The primary mission of this campaign, developed as part of a larger statewide Healthy Eating Active Communities program, was to increase middle and high school students' awareness of healthy eating habits.

Marketers need to think of traditional media, social media, digital marketing, etc., as engagement. This age of engagement is also an age of show me. As in, show me the results.

In fact, the best way for advertisers to engage this demographic is with conversational SMS ad units. An old format, but when leveraged effectively can be fun, personal, relevant and extremely effective. In addition, there are ways to leverage calling (or voice) to extend SMS ad units with creative response-based Text-to-Call (TTCall) and even a Text-to-Call Back (TextToConnect) CPC ad units.

Companies like Zappos have proven successful in marketing to teens with its YouTube videos and launch of Zappos TV, further tapping into that need. Zappos TV features videos of real employees having real fun, whether at their trainee graduation, office ice cream party, marshmallow eating contest or parade. What young person wouldn't want to work at a company like that?

Reaching and engaging teens on Facebook is critical as they will become your advocates for life. So learn how to speak to them and appeal to them and adjust your offerings based on seasonality and time of day.

As a marketer you have a lot of questions about teens; they have a lot of questions about your products as well as the rest of the world. They need help sorting them out, and mobile devices are fast becoming their oracle.

The challenge for marketers, as always, is to know your audience. Here are some insights my company has gleaned from experience working with online teen survey panels.

Twenty-nine percent of teens have by now added a brand to their selective online network. Follow the three basic rules outlined here and you can expect your online audience to welcome your brand on whatever social network is to come.

While teens love doing good, they also love knowing what's in it for them. It makes sense to give a new life to a dress you wore once and be rewarded with discounts and deals that will help finance your next formal occasion.

They make decisions based on what their friends think and what they see in stores, but also believe that brands are part of their identity and they have to choose what is right for them.