Teens and college students are skipping or tuning out traditional advertising more and more, minimizing screens or muting the volume. Being able to be part of the content youth consume or even creating branded content is one way brands can make sure their product is seen, and advertisers are spending millions of dollars to ensure that happens. The problem, as our research shows, is that even when teens and college students do notice product placements, it doesn't necessarily change their feelings about that product.
Product placement aimed at kids and teens is not new. Toy companies began placing their products on children's TV shows back in the 1950s on programs like Romper Room, you might have noticed the queen bees of Gossip Girl using Verizon phones like the LG Chocolate, the orange EnV, or Motorola Krzr--all part of an integrated deal with the wireless carrier. For many marketers product placement remains a viable way to create brand awareness among young people--but with this generation having been marketed to on multiple screens pretty much since birth, does product placement even work?
The answer is yes, but not in the way marketers are hoping. We found that 72% of teens and 77% of college students notice product placement, and the top three products they notice on television shows are beverages, cell phones, and cars. But only one in seven report that those product placements have any effect on their perception of the brands.
But it turns out there is one "product" teens and college students say they not only notice but actively pursue: Web sites. 38% of teens and 26% of college students noticed Web sites in a TV show or movie. And 53% of them reported going online to check the site out.
So while we don't have tangible evidence that the products youth notice most are having much of an impact, we do know that getting your Web site featured on a popular TV show or in a film is a great way to drive youth awareness, not to mention traffic. Maybe we'll start seeing fewer soda cans on TV, and more characters playing a game on the soda maker's Web site.
About Youth Pulse, Inc.
Ypulse is the leading authority on tweens, teens, collegians, and young adults, providing news, commentary, events, research & strategy. Our integrated platform comprises www.ypulse.com, a daily newsletter, conferences and an online research community: www.surveyu.com.
Related Stories: | Topics:Technology, Leadership, Youth Pulse, Product Placement, Marketing, Business, Product Management, Marketing, Media, Television |
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
Recent Comments | 4 Total
October 20, 2009 at 5:04pm by Loraine Antrim
So is McLuhan's "The medium IS the message" your main point? If so, how can advertisers use this medium to deliver messages that stick, but more importantly, messages that motivate. If this youthful audience merely clicks, then what has been gained? If they purchase or create brand awareness or loyalty, well, that's a whole other matter! Loraine Antrim
--
Loraine Antrim, Co-founding Partner
Core Ideas Communication
"We Create Smartmouths®"
October 20, 2009 at 5:16pm by Anastasia Goodstein
Hi Loraine. My main point is that unlike traditional product placement, where we found teens and college students to notice but not really experience a shift in how they feel about that product, youth do notice websites and URLs and will actually go and check them out. Going from a TV show or movie to your computer to look up a website is more than just clicking on a banner ad -- obviously something about that screenshot or dialog about the site motivated youth to remember it and go look it up later, i.e. seeing the placement and then taking a very deliberate action. Whether the site itself succeeds at converting those young users into paying customers or return visitors depends on the experience they have once they get there. Our research just points to the effectiveness of placing websites as products in TV and movies that appeal to young people and getting them to take that initial step....
November 5, 2009 at 3:12am by vivian cu
Capture Streaming Video is a professional streaming capture software, that can capture all streaming media from Internet, such as capture video stream and capture audio, radio, online tv stream
iPhone To Computer Transfer is a powerful converter, mutually trasferring playlists, songs, pictures between iPhone and computer.
November 13, 2009 at 3:13am by
Now teen don't have to bother the latest gadget
Computer Tricks