Young Adults Roll Their Eyes At User Generated Advertising
Posted by anastasia on 12-01-2006Journalists often ask me what young people think of "all this marketing" whether its companies trying to make friends with young people on MySpace or any new technology or method designed to engage teens or young adults. I always think about the interview I did with the teens at Bamboozled in San Francisco where the teens told me in a pretty exasperated way that it's (marketing) just everywhere, all the time, and that they can't get away from it.
I think what this has done is make them more cynical when it comes to marketers' motivations, more savvy about what is authentic or cool or offers real value, and a much tougher audience to reach in general (there's just so much noise). That said, when you have a great product or a brand they love, and offer them the opportunity to "mess with it" either through user generated content/submissions or through blog comments on your company site, ratings/reviews or personalization, they will love you even more. But, as the AMA found in its study, 18-24 year olds aren't going to just embrace user generated advertising from anyone because it's user generated advertising. Or if they do, and they don't like your brand for whatever reason, watch out (think: Chevy Tahoe).
From their press release:
"AMA’s survey revealed that compared to a company that uses only professional advertising, most adults feel that a company that uses customer-created advertising is more customer-friendly (68 percent), creative (56 percent), and innovative (55 percent). However, young adults are generally more skeptical than their older counterparts. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely than those between the ages of 25 and 64 to say a company that uses customer-created advertising is less trustworthy (21 percent versus 10 percent, respectively), less socially-responsible (20 percent versus 10 percent, respectively) and less customer-friendly (13 percent versus 5 percent, respectively)."