Ok, let's jump into this third installment of Tween & Teen Lifestyle report highlights by looking at what the audience thinks is cool...right now. We usually see a wide disparity as to what teens think is cool compared to what the tweens think is cool. This wave is really no exception. As a general rule of thumb, anytime we see a certain item score greater 60% t0 68% we deem it relatively ubiquitous. In terms of anticipating future trends, we like to see items come in with a score of 10% to 15% in the first wave and make sizable jump to 30% to 35% in the next wave. Chances are, come the third wave (which is essentially 18 months later), the item will register somewhere between 50% to 70%. Using this working theory on trend identification we'd been able to identify a wide range of items ranging from no brainers like the Wii all the way to more category-specific trends like ringtone downloading a good six to twelve months before everyone starts talking about them. So with all of that said, what's the coolest thing in the world right now for teens? If you said text messaging, then you're right on. Almost all teens (96%) said text messaging was hot right now. Beyond text messaging, 91% of teens said Apple iPods were hot right now. Last year teens had iPods as their number one hot item of the moment. Talk about growth--70% of teens said the Wii was hot right now up from 54% last year and only 21% 18 months ago. Yup, it didn't take a rocket scientist with a Harvard MBA to see this one coming. One thing that surprised us a bit was the iPhone. Yes, we thought teens would give it rather high ratings somewhere between 40% and 50%, but to tell you the truth, the fact that it came in at 75% to land in the fourth spot on the hot list was a surprise. The hottest thing for tweens right now are Apple iPods (92%) followed by the Wii (81%) the DS or DS Lite (77%), downloading music (also 77%) and get ready for this...drum roll please...caring about the environment (71%). After all is said and done, may be the youth of the world will actually end up saving us all. Tomorrow I'll go over some of the latest entertainment and celebrity trends.
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