• by Seana Mulcahy , August 13, 2007

I was impressed by the perspective of a study recently released by MTV and Nickelodeon, in association with Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. The companies did a global study to find out how kids and young adults interact with digital technology.

The ah-hah finding was that friends are as important as brands. You might have to think about that for a minute. I did. Friends influence each other as much as marketers do.

Dubbed, "The Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground,'" the study surveyed 18,000 kids and young adults (16 - 24) across 16 countries: UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The 16 countries were chosen because they were considered "tech embracing." What the heck does that mean, you ask? Well, participants in each country have easy access to the Internet, a mobile phone and at least two other electronic devices.

So let's think about these young adults for a moment. I've written about my personal accounts with two 17-year-olds. They and all their friends fit the description. I am always all eyes and ears when I see them. They are my up-to-date little focus group.

For instance, I was driving them to a Justin Timberlake concert in Boston the other night. Prior to the event they were coordinating by mobile phone, text messaging IM and posting comments on their funwalls on Facebook. They were able to tell all their friends they were going and coordinate plans. All I wanted was simply to know what time we needed to leave, so I could plan a frenetic Friday work schedule around them.

When I was outside the concert, I was absolutely amazed at how many girls there fit the description of the group in the study. I guess they were not hard to find! Wow! They were all on devices.

So back to the study. Just who are these young adults anyhow?

Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has:

--94 phone numbers in his or her mobile phone.
--78 people on a messenger buddy list and 86 people in his or her social networking community.

Digi-kids are not geeks; 59% of 8- to 14 year-old kids still prefer their TV to their PCs. Ironically only 20% of 14- to 24 year-old young people globally admitted to being "interested" in technology.

They are expert multitaskers and have the ability to use multiple devices at once, and can filter different channels of information quickly.

According to an MTV press release, other findings include:

-- Technology has enabled young people to have more and closer friendships thanks to constant connectivity.
-- Kids and young people don't love the technology itself -- they just love how it enables them to communicate all the time, hemselves and be entertained.
-- Digital communications such as IM, email, social networking sites and mobile/sms are complementary to, not competitive with, TV. TV is part of young peoples' digital conversation.
-- Despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face interaction.

Kids still love good advertising. While the "best ad they've seen recently" is still overwhelmingly on TV, there is the opportunity for marketers to extend their digital advertising across the other technologies kids are engaged with, including IM and social networking sites, especially since 47% of youth IM each other about "what is on TV right now."

"TV is not a background medium. TV is the only medium they use while not multitasking. Linear TV is great for introducing people to new things that they weren't searching for in the first place," said Colleen Fahey Rush, executive vice president of research for MTV Networks.

We as marketers and advertisers need to keep a close eye on this group and serve up what they need, not what we think they need.