Part of our focus this year is on understanding key audiences and helping advertisers to understand their motivations, key touchpoints and how to best engage them through targeted advertising and other approaches. We've started by looking at the youth audience, as it's an area in which we have a wealth of insight.
Combining findings from our studies such as Young Adults Revealed and Circuits of Cool with fresh insights from new research of our own and across the industry, we've come up with an easy-to-digest overarching story about how youth see themselves, the world, and advertising.
And the key findings? Well, there aren't any shortcuts in connecting with youth. As an audience, young people are among the most difficult to engage, as they're well-informed and discerning, and are used to media on their own terms. But there are some strong positives too, particularly for online advertisers.
For one, while it's a cliché that's often used, this really is the first generation to be completely at home on the internet. It doesn't replace all other media, but for every offline medium there's an online equivalent - be that TV shows, news reporting, talking to friends or deciding on which top to buy for going out - and it's central to their day to day lives. Which means that while media fragmentation is a concern (and in fact only 1 in 3 of this audience give TV their complete undivided attention), there's one place that you're guaranteed to reach young consumers.
There's also some positive news for advertisers who find 'social networking' a difficult concept to integrate into their marketing plans. This youth audience is ambivalent about the positioning of brands on social networking sites such as Facebook, but the reality is that everything is social, or can be. From playing games with friends on Xbox Live and chatting over Messenger while watching TV, to asking friends and forums for reviews and opinions, young consumers are social in everything they do. So it doesn't need a special language or code to be present in social networking - it's just about being aware of and present at these points of interaction, and letting nature take its course.
...which could all be easier than you think, because one of the more surprising findings from our research is that young consumers are more open to advertising than their older peers, and understand its value. In fact, nearly half have clicked on a banner ad in the last month, and they're 68% more likely than older consumers to agree that banner ads have helped them to find interesting things on the web.
We've collated all these (and other) key insights into an interactive document, complete with links to the source data and videos of real consumers explaining how these points relate to their own lives. It's all broken down into sections and set up with an easy navigation system, and can be found on the Microsoft Advertising site, here. In addition, our audience insights tool gives you access to a wealth of video clips of young people in their own words, describing their attitudes and motivations, how they use media and the role advertising plays for them. So take a look, and check back regularly, as we'll be updating our site with new audiences in the coming months - our next focus is on premium consumers and their motivations and points of influence. There's even an opportunity for you to give us your thoughts on how to define the premium audience and the role of digital advertising to this group of consumers - so visit the Microsoft Advertising site, take a look at the Youth research and share your thoughts about premium consumers!