Archive for the ‘youth and family research’ Category

By Gene Del Vecchio
Author, Creating Blockbusters!

I’ve spent a career investigating and dissecting what youth audiences want. While they gravitate toward the timely and contemporary, they still find great comfort in the timeless and true. It’s the blend that makes for blockbusters, along with a good dose of what I term marketable artistry.

In a nationwide study that I conducted for my new book, Creating Blockbusters!, fielded by C+R Research, I asked four hundred people ages 8 to 55 what they like, dislike, and expect of today’s entertainment. Here’s a glimpse of what the 8 to 19 youth segment wants, as outlined in Creating Blockbusters!

Like all of us, youth audiences want a deeply emotional story. They want protagonists to face life and death struggles and to muster the bravery to achieve their full potential. These were among the top themes of over 20 tested.  But to break through, the story must be served up in a dramatic, unique way.  The Hunger Games comes to mind with its female protagonist and her selfless sacrifice to take her younger sister’s place in a futuristic battle to the death.

Youth audiences also love narratives that tickle their fears. Children age 8 to 12 want heroes to feel the terror of making big mistakes at school (37%) and being publicly humiliated (36%). The desire for these types of characters fueled interest in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Children this age also greatly fear spiders and snakes (35%) which undoubtedly provided a great platform for the original toy called Creepy Crawlers of the 1960’s as well as kids’ interest in recent reality shows such as Fear Factor. These fears are even more top of mind than the fear of death (29%). Being rejected by friends/peers is an important teen fear (36%). This provided a great foundation for many teen angst stories such as The Breakfast Club and is a more prominent issue among teens than the fear of terrorism (21%).

Youth audiences expect franchises to stay continually fresh. The Simpsons does so by addressing cultural issues related to race, religion, politics, sex, and celebrity, just as the TV show Glee uses revolving pop music artists.

While youth audiences appear to want things that are entirely new, they actually lean toward timeless products dressed up in new clothing.  The recent film Avatar with its environmental message and romance between two people from different worlds is very similar to Disney’s Pocahontas.  Beware of being too new and different.

A key to gaining a broad youth audience (along with adults) is to take a child-like idea from the depths of kid culture and make it edgy and/or sophisticated enough for older tastes. That’s what led to the broad appeal of Transformers, Harry Potter, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and even ABC’s new hit, Once Upon a Time.

Youth audiences fall in love with characters that have personas they admire. The persona might be coolness (e.g., James Bond), sweetness and innocence (e.g., Cinderella), mischievousness (e.g., Hans Solo), empowerment (e.g., Mulan), and even grumpiness (e.g., Shrek).  Kids want to reflect those same personalities on their T-shirts, posters, video games, and toys. Great character attitudes travel across business categories.

Youth audiences seek franchises that display marketable artistry. That is, products invented in ways that enhance their marketability.  It might arise from our politics (e.g., Barbie as Presidential candidate during election periods), from an advancement in technology (e.g., James Cameron created news by advancing the performance capture technique for Avatar), from a great name that communicates (e.g., Finding Nemo), to a great tagline that comes from the essence of the story (e.g., “May the Force Be With You”), to promotional events that get consumers closer to the franchise (e.g., Power Rangers national tours).

Youth audiences listen when you use their mediums. This occurred spectacularly when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park was announced to only seven popular Harry Potter bloggers during a secret Webcast. Excited by the news, the bloggers sent the message to thousands of followers which was then relayed by news outlets to 350 million people worldwide in just days.

Most blockbusters don’t happen by accident. They are carefully conceived, developed and marketed using sound principles. The more you know about what youth audiences want, as set forth in Creating Blockbusters!, the more likely your offering will be the next Youth-buster, capturing not only kids but the kids that live in all of us.

—Gene Del Vecchio is an entertainment researcher, consultant and the author of the new book, Creating Blockbusters! genedv@aol.com http://creatingblockbusters.com/

C+R’s Brenda Hurley, Senior Vice President, and Juan Ruiz, Research Director will be speaking at the Millennial Mega Mashup Conference on May 8th at the Perry South Beach Hotel (formerly the Gansevoort Miami).

In their session “Millennial Parents: A Segmentation of Different Parenting Styles,” Juan and Brenda will discuss the ways in which Millennial parents view the job of raising today’s children. Using data from our annual YouthBeat^® study and online community, ParentSpeak.com, they will look at:

• How this cohort crafts its own rules, its own notions of the “rights” of parents, and its own resources for helping them navigate through circumstances that look very different from those of the generation before them
• How values and rules differ between moms and dads within this segment
• How the Hispanic Millennial parent defines his or her role
• How parenting styles impact shopping and consumption habits, and its marketing implications

To register for the conference and receive 25% off your registration, use our discount code MASHUP12CR on the Millennial Mega Mashup site.

New Study Examines the TV Consumption Habits of Generations X, Y and i

Adults 18-24 and 25-34 Most Likely to Connect Social Media to TV Viewing; Teens Most Likely to Watch with Friends and Family

(National Harbor, MD—November 9, 2011) – A new study released today, “Watching Gens X, Y & i,” paints a detailed portrait of 13-34 year old consumers and how they watch television: often while taking part in up to four or five activities all at the same time, from eating, cooking and cleaning to texting, surfing the web, emailing, playing games or listening to music.

“Many 13-34 year olds are multi-media multitaskers, but their social media activities vary depending on age group,” said Char Beales, president and CEO, Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), and head of the organization that commissioned the study.

Younger generations have been raised in an entertainment world where content is available anytime, anywhere and on numerous platforms. This study exposes what teens and young adults are watching, with whom they’re watching, where, how often and on what devices.

Although about half of 18-24 and 25-34 year olds follow or “like” TV networks/shows, only 38% of those 13-17 do. The leading social networking activities while watching TV are looking up info (31% of 13-34 year olds), discussing shows online (29%), posting updates/tweeting (24%) and visiting a network or show page (22%). However, these activities are almost twice as likely to be conducted among 18-24 and 25-34 year olds compared to teens.

Click Here To View the Complete Article.

This research, conducted by C+R Research, was commissioned by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) to investigate the effect of lifestyles and life stages on media and technology usage of younger consumers. It included both qualitative and quantitative online phases in the summer of 2011, and also utilizes data from C+R’s comprehensive syndicated YouthBeat study to provide additional context. 2,124 total interviews were conducted as part of the quantitative phase.

By Amy Henry, Vice President of Youth Insights

At the Kid, Youth and Parent Power Conference in Florida last week, marketers, researchers and child advocates gathered to discuss trends and to share success stories. But they also came to engage in one of researchers’ and marketers’ favorite pastimes: myth bashing. On the doorstep of Disney, a place where fairytales usually prevail, speakers challenged the notion that teens rebel (according to MTV, Millenials prefer to game the system, not change it), that tweens and teens respond to mobile advertising, and that today’s parents just don’t understand (it turns out, they do).

We’ve engaged in a bit of this ourselves…On our YouthBeat website, you can find a link to our white paper on the “Six Youth Untruths,” and at the recent ARF conference, we shared a few fables about advertising to kids, tweens and teens.

Why do we take a swipe at hearsay and a cut at conventional wisdom so much? And what makes it so necessary to negate the notions that so many marketers have made into mantras?

• First, we know that myths don’t just survive, but often thrive, in marketing culture. Sometimes old insights die hard, and it’s tough to give up a gem of an idea even if it’s time has passed. Remember when talking about “pester power” sounded like a masterful mom insight? Or that people over 55 don’t experiment with new brands? Even though youth and family culture has moved on, marketers are sometimes reluctant to change their tune. Too many presentations have been written, briefs have been crafted or businesses have been built on these ideas – and the thought of re-investing in new intelligence brings with it anxiety and a price tag.
• Second, myths make our jobs easy. And isn’t that a good thing? Many of the myths that prevail come from watching the people around us, or taking our own experience too seriously. When it comes to truly understanding consumers’ needs and desires, this mindset can be a recipe for disaster. Smart researchers know that behind a simple truth sometimes lies a more messy explanation. And while we could argue that simple is good, complexity often gets us to a better understanding of the consumers we serve.
• And finally, new myths seem to arise on a daily basis. Today, when bloggers’ words can sound biblical, and consultants make their mark through making bold statements about the future, researchers must add a tempered perspective. Do all kids have iPhones? Not by a longshot. Are iPads in every home? Not yet. But these can be unpopular messages to send to marketers who hope to get ahead of the next trend. As researchers, we’re obligated to present the world as it is, even when the rhetoric seems to tell a story of a culture that has not yet come to pass.

So what’s a marketer or researcher to do? Scrutinize the sure-things – don’t accept that timeless ideas last forever. Embrace complexity – and if an insight feels a little too true, question and challenge it before applying it to your work. And finally, look to validate your hunches – especially the newest ones – before using them to generalize the lives of your consumers or your audience.