Posted in Youth Culture Research on May 20th, 2009
Filed Under: data, Dave Knox, Demographics, hard knox life, mobile, mobile campaign, mobile marketing, Nielsen Report, Online Media, Social Media, Youth Marketing Data
Many hearty thanks are owed to Dave Knox of Hard Knox Life for compiling a genuinely must-read post. Using reams of data taken from the Nielsen Global Online Media Landscape, Dave paints an empirical picture of the future of online media. If you’re in the interactive marketing space like YMC is, it’s full of some pretty interesting numbers. The post — and the Nielsen Report — are certainly worth reading in their entirely. But here are the key take-aways as I see them: marketers need to ready themselves for integrating mobile, digital and physical media. In this brave-new-world, it’s going to take all three, working in tandem.
Digital Content / Online Video are among the fastest growing areas of the Online Media Landscape:
- The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.
- Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period.
- In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent, the number of streams grew 41 percent, the streams per user grew 27 percent and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71 percent.
- One of the more interesting trends in online video is the increasing attraction to long form videos: the total minutes spent watching long-form (average of six-to-eight minutes) is considerably more than minutes spent on short-form, and has grown about 20% in the first two months of 2009.
Mobile is finally taking its rightful place in the spotlight:
- In the U.S. today, nearly 50 million mobile subscribers access the Web via their devices on a monthly basis. In the U.S., the mobile Internet audience grew 74% between February 2007 and February 2009.
- While historically US has been behind in mobile adoption, the US is now one of the leading markets for mobile Internet penetration, with more than 18% of subscribers accessing mobile Web. This is the highest penetration of mobile subscribers among the markets Nielsen reports mobile Internet adoption.
- Penetration of smartphones doubled between Q4 2007 and Q4 2008, from 7% of U.S. mobile subscribers to 14%. Penetration of faster 3G devices now stands at 37% of handsets in use in the U.S
- iPhone users are unique in their use – a hint at the mobile media behaviors of users of next-gen phones to come. iPhone users, for instance, are more than four times as likely as a typical subscriber to use mobile Internet, six times as likely to use mobile applications and six times as likely to consume mobile video.
- 12 million U.S. mobile subscribers access their social networks over their phone. At the end of 2008, Facebook was just slightly ahead of MySpace in terms of unique mobile users: 7 million compared to 5.7 million. Mobile usage of social networking sites grew 260% during 2008 in the U.S.
Posted in Campus Marketing (On & Off), Youth Culture Research on November 25th, 2008
Filed Under: Army, army strong, Experiential Marketing, mobile campaign, mobile marketing, tour, virtual experience, youth, youth culture, Youth Marketing
Wow. A trip to the mall will never be the same: the U.S. Army has moved in and set up a sleek retail outlet that makes their typical recruitment centers look like, well, Army recruitment centers. And that’s just one part of the Army’s latest attempts to woo young recruits. The Virtual Army Experience (VAE) is an integrated, experiential marketing campaign that seems to have turned what we all know about the Army recruitment process on its head. We at Youth Marketing Connection think this campaign is innovative enough to warrant a shout-out — particularly because the Army is yet another example of a brand that has figured out that experiential marketing is, dollar-for-dollar, the best way to reach today’s youth.
The program includes a 14,500 square foot retail outlet called the Army Experience Center in a Philadelphia mall that’s staffed by civilians and soldiers donning khakis and polo shirts. Talk about taking the intimidation factor down a notch or 10. Just by simply putting the soldiers in nicely pressed khakis, they are transformed from unapproachable warriors into clean-cut every-men. The civilian clothes also helps to suggest the professionalism of the Army, and the kind of future that might follow one’s service. It tells prospective soldiers that the Army is as much a career move as it is about fighting. While this might be less important to sixteen-year-old boys who are mostly interested in firing over-sized guns, this makes pitching wary parents easier. And with flat screen TVs, Xbox 360s and high-tech simulation equipment, the Army Experience increases the fun factor…while not-so-subtly suggesting that Army life is a lot like playing a video game, only more exciting! 
The mall outlet is only one small part of the VAE program. In fact, the biggest draw of the program is its elaborate mobile tour component. The VAE has visited states across the country with a 19,500 square foot space that includes life-sized vehicles, guns, dozens of computers and scores of flat screens. The use of endless banks of flatscreens here is important: it encourages visitors to associate the Army with high technology — which, in turn, implies safety and control. As part of the “virtual experience,” potential recruits can “test drive” the Army virtually using high-tech simulation equipment. Participants are briefed before they embark on their virtual journeys and at the end they are presented with their results. The mobile tour, which visits highly-trafficked events such as air shows and state fairs, attracts thousands of visitors at a time.
It remains to be seen how effective the VAE program will be, especially in the midst of an unpopular war. The struggling economy — which is surely changing post-high school plans for young men and women across the country — may also be a factor in enlistment rates. Regardless of the impetus, though, what is clear is that Gen Y-ers are showing up in droves to see this innovative campaign. And yet another reason why we are constantly pushing brands to embrace experiential marketing — especially when marketing budgets are looking a bit light.
Note: The Army has not disclosed the name of the agency or agencies involved in the creation and execution of this marketing program. Ignited from California handled design of the mall-based recruitment center, as well as development of the technology. US2, also of California, managed the expansion of the mall space. (Source: Army Deploys ‘Experience Center,’ Adweek, 8/29/08)
