Media seek to lure generation that's wired and won't be spoon-fed
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
New York Times
Last Updated: Jan. 21, 2006

Joe Hanson, 22, of Chicago likes to watch television, but rarely on his TV. A folder on his computer lists an inventory of downloaded cable and network programming - the kind of thing that makes traditional media executives shudder.

"I've got 'Ali G,' 'Arrested Development,' 'Scrubs,' 'The Sopranos,' " Hanson told a visitor recently at his apartment on the city's southwest side. " 'South Park,' 'The Office,' some 'Family Guy.' "

From the avalanche of Nintendo games alongside his TV to his roommate - acquired through the online classified site Craigslist - Hanson channels the characteristics of a generation weaned on digital technology and media convergence.

He is an avid gamer. He tinkers comfortably with digital media - from creating Web sites and blogs to mixing his own hip-hop music files - and like most people his age, he has nearly constant access to his friends through instant messaging.

In addition to thumbing his nose at notions of "prime time" by downloading his favorite shows (without commercials), Hanson almost never buys newspapers or magazines, getting nearly all of his information from the Internet, or from his network of electronic contacts.

"Papers are so clunky and big," he says. If those words are alarming to old media, they are only the beginning of a larger puzzle for today's marketers: how to make digital technology their ally as they try to understand and reach an emerging generation.

The eldest of the "millennials," as those born between 1980 and 2000 are sometimes called, are now in their early to mid-20s. By 2010, they will outnumber both baby boomers and Gen-Xers among those 18 to 49 - the crucial consumers for all kinds of businesses, from automakers and clothing companies to Hollywood, record labels and the news media.

The number of vehicles through which young people find entertainment and information (and one another) makes them a moving target for anyone hoping to capture their attention.

Advertisers and media and technology companies, mindful that young consumers have migrated away from the traditional carriers of their messages, have begun to find new ways to reach them. They are creating advertising and short videos for mobile phones, for instance, cell networks with dedicated game channels, and $1.99 TV programs to download to iPods and PCs.

And while the emerging generation's deftness with technology is a given, researchers say the most potent byproduct may be the feedback factor, which only accelerates the cycles of what's hot and what's over.

"We think that the single largest differentiator in this generation from previous generations is the social network that is people's lives, the part of it that technology enables," said Jack McKenzie, a senior vice president at Frank N. Magid Associates, a market research and consulting firm specializing in the news media and entertainment industries.

"What's hard to measure, and what we're trying to measure," McKenzie said, "is the impact of groupthink, of group mentality, and the tendency of what we might call the democratization of social interaction and how that changes this generation's relationship with almost everything they come in contact with."

Recent research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project has found that while certain aspects of online life have become common across many age groups, it is the millennials who live at the digital edge.

Among those with access to the Internet, for example, e-mail services are as likely to be used by teenagers (89%) as by retirees (90%), according to Pew researchers.

Creating a blog is another matter. About 40% of teenage and 20-something Internet users do so, but just 9% of 30-somethings. Nearly 80% of online teenagers and adults 28 and younger report regularly visiting blogs, compared with just 30% of adults 29 to 40. About 44% of that older group sends text messages by cell phone, compared with 60% of the younger group.

And as the millennials diverge from their elders in their media choices, so do the ways in which they can be reached and influenced.

The preceding generation may have thought that e-mail programs, newsgroups, Web forums and even online chats accelerated the word-of-mouth phenomenon. They did. But they are nothing compared with the always-live electronic dialogue among millions of teenagers and 20-somethings.

"What we're seeing is a whole different relationship with marketing and advertising, which obviously has ripple effects through the entire economy," said McKenzie, who heads the Magid firm's Millennials Strategy Group, formed two years ago to serve clients desperate to know how to reach a new generation.

For the millennials, he said, "reliance and trust in non-traditional sources - meaning everyday people, their friends, their networks, the network they've created around them - has a much greater influence on their behaviors than traditional advertising."

Magid calls it the peer-to-group phenomenon, a digital-age version of the grapevine.

Marketers, media and technology companies and Hollywood have some potential openings to reach young adults.

Marketers, for example, have signaled a desire to bring television-style advertising to cell phones. As early as March, a limited number of Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel customers may see short video ads on their phones, in a test of consumer tolerance for the idea.

Clearly, if the market doesn't find ways to make programming simple, inexpensive and legal to download, millennials will continue to find solutions for themselves.

As if heeding the call, ABC, NBC and cable networks have found a new outlet by striking deals that make television shows available for $1.99 a download on Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store.

In November, as if to nudge the entire industry, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences rather hurriedly introduced a new Emmy award for "outstanding content distributed via non-traditional delivery platforms."

"Consumers have the capability of seeing television anywhere, anytime," said Peter Price, the president of the academy, in announcing the new award. "And as the technology continues to develop, it will be content - news, sports and entertainment programming - that drives consumer demand."