Today's Ypulse Guest Post is from Amy Looper at MindOH!, who graciously helped us recruit teens for our panel and Core Conversation at SXSW. If you work in youth media or marketing and want to write a Ypulse Guest Post, just email me with your idea!

Are You Smarter Than A Wired Teen?

Whew-wee! What a great ride YPulse and MindOH! had at SXSW this year! Brian Massey and I represented MindOH! and hosted a roundtable discussion, "Are You Smarter Than A Wired Teen?", also utilizing youth panelists.

Adults were actually leaning in and intently listening to what these kids had to say...it was a sight to behold! The students themselves commented afterwards, "we couldn't believe that this many adults would actually want to hear what we have to say." They felt valued and were enthused to have the opportunity to come to SXSW.

Brian and I all agreed that our collective "OH!" moment, if you will, was how much these students acted and sounded like adults when online. These are very savvy, articulate kids.

Here's a brief recap of just two of the many nuggets gleaned from these tween & teen panelist, specifically related to brand engagement and youth marketing:

1) Most annoying thing? No surprise -- advertising. However, if you think you're smarter than a wired teen on this topic, you'll have to think again. The youth panelists showed more business savvy than you'd expect by articulating that they know there has to be some advertising in order to pay for the technology. These youth definitely get the business side of things. The youth panelists talked about how advertising would be ok with them IF advertisers would do a better job at things like:

- Targeting to their interest and to the site's subject matter focus
- Reducing the number of ads on sites to reduce slow download issues
- Deleting ads on the front end of videos
- Keeping ads more on ecommerce sites
- Pop-ups garnered a unanimous -- "we do not like them"
- Not insulting their intelligence and being intrusive
- They don't like "free" offers that require filling out lots of forms and giving lots of information

2) What can brand managers do to get their attention? They had this to say about brand engagement:

- "We'll check out your product if you do it in interesting ways that don't lead us on" For example "don't take us, after clicking through a few links, to a sales page or to where the offers are lame."

- They like award points for services and products they like for example: iTunes, wearing apparel and video games.

- They told us we should use little gaming vignettes that hide information about products, but again "be quick and creative about it."

- "Allow us to create content about your product." They mentioned videos as an example. Several teen panelists had submitted short films on topics to local film festivals that are competing against adults. These short films have product in. them that other kids see being used in the context of their buddies' videos/films.

- Youth will "tolerate" advertising if it allows them to experience content they would otherwise have to pay money to receive. They definitely don't like subscription based things and feel a brand discriminates against them when they're left out because they can't pay.

All of us in attendance could go on for days about the many insights and tips the students shared on such a wide range of topics. My parting thought after a weekend with this outstanding group -- I'm definitely not smarter than a wired teen! We all learned a lot from them. These students were kind and generous in sharing their profound insights and thoughtful opinions.

Posted by anastasia