• by Seana Mulcahy , August 7, 2006

Well, I just came back from holiday. I was on Nantucket. For those of you who know me or have read me for years, you know it takes me a while to unwind. Of course, I had my laptop and Treo in tow. From the dock to the ferry to the island it was a sea of mobile phones. Most were attached to kids ages 12 to 20-something.

For those of you who don't know the island, it's all about etiquette as casual luxury. The loudest noise on the cobblestone streets was an unknowing tourist (who brought over his SUV) honking, yes honking, at the crowd of families so he could get by. This of course may as well have been a bullet going off to the ears of natives and travelers alike.

What was funny, though, was the sea of low-volume ringtones the tweens, teens and 20-somethings had. It was like white noise to adults. Justin Timberlake's new tune "Sexy Back" rippled in and out like the ocean at low tide. Having two 16-year-old girls with me, I became educated on the ringtone sounds of Ne-Yo, Rihanna, Lil Jon, etc.

I was equally surprised when I looked around and saw all of them text messaging. We'd walk down to town to get a frozen yogurt. Outside on any given day were about a couple dozen or so kids from about 12 to maybe 17 tops. They'd be huddled in groups chit-chatting back and forth while texting. Sometimes they were texting one another! Boys would text girls 50 yards away to see if they'd come over. They'd take pictures of themselves and send it back and forth. Wow, I felt old.

Every kid had a top-of-the-line phone. Most had personalized ringtones. Many had accessories like funky cases and little blingy gems and charms adhered to them. Almost all kids were seen throughout the day walking through the cobblestone streets, biking, boating or on the beach. The phones were a permanent necessity and accessory. Of equal importance was their iPods. Of course the iPods were dressed in (mainly) Coach cases.

I felt like social anthropologist meets media strategist; I couldn't peel my eyes from them. In a place where burgers and chicken fingers cost $10 and everyone sucks down $5 smoothies in about five minutes, 99-cent ringtones and songs may as well be free. Just think about it for a moment. Most iPods had about $1,500 worth of music on them. As for the phones, who know how many downloaded ringtones there were.

So I asked my focus group of two 16-year-old girls how much money seems fair for a cool new ringtone. They said from 99 cents to $1.99 is what they mostly pay. However, they told me there are many sought-after sounds for upwards of $4.99!

I also asked them how often they texted. Of course I knew the answer, because I pay the bill. Not to my surprise, they both said they text all the time. Each had similar plans that included about 500 text messages per month for around $7.99 to $9.99 per month. Are you still doing the math? That's a lot of money for personalization.

The U.S. tends to be slower than other countries in regard to mobile adoption. However, more and more telecos are offering monthly plans for ringtones. Many music artists (especially rappers) are pushing the format. Myspace and Infospace have jumped on the bandwagon to satiate early adopters by offering the latest,greatest ringtones to its respective member base.

According to Digital Music News, the market for mobile ringtones crossed into multi-billion dollar territory long ago, quieting an army of naysayers. This is nothing to disregard. Americans want personalization. If you are advertising or marketing to younger groups, you should keep a close eye to how they use and consume media. There are endless opportunities out there already. Consider offering free ringtones or MP3s as promotions. Got a tip, trick or comment about personalization? Share it with us on the Spin blog.

Happy Monday.