Daily Post 10/18/11: The IGen

Article: http://adage.com/article/news/igen-influential-peers-household-buying-decisions/230427/ Daily Post: IGen Influential With Peers: 10/18/11 Quick Summary: This article stresses the importance of the newly coined “IGen’s,” children 4-16 yrs old, influence on their peers and parents’ spending. It also should be noted that this demographic garners an average of $10-39 in weekly spending money from jobs and allowances. The IGen is equipped with an array of new media devices, i.e. smartphones, laptops, ipads, and gaming consoles, leading them to spend less time watching television than previous generations. Thus, marketers should try to focus on reaching this generation online. SM: Thank you Ad Age for stating the obvious. Is there anyone who didn’t know that kids in grade school are highly influenced by their peers? And was there ever a time when a child didn’t scream and annoy their parents to buy what the cool kids had, and they didn’t give in and buy the damn toy? One kid got a (insert elementary fad, i.e tomagachi, yo-yos, pokemon, etc...) and everyone in school had one until the tyrannical institution banned them for (insert lame principle loud speaker message, i.e. theft, distraction, Tommy tried to flush Jenny’s beanie baby down the toilet, but it got clogged, flooding the east wing, resulting in Mrs. Friendly to fall and sprain her ankle and Mrs. Smiley to knock over the classroom pet cage, releasing 5 chicks and a duck into the school. Also if anyone sees a chick please inform the main office right away.) There are two big stories to be mentioned here. 1) The IGen is more technologically savvy and sophisticated than anyone gives them credit for. By growing up with an established Internet media, this generation is able to choose their entertainment with greater freedom. Instead of being stuck choosing the best show on Nick, Disney, and PBS, the IGen can search the web to find the most entertaining and interesting content for their age group. COMPANIES NEED TO START TREATING THE IGEN LIKE THEY WOULD COLLEGE KIDS. There is an ability to interact with kids on the social media landscape unlike anything before. You still need your product to appear cool, but with an array of interactive media the possible options to achieve this goal are endless. 2) The increased interactivity among the IGens through social media has resulted in an increased speed by which trends spread and can be monitored. Social media allows this generation to assess the current trends in a real-time manner, making the evaluation of the cool trend much easier to diagnose. (Imagine how much faster stupid trends like the bleached-blond boys hairstyle and avril lavigne fishnets would have ended if it’s criticism was spread throughout Facebook.) While social media helps the IGen establish its own trends, marketers now have the ability to gauge these trends and react accordingly. PW: Above, Sean points to two insights advertisers should learn from the article.

1) The IGen is more tech savvy then we give them credit. Correct. but I would go further to say: they are the most tech savvy of all the generations. As the article says, they spend almost double the amount of time on their mobile devices than the average Millennial. Is this a good thing for advertisers? Heck no. Spending time with a medium helps you understand all the ways it communicates, including advertising. Every Millennial knows there’s a right side bar of Facebook advertising and so WE IGNORE IT. Expand this “talent” to all social platforms and you have a Gen Zer’s vision. With these kids understanding the message platform better than you, how will you get them to digest your message? If it wasn’t for child labor laws, all major corporations would be hiring these tweens for buko bucks. I think the best bet for marketers looking to influence this generation is through content laden messaging. Games and contests. Perhaps build a contest around the tweens making branded content: t-shirts, hats, wristbands, etc? Sean is right to think advertisers need to target this generation in the digital space, but they should not treat them like college kids. This generation is smarter than those Millennials and advertisers need to think at a tween’s lofty level.

2) We all know these kids set the fads and trends. Heck, how many times has #BiebersFutureWife trended on Twitter? Tweens set the agenda in the social space especially leading the conversation when it comes to celebrities, TV shows, and music. Brands should be very wary to enter these conversations. One “lame” comment and the brand is part of the out-crowd. Brands should use brand ambassadors within the age group to help promote the message (and some brands already do). These ambassadors have much more influence than the brand’s past youth ambassadors because they harness the social power of the web. This way the brand enters the conversation with the most influential message: peer-endorsed.

Lastly, an insight that Sean looked over. Advertisers need to realize how much TWEENS INFLUENCE THEIR PARENTS. No, I’m not talking about what they parent’s buy for the child’s use; I’m talking about what the parents buy for the family’s use. Do you think that IPad was purchased without the gentle nagging of the 8-year-old casual gamer? Do you think the decision to buy a PS3 over a 360 was the sole reasoning of the Tetris-playing Father? Children today influence a family’s entertainment platform purchases more than ever before. Maybe advertiser’s should market their TVs, tablets, and other products to the kids specifically. That way when their parents inevitably ask them how to make a web purchase, the advertiser’s product is top of mind for the kid.

Let us know what you think and check back later for the Ad of the Day