Teen paid music consumption continues its downward slope. NPD reports that 13-17 yr olds consumed 19% less paid music in 2008 than in 2007. Interest in music, however, fails to wane with more teens listening to online radio than ever (now at 52% compared to 38% one year earlier). (Source Marketing Charts)

And it’s not all Going Mobile

It would be convenient for all to assume that lost spending in recorded music is being vacuumed up by the mobile industry. Take a look at data from the US, however, and you’ll see that’s not the case. While digital continues to grow, mobile remains stagnant and an ever-diminishing fragment of the overall music industry. (Source FierceWireless)

Making Honest Men out of Pirates

Just how do you make an honest business out of piracy? Well, following the Pirate Bay debacle, one entrepreneur believes he can turn Pirates into consumers. Global Factory announces its plans to purchase The Bay for $7.8 million and turn the haven of peer-to-peer piracy into a paid content service. Will it work? Watch this space… (Source Wired)

Music - an open playing field

We looked at music in more detail earlier on this blog; it appears the market is now open for all players to try and squeeze some of the last remaining profits out of the industry - Nokia and Google both being examples of large, well-funded entrants into the music landscape.

Does Free Work?

The issue of “free” has always been square in the sights of youth marketers. But, does it work? Three marketing gurus weigh in on the debate - Chris Anderson, Seth Godin and Malcom Gladwell. While “free” may be a compelling idea as supported by Anderson & Godin, Gladwell argues that the infrastructure supporting these ideas cannot be free and ultimately there needs to be a payback. (Source Eyecube)

Are Youth Really Paying Attention?

Nielsen tells us that youth are still watching TV and that the “TV is dead” debate is merely hype. What Nielsen fails to consider is, however, that while “watching” and paying attention are considered one of the same under traditional media metrics, they are entirely different propositions. Teenagers keep the TV on but are often focusing their mind elsewhere (Notebook PC, mobile etc). When TV becomes a background accessory it challenges the assumptions that it can engage the audience. (Source Ypulse)

The Science of Youth Attention and Media

We covered this subject in the 2009 mobileYouth report and looked at the implications of industry assumptions about whether or not youth are actually paying attention to their message. You may have the dancing bear, but if you don’t have a dialogue in place, all your efforts concerning product launches, funky campaigns and PR will be lost.

Brandwidth

Does traditional media deliver brandwidth, where brandwidth = consumer trust + attention. Check out the slideshare presentation on Brandwidth here and see what some of the leading youth brands are doing to build it. The challenge is that youth increasingly distrust all forms of mass media - TV and mobile - so how do you go about building a dialogue when you’re lacking in the very basics?

Understanding Teen Media Use by Observing it in its Natural Habitat

New research from OTX reaffirms our earlier belief that while watching TV is still very much a popular youth pastime, they are simply not paying attention. OTX found that teen frequently conducted 5 other activities while watching TV. PC takes precedence too, with the majority citing the first thing they do when they get home is “switch on the PC” (note one generation earlier that would have been…TV). (Source Millenial Marketing)

Is TV Dead?

Henry Blodget thinks so despite TV industry hubris suggesting that their medium is still an important feature of the viewer’s life. Much of TV’s success until now has been ingrained habit based around a lack of choice. However, as internet content distribution grows, Blodget argues, TV’s vastly bloated cost structure will make itself uncompetitive. (Source Business Insider)

What do youth think about TV?

Here’s a video we shot some time ago featuring on the street interviews of youth discussing their media habits. See more mobileYouth videos here.

The Department of Hits

Traditional marketing needs traditional media and traditional business models. With the high overhead costs associated with TV advertising, traditional business models require big “hits” to guarantee a minimum return. That’s why you have large brands such as Pepsi and Coke built around an entire model of hits and exploiting TV as medium of choice. Find out more in our sample chapter from “Now I Can Drink Me”

Is TV the best way to engage youth?

If you ask youth, it isn’t. Fuse Marketing found sponsorship of live events pipped TV as the most effective (in the eyes of the audience) method of making a connection. TV, however, still performs well at number 2 - with text messages (interestingly) coming in last. (Source Emarketer)

Away from the TV

If it’s events, then it has to be Red Bull. Earlier we looked at Red Bull’s event heritage in this chapter from our upcoming book Now I Can Drink Me. Here’s a brand that, unlike competitors Coke and Pepsi, spends in comparison very little of TV advertising and invests heavily in creating its own events.

Youtube reports Mobile Video is up

Mobile originated submissions are up 1700% in the last 6 months alone reports Youtube. Are customers getting used to the format? Do new charging models finally remove the boundaries to wider media usage? Youtube states 3 reasons why numbers are up 1) video enabled phones 2) improvements in upload technology and 3) sharing from social networks. (Source Hypebot)

How do you get Youth Interested in Reading?

This is a question constantly facing publishers targeting the teen audience. Book publishers believe that some of the reflected cool surrounding mobile phones will rub off on their overlooked content (tread carefully). Penguin and Simon&Shuster both launch their own social networks to garner youth interest. (Source USAToday).

We’ve been actively researching youth marketing, mobile trends and culture across 60 countries since 2001. Our research is purchased globally by clients from Nokia to the European Commission. Contact us to find out how we can help you source insights into youth mobile culture.

Research Currently Availalble

• mobileYouth 2009 report
  

We make all our presentations available on Slideshare. We’ve published nearly 50 slideshows in powerpoint format on Slideshare - so if you’re looking for marketing ideas, stats or insights into future youth trends - here’s the best place to start.

Presentations next steps

• View all presentations on Slideshare
• View most recent presentations on Slideshare
• Want mobileYouth to present at your conference or company?
  

Sample Presentations available on Slideshare

We’ve been researching youth opinion on-the-street and talking to key brands that are shaping the space for some time now. Here is some of our work captured on video.

Next steps

• Watch the mobileYouth videos on Youtube
• Watch the mobileYouth video story
• Love video? Under 27 yrs? Want to take part in our new mobileYouth trendspotting project? Contact us

Mobile Youth Videos on Youtube

Mobile Operators

Telenor, Vodafone, Orange, Telus Mobility, Rogers Wireless, Celtel Bahrain,  Starhub, Airtel, Orange, Trinidad & Tobago Telecom, Zain, Cricket Communications, TIMWe, Telefonica O2 Czech, Celtel Nigeria, KPN, MTN, Nawras, T-Mobile, TeliaSonera, TMN, WIND, Du, Bakcell, M1, MTC, Omantel, Cellcom, Mobilecom, Tigo, Telefonica O2 Ireland & UK, Wana, Taiwan Mobile, Astelit, Belgacom, Safaricom, Boost Mobile

Media

MTV, ABS CBN, Walt Disney, C4TV,

Agencies

Leo Burnett, AKQA, Iris, Carat Digital, BBDO, Promoaction DDB, FHM, BBH, Poke London, Mindshare,

Handset & Infrastructure

Samsung, Nokia, NEC, Sony Ericsson, Ericsson, LG, Dell, Alcatel Lucent, RIM, Firefly Mobile, Bipper Mobile, Motorola, Panasonic, Apple

Finance

Sanders Wingo, Eden Ventures

Software & Content

Mobilera, Sentry Wireless, Virtusa, Vringo, M-Box, Intrinsic Technology, Muzicall, Wireless Innovation, Your Mobile Ltd, FutureLab, Runway, Digitas, ACT3, Teleca, Jamba, Picsel, Mobile Acuity, Pontis Israel, m-Spatial, Zi Corp, Comverse, Advanced Services

Public Sector

The UK Home Office, LSDA, The European Commission, NSPCC, OFCOM, UK Design Council, GSMA

If your company is on this list and you do not have access to the report then this usually means your purchasing department has bought the report but you have not been made aware of this. Please contact us and we will happily sort you out with access to the report.

Fortunately, we didn’t listen to the voices - that the future was in “richer media” or “location based messaging” or 4.5 G or whatever - but stuck to our basic principles that developing quality services that were sustainable relied on quality insights into what the consumers wanted. We went ahead and published our first mobileYouth report in 2001 selling our first copy in Christmas 2001 to Boost Mobile. Since then we’ve sold over $8m of research and have established a respectable clients list that reads like a who’s who of mobile, media and tech.

Understanding what consumers wanted meant getting out of our offices and onto the streets, away from the stale focus groups and into the universe of youth. Not easy when the industry likes to click its way through to the answers.

Media

Because our position is rather unique, media often contact us to comment on youth and tech related issues. Here are a few examples:

Here’s Josh on the BBC talking about youth and mobile phones

Here’s an example of press coverage

One more from the Telegraph

Speaking

We also speak at industry conferences on youth marketing, mobile culture and trends. If you want mobileYouth to speak at your conference or present at your company offices, contact us here.

We are currently recruiting:

• Analysts
• Designers
• Video journalists
• Video reviewers
• Trendspotters
• Interns
  

If you’re interested in working with mobileYouth make yourself known - don’t send an email (if you know youth media, you’ll know how to get through to us).

• We are interested in purchasing, please send details
  

Published annually since 2001, this year we’ve added new trends and insights plus 12 analyst briefings published throughout the year.

Key Features

* 16 reports covering key aspects of youth marketing and mobile culture delivered over the year keeping you informed and up to speed (Market value $17,600)

* Delivered in easy-to-use powerpoint format comprising 200 powerpoint slides, graphs, case studies and presentation visuals.

* Statistical breakdown of mobile ownership & usage by age across 60 countries (Market value $4,500)

* Combined market value $22,100 offered to you for only $3995

What are marketing execs saying about the mobileYouth® report?

“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.”

* Tony Kypreos, International Vice President, T-Mobile

“We found the report very informative and have used the extensive data supplied”

* Tobias Freudenberg, Product Strategy Manager, AOL Deutschland

“An excellent report! One that we have used again and again.”

* Dusan Hamlin, Director, Carat International

“mobileYouth has been very helpful in the development of Vodafone’s approach to delivery of content in a responsible manner”

* Caroline Dewing, Communications Manager, Vodafone

“We used the report to help us understand what products we should be focussing on in our youth offering.”

* Nicolas Droulat, Senior Analyst, Bouygues Telecom

“As always, an excellent report”

* Damien Brady, CEO, Extreme Mobile

“We bought 30 reports when working on that project and mobileYouth was the best of the lot”

* Avery Dennison

“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.”

* Daniel Bevis, Knowledge & Intranet Administrator, Leo Burnett

Staples recently started it’s campaign, “Do Something 101″, aimed at bringing school supplies to poor children in the United States. The campaign consists in word of mouth buzz and a specifically created FaceBook application. Currently, that US holds more than 13 million children living in poverty. (Source Fred Aun @ Clickz)

Are today’s freedom fighters using Twitter and Facebook as weapons?

Iran has the highest amount of bloggers in the world and a great number of youths have the necessary knowledge to actively coordinate social movements using online tools. Is this the future for guerrilla groups? (Source Roger Schoenman / Naveed Mansoori @ Guardian)

How are Iranian youths connecting through technology?

Nearly 60% of the population of Iran is under 25 years old. This majority is more world aware and more connected to each other through technological means. This young generation is creating interesting uses for social networks online, with videos and posts about the “Iran Elections” topping the buzz charts. (Source Sean @ YouthMesh)

Mobile mentoring and how it’s helping low-income neighborhoods grow.

A Canadian company called Mobile Movements is providing mobile phones and training to foster growth in low-income areas. Mentors can browse a list of current projects and then send a message to the creative team if they are interested. (Source Darren Roberts @ Springwise)

How can teen girls become social entrepreneurs?

The YSA Gladys Coccia Award is an annual grant given to the most social-oriented enterprise created by teen girls 14 to 17 years old. Recently they interviewed Sejal Hathi and got her take on what it takes to be a social entrepreneur. (Source @ ShapingYouth)