All around the world, teens are demanding a different form of interaction with brands, says Rakesh Kumar, chairman, Global Firefly Board at Firefly Millward Brown.

Teens have always been a hard market to crack. The bad news is that they’re not getting any easier to communicate with. As more and more of them use their smartphones, tablets and mobile devices to connect to the world, they are becoming more empowered. Communication is increasingly on their terms and social media for them is in their world of mobile.

They now have total control over what they watch, read or consume – all media has become push media. They have the ability and willingness to comment on content – good or bad, complain, or endorse products and brands. They are in control.

More so than any other generation, they navigate their world with the help of their digital devices, which have become indispensable sources of information, communication and organisation. The result is that brand selection and the impact of your communication is now filtered through their own commentary and that of their friends.

They are constantly aware of the image they are projecting through their purchases and will check what friends and others are using through mentions and endorsements on social media before buying anything.

Perfect platform
Smartphones have become the perfect platform for image enhancement, and many sectors, including automotive, beer and even clothing brands, could enhance their prospects by talking specifically to these young smartphone users.
Becoming friends with younger consumers is becoming critical, not just in developed markets, but in emerging countries too, where the mobile offers young consumers a very different level of control than they have been used to.
In countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Indonesia, for example, 16-23-year-olds are acquiring the tools that empower them with the free speech and choices that previous generations can only have dreamt of. There is an evident break in cultural barriers and a shift in the cultural tectonic plates. There isn’t any evident digital schizophrenic behaviour amongst this segment.

In such markets, these tools are not the preserve of the offspring of the wealthy. In Saudi Arabia, digital advertising spend is increasing 35 per cent year-on-year, and it is the country with the highest percentage of active Twitter users among its online population.
In Egypt, close to half the population is online, and similar data highlights the growth in both social media and mobile (effectively the same thing) across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Speak my language
Brands need to adapt in three clear ways. First, teen smartphone users require their own messages, in their own language. Brands need to accept that 16-23 year olds are adults and talk to them one-to-one and in their language, in the right tone, in order to drive engagement and empathy.

These messages need their own unique tone, but creating a “buzz” in their digital sphere and being able to connect with them at their level is crucial – especially for niche brands that depend on word-of-mouth referrals.

Second, messages need to be shorter. The span of attention on mobile is significantly shorter than it is on TV or even PC. On the smartphone, they move constantly between social media sites, micro blogs, internet browsers, and instant messaging applications. If you don’t catch their attention quickly, they will be off.

Third, they need more iterations of your message. Filling a social media funnel requires brands to develop multiple creative devices and hooks. Brands need to keep their target consumers amused and participating, as they have a rapid turnover of what’s hot and what’s not.

Brand ambassadors
A brand that gets these three factors right will in turn be assured of loyal brand ambassadors who endorse and broadcast their choice to their world. These brands will also be perceived to be more credible, in turn driving sales through social recommendation.

Examples of brands that have travelled this path successfully include Old Spice (successfully repositioning itself from Dad’s aftershave into a youth brand), and McDonald’s (using Instagram to relaunch the Big Mac).

Other less well known examples include the restaurant in Indonesia that used Twitter to get teens talking about its new location. Similarly, in Hong Kong, IKEA uses its Facebook channel to publish popular local memes and humour, which are linked to and shared further by youngsters, instilling positive brand recall.

Firefly recently ran a Young and Connected Study across the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. The results found that 16 – 23 year olds would pay more attention to mobile marketing if these efforts were to reach them via social media.

The reason: young consumers get all their information from social media, which they prefer to access through their smartphones, and brands that stand out here are seen as more credible. You have been warned.

Rakesh Kumar is Chairman, Global Firefly Board at Firefly Millward Brown