Youth Culture and Media Behavior is part of Fuse's ongoing Youth Culture Insights Series to educate those who wish to speak more effectively to teens and young adults. The series includes information on media behavior, social media, design, web strategy, the future concerns of millennials, and other relevant topics for marketers trying to reach this demographic. For more white papers in this series, go to http://www.facebook.com/FuseLLC.

1. YOUTH CULTURE INSIGHTS SERIES
NOTE Fuse has developed an ongoing
Youth Culture Insights Series to
Myth
educate those who wish to speak We are bombarded with the message that youth culture is vastly different than previous generations.
more effectively to teens and young As marketers, we hardly go a week without hearing about the pending death of some “traditional”
adults. The series includes media including TV (or the 30 second commercial) and print (newspapers, magazines and magazine
information on media behavior, social advertising to be specific). The combination of these factors has resulted in our acceptance that teens
media, design, web strategy, the and young adults consume media much differently than we did as young people. Fuse believes these
future concerns of millennials, and reports are an overstatement - youth culture’s media consumption is not entirely digital - and TV, print,
other relevant topics for marketers and other forms of traditional media are far from dead. In certain instances, teens and young adults
trying to reach this demographic. prefer to consume certain content – including advertising messages – in traditional media formats.
Truth
ABOUT Founded in 1995, Fuse is a leading
youth culture marketing agency that
FUSE connects brands with teens and
The key to debunking the myth of youth culture’s media behavior lies in understanding the difference
between their “consumption” and their “preference.” Media consumption by teens and young adults is
young adults. Fuse provides brand constantly being studied and measured. The results of nearly every study have become predictable:
strategy, event marketing, PR, Millennials use the internet; they communicate via social media; they watch TV, but not as much as prior
design, social media, and digital generations. While this research is relevant, it only tells half the story. “Preference” - defined as how
services to brands and companies Millennials wish to be communicated to by brands - is critical because it provides insight into when and
that include Mountain Dew, how Millennials are most open to be informed and influenced by marketing communication.
Gatorade, Harley-Davidson, P&G,
Gillette, Nike, and others. Fuse’s study of such media preferences in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts found that
the type of marketing communications most preferred by young people were live events - followed by
print, radio, and TV (all tied for second.) Youth culture’s least preferred type of marketing? Text
messaging/mobile marketing. Nearly 90% of millennials believed that text messaging/mobile
marketing was an inappropriate way for an organization to communicate marketing messages to them.
FIND US ONLINE
fusemarketing.com Where Facebook is concerned, 3/4 of users have “Liked” a brand (AdAge/Ipsos, February 2011) and
those who have liked a brand are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using it. (SocialTRAC,
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK “Value of a Facebook Fan” Syncapse Corp 2010)
facebook.com/FuseLLC
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER Implications for Brands
twitter.com/fuse_marketing
Digital and mobile marketing offer marketers opportunities to reach young people – more quickly and
in many cases at a lower cost. For that reason, marketers often decide to change entire communication
EMAIL US AT
info@fusemarketing.com strategies from traditional to new media. Fuse believes brands should use new media, but only after
committing themselves to using them as teens and young adults practice them. Traditional media
should also be utilized too, because young people prefer it in many instances.
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