• by Wayne Friedman , January 17, 2007

LAS VEGAS--New PricewaterhouseCoopers research, released at the National Association of Television Program Executives meeting here, urges marketers to strike up conversations with young consumers about products. Otherwise, consumers will form their own--sometimes negative--opinions.

"They'll respond back whether you want them to or not," says Paige Hayes, director, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory. His information comes via an ongoing panel of some 8,000 respondents that Pricewaterhouse, the consultant/research company, taps into periodically. The average age of the respondents is 27.

Research suggests that marketers strike up the conversation with consumers as soon as possible--be it on social networking sites, blogs, or other Internet-related business. Or marketers might receive a quick avalanche of bad reactions to their products and services.

In addition, there is a need to give those young consumers compelling advertising--whether online, traditional media, or with special branded entertainment-marketing activities.

"The ticket to admission in advertising is through entertainment," says Hayes. After entertainment, she says, engagement, relevancy and trust are the next biggest areas that marketers need to address.

PricewaterhouseCoopers surveyed two demographic groups: 18-24 and 25-35. Interestingly, Hayes notes there was little difference in the ways each use media today--especially online media. The only difference came to piracy--which the young demo tends to do more than the older.

How does PricewaterhouseCoopers know that? "Because they tell you," says Hayes.