GenDigital

2012 Youth Macro Trends, Predictions & Insights

With 2012 on the horizon, we're pleased to present our annual Youth Macro Trends, Predictions & Insights report for the coming year as well as revisit a handful of trends and predictions from last year's report to see how they have played out over the course of this year. Rather than providing an exhaustive list of rather meaningless trends, our main objective is to provide a select number of actionable views that have multiple implications across various industries and product categories. If we did our job correctly, there should be something in here for everyone, and we hope that something results in a conversation starter, a strategy meeting, or if nothing else, a definitive edge on the why behind the what for all things youth-culture related.

2012 Youth Macro Trends, Predictions & Insights

The Gamification of Youth Marketing & Media

Check In & Buy

The Future of m-Commerce

Tablets Everywhere

Moving Towards The Cloud

Twitter As An Exclusive Social Alternative

Digital Entrepreneurialism

Mining Social Influence

Visual Gratification

2011 Recap: Convergence Everywhere

2011 Recap: Fashion Gets Personal & Athletic

2011 Recap: Purpose-Driven Cause Marketing

2011 Recap: Social Shopping: Click, Shop, Talk & Buy

2011 Youth Macro Trends & Predictions

Out with the old and in the new. With 2011 now in the horizon, we're pleased to present our annual Youth Macro Trends & Predictions report for the coming year as well as revisit a handful of trends and topics from last year's report to see how they've played out over the course of this year. Instead of providing an esoteric and rather exhaustive list of trends, the main objective with Youth Macro Trends & Predictions is to provide actionable views that have multiple implications across various industries and product categories. Ultimately, there should be something in this report for everyone. That something will hopefully result in a conversation starter, a strategy re-visit and an indelible edge on the why behind the what when it comes to all things youth-culture related. You can view the table of contents here

World Cup 2010

Ok, let's be honest here, up until a few weeks ago, how many of you were familiar with a vuvuzela? Undoubtedly, even we were surprised to see how World Cup fever has gripped this country's youth audience especially in between proms, graduation parties and the start of summer break. The bulk of the audience's TV sports consumption is dominated by football, basketball and baseball, so to see an event like the World Cup rate so highly in this month's Insights Immersion is significant. At least part of the excitement can be linked directly to two factors: coverage and technology and clearly there are synergies between the two factors.

June is kind of a funny month for sports coverage as the NBA wraps up its season, while baseball approaches the mid-season mark. That said, it's fair to say there is a bit of a void so the timing of this year's World Cup is super strategic. The coverage on-air, online and even via mobile devices is reminiscent of an Olympic Games: thoroughly comprehensive and seemingly never ending. If you're a sports fan, it's almost as if you have to tune-in at some point. And that's exactly what the audience has been doing as noted by this month's findings.

World Cup Viewer and Fan Statistics:

- watched at least one game: 27% (37% of males/16% of females)

- watched more than one game: 20% (28% of males/12% of females)

- watched the U.S. team play: 26% (35% of males/16% of females)

- streamed a game online: 16% (24% of males/8% of females)

- streamed game highlights or interviews online: 23% (34% of males/11% of females)

- watched a game on a mobile device: 3% (6% of males/1% of females)

- watched game highlights or interviews on a mobile device: 5% (10% of males/1% of females)

- visited websites like ESPN Soccernet or Yahoo! Sports for World Cup info: 29% (41% of males/17% of females)

- Used Facebook or Twitter to follow World Cup-related activities: 16% (22% of males/10% of females)

Urbanspoon Moves Into Top Ten Downloaded Apps

For the thirty seven percent of teens and college students who own an iPhone or iPod Touch, here's an interesting new tidbit from our App tracking panel, the restaurant review and recommendation service Urbanspoon is now among the top most downloaded free apps. Based on last month's tracking data, more than one in four members (42%) have downloaded the app to date, proving that young people are beginning to use their connected Apple devices to do more than just download and play games. The Urbanspoon app has some pretty cool functionality. To look for recommendations, users shake their devices and in turn the app spits out some nearby locations. It's intuitive and some simple fun at the same time and enough to make Urbanspoon our app of the month.

Will The iPad Kill? Not So Much Initially, At Least Among Students

Last month, Apple unveiled its latest device to the world, the iPad. Apple is touting the "educational benefits" of the $499 device, but the real question is, will students respond with the same verve as they have with other Apple products in the past? Already a small Pennsylvania college, Seton Hill, announced that it will provide iPads to all of their full-time students next fall. With an enrollment of just over 2,000 students it's a start for the Apple machine, albeit it's not and Ohio State or Univ of Minnesota with 40,000 and 50,000 undergrads.

Clearly Apple has the education market in mind with the iPad as partnerships have also been trickling out with leading textbook publishers including Macmillan and McGraw Hill, among others. The basic concept is that students, as tech savvy as they are, will be more comfortable and adept in consuming their academic material via a multi-touch interactive e-reader device like the iPad as opposed to a more cumbersome (and heavy) 500 page textbook.

Besides the interactive e-reader capabilities, the iPad is really nothing more than oversized version of the already wildly popular iTouch. So, in other words, beyond the supposed convenience of an e-reader device, and a fairly pricey one at that, do students really desire having one more device that already offers many of the same features and functionality they're well accustomed to? The initial vote from our college student panelists is a resounding nay.

As much buzz as the broader e-reader market is receiving, when it comes to the actual end user level of students, awareness, let alone interest is quite weak. And, as can be expected, when you throw in a price tag of $499 (plus data plan costs) interest and intent among students drops even further.

Based on this initial feedback, the strategy to drive immediate adoption would be an institutional type sales approach where Apple would sell iPads in bulk to specific colleges and universities. We suspect the schools would then have to pass along the costs through various student access and tech fees. That said, other than the super tech schools like MIT and Stanford, it's pretty unlikely to see major state-funded institutions sign on quickly (fall 2010) as many are still very much struggling with budget and capital expenditure problems of their own. Chances are, the last thing they want to do is add on one more fee for their students.

Is foursquare The Next Big Thing?

A brief excerpt from the recently released March '10 Insights report, which focuses on the market implications for the fast growing location-based service foursquare: Undoubtedly, the ability to accurately predict the next big thing in digital, mobile and social media is much more of an art than a science. That said, from our perspective there is a fast growing perfect storm made up of user interest, appeal and stickiness leading us to believe the location-based service foursquare is extremely well positioned to become "the next big thing" for the youth and young adult market.

We first discussed the potential market implications for location-based services and mobile applications in the 2009 Youth Trends Macro Trends & Predictions report and have been refining and tweaking our point of view and outlook ever since.

The highly positive feedback, interest and intent expressed by panelists in this month's Insights Immersion represented the final confirmation of our belief that foursquare has the real opportunity to be the killer app of 2010 for the market. Simply put, foursquare has made location-based social networking cool by implementing game-like elements in the form of badges and points into the fabric of its offering. As Twitter encourages its users to tweet, foursquare users "check-in" with their current location. From there, their location is broadcast out to their list of friends who are also using the service.

Ultimately, it's a straightforward value proposition as the app functions mainly as a friend locater, which isn't such a bad thing on a sprawling campus during a hectic Friday or Saturday night. While the friend locater acts as the headline element of the service, it's the ancillary social and game-like features that really distinguish it from other location-based services like Loopt.

Download the March '10 Insights report to read the complete analysis.

2010 Macro Trend: The Impact Of QR Codes

Here's a quick look at one of the 12 macro trends we've identified that will make an impact in 2010. The origins of Quick Response Codes, or QR codes for short, go all the way back to 1994. The concept of mobile tagging, which is already wildly popular in Asia, brings new life for the cousin of the old fashioned barcode. QR codes are incredibly more valuable than barcodes as they are able to digitally store information and present it on the user's mobile phone. The information can be as varied as a web address, product information or a promotional offer. The actual QR codes themselves can be featured in almost any type of physical media or advertising. Assuming the consumer has a mobile phone equipped with the necessary software and a digital camera, the device can download and decipher the code with just a few simple actions.

Here's a real world example: a student is walking around campus and sees an outdoor billboard for the new Twilight movie. On the ad, underneath the web address promoting the movie is a QR code. Using the QR reader on his/her mobile phone, the student is able to watch the trailer for the flick in seconds. Talk about future implications, this has the potential to be nothing short of colossal. Welcome to the future of outdoor interactive!

Sports Media Consumption Trends: It's All About College Football

The results of the latest Insights Immersion leads us to believe that between emerging digital and mobile consumption channels coupled with good ole fashioned school spirit, college football seems to be more popular than ever. 

On a year over year basis, all major activity measurements experienced an increase including live attendance, on-air viewing, online streaming, mobile updates and alerts and mobile app downloads. What's more, we're seeing a sizable increase in interest for consumption via online and mobile. Here's a look at the latest findings based on activity since the start of the new school year:

- Attended a college football game: 37%, up from 32%

- Watched a college football game on TV: 41%, up from 38%

- Streamed a college game online: 17%, up from 11%

- Read a college football-related blog or microblog: 18%, up from 8%

- Received a score update/alert via mobile: 19%, up from 7%

- Downloaded a sports-related mobile app: 14%, up from 3%

- At least somewhat interested in accessing mobile updates and video: 27%, up from 19%

 

- At least somewhat interested in streaming a game online: 35%, up from 22%

Mobile Social Networking Explodes

Based on the results of the latest Insights Immersion, mobile social networking experienced a huge jump in use and frequency of use over the past year. Nearly six in ten college students (58%) who own a smartphone device like a BlackBerry or iPhone accessed a mobile social network at least once during the past month compared to slightly less than a third last year. While the year over year growth is quite impressive, what's even more enticing is the current frequency of access. Among the 58% who used their device to access a mobile social network during the past month, more than half (56%) said they did so three times a week or more often.

The dominant mobile social networking platform used by students is Facebook Mobile. Among the 58% of student mobile social network users, nearly all of them (96%) say they use Facebook Mobile most often. Not surprisingly, the most commonly performed mobile social networking activity was status updates followed by picture uploads/sharing, and page search.

The mobile social networking category will soon get another boost in anticipation of the version 3.0 release of the Facebook mobile app for iPhone owners. The update features a slate of new and improved features and functionality which should greatly appeal to existing users and bring in new users. Version 3.0 features a new home screen and the ability to customize it. It also offers a more comprehensive news feed enabling users to see the status updates from all of their friends. Even more promising is the ability to RSVP to Facebook created events and the ability to call friends straight from the main profile page.

To learn more about the latest Insights immersion, visit the Youth Trends Research Store

Inside The iPhone 3G And Its Youth Appeal On The Eve Of Its Release

Before jumping into the release of the new iPhone 3G (which comes to market officially at 8am tomorrow), let me first apologize for recent hiatus in posting. It's not like we've all been on vacation these past couple of weeks, instead we've been in the trenches putting the finishing touches on the next wave of our Lifestyle reports for College and Young Independents, both of which are our most comprehensive to date. We're also finalizing our third annual mid-year and second half outlook Insights report, lots of good stuff and we're all extremely excited to get everything out to our clients. Ok, now for the topic of the day, the new iPhone 3G, as it is being referred to as. First, a little history...it was about a year ago that Apple introduced the first iteration of the iPhone and the buzz leading up to its release was quite remarkable, even for Apple. A year and change later, Apple has sold about six million iPhones. According to the results of our latest wave of College Lifestyle, just over 4% of college males own an iPhone while slightly less than 3% of college females own the device. If you run the numbers that works out to approximately 500,000 college kids nationally, which means about one in ten current iPhone owners are college students. Not bad, but perhaps not as robust as many pundits originally thought. Apple and its exclusive carrier partner AT&T Wireless have a lot riding on the new iPhone 3G, but there are sure to be some immediate questions that come up regarding its features and functionality as well as the costs associated with ownership. My initial thought when hearing the term 3G was faster speed, i.e. a device that leverages a faster broadband network. Essentially that's the case, but you have to read the fine print on 3G network availability. Those kids who are lucky enough to snag a new iPhone this summer should first make sure they live or attend school in one of the 3G coverage areas, because for the most part, coverage is limited. Of course 3G coverage will expand over the next year, but it might make sense to hold off for now...Beyond speed, most of the buzz this time around is about the lower purchase price. The 8GB version costs $200 (compared to $600 if you purchase the first iteration a year ago...wonder how those people feel) and the 16GB retails for $300. That's definitely in the purchase wheel house for many college kids. That said, there is a little catch. The minimum monthly plan rates have increased to $70 from $60 or an extra $120 a year, so technically you're up to either $320 or $420 and after perusing through the AT&T site, those plan costs are exclusive of any messaging plan and what's the most pervasive mobile activity for this audience? Right, it's messaging. So assume an extra $5 to $10 a month for a data plan and now you're up to $75 to $80 a month or $900 to $960 a year. All in all, it actually might end up costing more to own the device over time. Ok, so that's the deal with pricing, now for the features and functionality. The audio quality has reportedly been improved dramatically and some say it's crystal clear and literally impossible to distinguish that a call coming through is being made via a mobile device. The second really cool thing is the new Apple App Store as it is being called. Most of the apps will be free for download directly from the Apple site, this addition next to the enhanced audio quality is definitely the coolest thing the device has going for it. For the 10% to 15% of students who are voracious mobile gamers, this will be a strong selling point. All in all, we don't expect student ownership to increase exponentially by year's end, rather it will in all likelihood increase modestly somewhere between 7% to 9% of all college students by the end of this calendar year. In the meantime, the must smartphone device for this audience segment will continue to be the BlackBerry (mainly the Curve model, followed by the Pearl), which if it continues on its current growth trajectory pattern will be in the hands of 14% of students by year's end, up from less than 4% in '07. Enjoy the rest of the week.