Kids embrace iPods rather than Radio
From Ad Age:
"Did you know that almost one-third of mp3 player users are kids 10 or younger?
I'll bet you didn't.
Did you know that 40% of 6 to 8-year-olds own an mp3 player?
Or that 60% of 13 to 18-year-olds do?
Our youth are being raised on a diet of media control and extreme customization.
The consequences for how we program and market to this demo today - and as they mature - are profound.
As every smoker knows, lifetime habits are shaped during your youth. We can't prevent a generation of listeners from embracing mp3 players, but we most definitely can make sure we're embracing the listeners who are doing the embracing. We can make sure we're a part of their iPods and a part of their lives.
And to do that we're going to have to care about youth oriented stations and find a way to monetize our efforts there. We're going to have to inject a spark of engagement into these stations like never before. We're going to have to convert the monologue into a dialogue and the dialogue into a conversation. We're going to have to open up the airwaves for their input and their voices and their production and their content.
Staying relevant for the future is not about launching a social network.
It's about being a brand worth joining a social network for."
Hey gang,
This article seems to fit with what we were talking about last week. Radio is going through some changes and this information is not going to make owners happy. But it is a rather interesting way of looking at the situation from an advertising perspective. We keep talking in class about how online news organizations are going to pay for the sites.
I wonder if news Web sites are going to have to brand themselves as well to try and reach a certain audience? Will that dictate content as well? How do you feel about the tone of this article and the statement that "young people are being raised on a diet of media control and extreme customization? I await your comments with anticipation.
Jerry in Sri Lanka
Helping bathe an elephant
About Me
- Jerry Renaud
- I am a broadcast journalism professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
8 comments:
I have a sister-in-law who is 16 and lives her life through her ipod and her phone. She is fully aware of the risks involved in devoting so much of her time to the networking and downloading she is involved with. I have spoken to her about it and she knows the limitations of experiencing life through technological innovation.
I disagree with the statement of our youth being "raised on a diet of media control." She is not controlled by her media nor am I. The fascinating aspect of owning an ipod is the ability to control all of the information you bring into your life and choosing what to filter and what to accept.
It is difficult for media to control anyone's choices unless ignorance is an acceptable behavior.
The customization could be seen as extreme to those of an older generation such as myself but put customization in context with what many of us have grown up with.
I did not have computers in high school. My first years of college were spent trying to capture the technological advances quickly growing onto my daily life. The youth of today have the advantage of beginning their lives with superior technology and I feel they are more aware of the dangers involved in shaping lives around technology instead of tech shaping their choices.
I am not afraid to use the experience the youth of today can provide older technology users like myself. My sister-in-law has helped me customize my own ipod and itunes collection.
Perhaps this is the way to reach and begin a dialogue with youth in our future. The dialogue or conversation might be asking our youth for help or guidance in customizing our lives around the technology they are already familiar with. Their input is invaluable and can be tempered by the life experience we can provide in relation to the future technology advances all of us will encounter.
Like justinholbein, I disagree that the youth are being raised on a diet of media control. It is very hard to control someone, let alone allow them to do that.
However, I do agree that the younger generations are into extreme customization. Everything from music to cars. A large part of the music is due to the internet. Radio stations generally only play music that is the hit right now. The latest from the big named bands. But there are ton of great unsigned bands out there. You just have to look for them. I know, because that is what I do. I am into the new bands, the unsigned ones, the unknown. No one controls that, instead I choose which bands I listen too, and which bands songs I buy.
But this is nothing new. Remember tapes? What were they? A soundtrack that you recorded to listen to. Your own mixed tape.
Customization goes into everything that people do. It makes us unique. Everything from adding some new rims to your car to having a Superman shower curtian in your bathroom. Customization is not new. It is the way things have always been, just now that technology has given us the opportunity to create our own music worlds. And not be told to do it.
News orginazations are going to have to figure out their niche in the new media. Cell phones now have news and internet built in. Lap tops weigh 3 pounds. And a new ipod is released every other week. But it is only a matter of time until the ipod is replaced. Look at the CD. It seemed like just the other the CD was in. The younger generations have shown that they enjoy making choices and standing out.
Maybe I'm completely naive here, but to a certain extent, some of what this article talks about are things I think the industry already is doing, but maybe to a lesser degree or with a different demographic.
It talks about how stations need to listen to their listeners and seek their input.
... Is that really that radical of an idea?
In the past, have stations really taken a "we'll-do-what-we-want-and-our-audience-can-take-it-or-leave-it" approach?
I think media outlets have always looked to what their audience is interested in and at least at least partly tailored their products to their consumers' tastes.
I understand that Web sites are likely drawing in a younger crowd -- and let me be clear, I realize a younger demographic brings new challenges.
Still, I think it's easy to fall into a sounding like doomsday is just around the corner and there is absolutely nothing we have in our current arsenal of experiences that is going to save us.
I'm not saying the growing power of outlets' Web sites isn't changing the game, but I think with a level-headed approach and good research -- and creative ways to reach a new demographic -- younger consumers aren't out of reach.
Since lifetime habits are shaped during youth, why not grab the demographic early while they're in grade school? Most of them are a captive audience, and with certain incentives can be introduced to things they might not be receptive to. I'm saying this because I remember we had to read a newspaper for class and get brownie points if we did good on current-events quizzes. I think this was in fifth grade. Then there was Book-It, where you got Pizza Hut pan pizzas for free if you read a certain number of books. That's when I learned bad nutrition habits and Stephen King.
So to get youth to listen to your podcast or streaming radio or read your Web site, maybe they need some kind of stimulus or push in grade school. Don't make advertising annoying, either: coat the bitter advertising pill with Pillsbury Funfetti® Frosting. Course they're probably used to that by now. And, the medium has to talk to them and do it in their language, but not be obvious. Kids can spot fraud a mile away; they can tell if an adult is a poseur. Finally, going to a rival station or site is waaay to easy, so you need to constantly evolve and stay ahead of the coolness curve. I kind of see that happening with the MySpace vs. Facebook thing.
Just as video killed the radio star -- that's a reference to a video music hit from the early, early, early days of music video the first vid MTV ever played, may it now live not in infamy but obscurity . . . anyway -- so iPod killed (or will kill) the Top 40 format, and that's surely a pretty good thing.
It may kill music on radio period. One key question becomes how to pay the artists. But download fees are becoming a (relatively cheap) fact of life, no?
Will the music industry continue to play king or queen maker, or will a land of ten thousand, nay, hundreds of thousands, of bands and artists produce fewer gazillionaire musicians and singers but better and more diverse quality in music?
Presumably, the artists formerly known as creatures of studios will make enough to survive or get part-time jobs, question mark. It does raise some questions about how we conduct a common cultural life, or is that even important anymore? Regardless, consumers will eventually drive the industry and young consumers will be in the drivers' seats. It's a bumper cars world now, not a superhighway. News and talk may continue to shift to radio with all news (and commentary) stations predominating.
1/3 of kids have mp3 devices? Wow... Maybe I should invest in a hearing aid company...
1/3 of kids have mp3 devices? Wow...I should definitely invest in a hearing aid company...
I think these advertisers need to be ready for more and more mp3 devices coming with built-in radios. They have the potential, in my opinion, to reach this younger audience though radio/mp3 devices, but they have to do it strategically. I think this will get more interactive too as time goes on. For example, with the ipod touch with wifi, if there ever is a radio installed into the device, advertisers could host interactive promotions or games to keep listeners hooked.
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