How to target youngistan

The annual Synovate Young Asians survey finds that young people spend a lot of time watching TV and browsing the Web

It has long been alleged that the tobacco industry tries to lure smokers at a very young age and gets them addicted to the coffin nail so that they have a dedicated audience. And the tobacco industry is not the only industry that does this everybody from makers of soft drinks to candy bars tries to woo the youth.

So it is important for us to understand what drives the youth. Here, The annual Synovate Young Asians survey seems to offer some interesting information, though some of it has a bit o the 'duh' factor thrown in for instance, it says that many young people spend a lot of time watching TV and browsing the Web, and well, we kinda expected that, didn't we?

Multi taskers

But this doesn't mean that we are suggesting that the survey is not worth it. The survey polled some 13,000 people aged between 8 and 24 and some of the findings are interestingu2014and one of the most interesting is the fact tat the youth today, more than ever, are multi-tasking like never before.

As Miranda Cheung, managing director of Synovate in Singapore told Reuters, "Kids are watching the TV, but also talking on the phone. They are on the Internet with the radio on in the background. Or they may be sending email, texting on their mobile phone and playing an online game all at the same time."

What it means

This is an interesting observation and has a deeper meaning for all those associated with media, irrespective of what they handle ads or content. The fact that youngsters are doing so much at the same time means that they are bound to get distracted very quickly and so anything that doesn't strike them as being peppy enough might not hit home at all.

What this means for advertisers is that if you don't come up with something that is really interesting, well, your message is going to be lost. And in a recession year, this could mean more lost opportunity.

The good news

But this doesn't mean that you have to get really worried. People are spending more and more time on various media, and Synovate found that TV viewing, Internet usage and listening to radio have all gone up when compared to the past year by approximately 25 per cent, 35 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.

This means that since all the media are growing and growing well, advertisers as well as content creators have more of an opportunity to target the youth with things that they really care about.

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