you lost trust you have damaged your brand for the long term. Low trust consumers tell their friends, place a
greater pressure on resources (call centre complaints, product returns), churn more and generally have higher
acquistion costs.
But simply going “social” is not enough without changing your metrics. Youth brands are better off using TV and
direct mail if the metrics remain the same; at least youth will see consistency. Youth don t want to be your Facebook
direct mail if the metrics remain the same; at least youth will see consistency Youth don’t want to be your Facebook
friend and even “free” today is not enough to engage them. Pipeline marketing will typically adopt social media as a
direct marketing tool (e.g. List building) or worse still engage on the basis of intangible metrics (e.g. Awareness and
“conversations”).
Engaging youth is discussed in detail in the report. You must first change your
metrics and move from ARPU as the KPI to a longer term approach – (e.g. NPS,
customer loyalty, churn rates and/or lifetime value). Once the correct DNA is in
place, Platforms can replace Pipelines and strategy will follow suit. Brands can
move from marketing to, to marketing with.
28

“The myth that youth are brand averse is only perpetuated by those who are stuck
with irrelevant marketing strategies. Youth are the most passionate brand
advocates you’ll ever have. They’ll not only show y how y
y y y you your p
product should be
used, they’ll tell you what your industry is going to look like in the next 10 years”
(Graham Brown, mobileYouth)
29

Tony Kypreos, International Vice President, T‐Mobile
“We use Mobile youth extensively within International Marketing at T‐Mobile as it is a consumer centric comprehensive report that
effectively describes the desires, motivations and behaviours of this complex consumer segment to mobile as part of their overall
lifestyle…[issues are] debated throughout a report offering valuable insights backed by robust quantitative analysis.
Harry Prabandham, Global Alliances Manager, Motorola Inc.
What did you
\"The report gives us some unique insights into youth.\"
Tobias Freudenberg, Product Strategy Manager, AOL Deutschland
say about the
say about the
\"We found the report very informative and have used the extensive data supplied\"
Dusan Hamlin, Director, Carat International
report?
\"An excellent report! One that we have used again and again.\"
Caroline Dewing, Communications Manager, Vodafone
\"mobileYouth has been very helpful in the development of Vodafone's approach to delivery of content in a responsible manner\"
\"mobileYouth has been very helpful in the development of Vodafone's approach to delivery of content in a responsible manner\"
Matt Champion, Brand Advertising Director, Mediacom
\"We have found the report to be an invaluable source of data and statistics that we have used again and again.\"
Nicolas Droulat, Senior Analyst, Bouygues Telecom
Nicolas Droulat, Senior Analyst, Bouygues Telecom
\"We used the report to help us understand what products we should be focussing on in our youth offering.\"
Damien Brady, CEO, Extreme Mobile
\"As always, an excellent report\"
Daniel Bevis, Knowledge & Intranet Administrator, Leo Burnett
\"A thoroughly informative and enjoyable read. I was particularly impressed with the deconstruction of perceptions of youth and
fashion ‐ very insightful ‐ and the presentation of data is very accessible too.\"
Comverse
“mobileYouth has deep psychological observations and great youth market analysis”
mobileYouth has deep psychological observations and great youth market analysis
30

Contact
31

Come meet mobileYouth® on our world tour 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/mobileyouth/mobileyouth‐speaking‐schedule‐2009‐presentation
Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Brazil (tbc), Kuala
Lumpur, London, New York (tbc), Tokyo, Toronto (tbc),
Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland (tbc)
32

The Youth Marketing Workout 2009
New webinar to share ideas on youth marketing and trends
N bi h id h ki d d
http://www.slideshare.net/mobileyouth/youth‐marketing‐trends‐workout‐webinar‐1‐presentation
33

mobileYouth Lead Author
Add GB on Twitter grahamdbrown
Add GB on Facebook www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=569029896
Download more presentations @ www.mobileYouthnet.com
Follow the blog @ www.mobileYouth.org
34

Who buys mobileYouth?
y
3. Adidas. Adobe. Airtel, AKQA. Alcatel Lucent. AOL. Apple. Autodesk. Avea. Avery Dennison. BBC.
BBDO. BBH. Belgacom. Bell Mobility. Boost Mobile. BSkyB. BT. Buongiorno. Carat. Cellcom, Celtel,
Channel 4. Cingular. Comverse. Cosmote. Cricket Wireless. Danish Broadcasting Corp. Diageo. Digi
Malaysia. Disney Mobile. Djuice. Durex. EA. Emap. EMI Music. Endemol. Ericsson. Etisalat. Fleishman.
France Telecom. Fremantle Media. Globe. Grey. GSM Association. Hasbro. HP. Hutchison Whampoa.
IBM. Iceland Telecom. Intel. Isobar. ITV. KPN. Kyocera. Leo Burnett. LG. LSDA. Maxis. Mediacom. M&C
Saatchi. McCann Digital. McDonald’s. Microsoft. Mindshare. Mobilink. Mobilkom. Mobistar.
Microsoft. Motorola. MTN. MTV Networks. Nawras. NEC. News Intl Corp. Nickelodeon. Nokia. Nokia
Ad Business. Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. Telefonica O2. Oakley. Ofcom. Ogilvy. Orange. Panasonic.
Pannon. Orascom. Pelephone. Plantronics. Polska Tel. Proctor & Gamble. Publicis. Qualcomm. Rogers
Wireless. RTL. Saatchi & Saatchi. Safaricom. Samsung. Sasktel. SFR. SingTel. Sony Electronics. Sony
PlayStation. Sonofon. SonyBMG. Sprint Nextel. Sulake. Sun Microsystems. Sunrise. Swisscom. Taiwan
Mobile. Telecom NZ. Telenor. TeliaSonera. Tele2. Telstra. TIM. TIM Hellas. T‐Mobile. Turkcell. Uganda
Tel. Universal Music. US Cellular. Verisign. Verizon Wireless. Virgin Mobile. Visa. Vizeum. Vodacom.
Vodafone. Walt Disney Internet Group. Walt Disney Television. Wana. Warner Bros. WPP. WIND .
Yahoo!. Zain, Zenith Optimedia
35

This is a media overview of
the 2009 mobileYouth report:
Insights into mobile youth trends and mobile behavior
GET FULL COPY
or email josh.dhaliwal@mobileYouth.org
+44 207 386 3635
36