Marketers Reach Key Demos Via Mobile

Marketers struggling to engage elusive 18- to-24-year-olds need look no further than mobile devices, according to new findings from market research firm InsightExpress.

Members of Generation Y now use their mobile phones to take 76% of all personal calls, according to an online survey of some 2,000 young mobile device owners in October, conducted by Stamford, Conn.-based InsightExpress.

Over half of the Gen Yers--or 56%--report spending time looking for new things to do with their mobile phones. That engagement leaves the door open for marketers to reach young consumers with short attention spans and busy digital social lives.

"It's clear that as an extension of self, these omnipresent devices play a much broader role in the lives of young people, especially when it comes to interpersonal relationships, than simply voice or text communication," says Joy Liuzzo, director of mobile research at InsightExpress, in a release.

The research firm also outlined new opportunities for marketers looking to provide users with helpful mobile services. For example, over a third (34%) of Gen Yers have arranged to have another person call their mobile device in order to rescue them from undesired social situations.

"The mobile phone has apparently become like a panic button, used for 'rescue missions' in awkward social situations," Liuzzo says. There is no reason why a brand marketer couldn't just as easily provide this service.

Seeing mobile's potential, traditional media players, like the big broadcast networks, are now growing their online and mobile platforms even faster than pure-play new media companies, according to recent data from private-equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson and its research partner PQ Media.

Last year, pure-players like AOL and Yahoo spent $32 billion on platforms, which amounted to a 10.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), VSS found, using data from PQ Media. Traditional media, meanwhile, spent $27 billion on platforms, but at a CAGR of 40.6%.

By 2009, VSS and PQ Media predict that spending by traditional media on online and mobile platforms will actually surpass the pure-play spend, according to Jim Rutherfurd, managing director at VSS. And by 2011, the old guard will shell out $68 billion at a CAGR of 20.4%; pure-players will spend $63 billion at a CAGR of 14.7%

Next story loading loading..