Is Twitter SMS 2.0?
From being predominantly the domain of 25-34 year old techs, Twitter has burgeoned into a valid youth platform. Here are some interesting findings:
* Youth twitter usage rapidly adopting similar patterns to SMS usage implications for operator charging, marketing channels, PR abound…
* Under 25s now constitute 25% of twitter usage - the largest single age group
* Japanese youth have rapidly adopted twitter into their daily social activities. Go watch the public Twitter feed and witness how much Japanese content passes through.
* Twitter still has a long way to go to reach the lowest common denominator that made SMS fly but it has the advantage of a core consumer beachhead to play with.

Interested in Twitter?
Check out mobileYouth’s own Graham Brown and Josh Dhaliwal on Twitter

Report links
* Download the Report PDF
* Social Media Presentation here
* Recommendations from the Social Media Report
* About the Report

Technorati Tags: twitter, social media, youth marketing, mobile youth, mobileyouth

Seems trust is key in building relationships with young consumers. Here are real views from young consumers on mobile advertising from our on-the-street video series

Overview of mobile advertising
* If youth dont trust mobile, is all this talk of marketing academic over at Youth Marketing’s blog
* Display is dead - so sayeth the experts @ Experience Matters and The Equity Kicker
* Also check out Peggy Ann Salz’s mobile advertising whitepaper here
* Get the low down on Free MVNO Blyk’s latest data in this podcast
* TV Advertising and Mobile Youth
* SMS Advertising is growing @ Isralog
* IAB’s US guide to mobile @ mobile youth consumers
* “In terms of mobile advertising there are of course many challenges still facing the industry. How can advertising cease to be advertising and become a service, relevant information, or just ’stuff’ that individuals want to engage with? Well that’s simple. Ask them. Don’t assume anything, just ask them. The most powerful algorithms and technologies are no match for communication and dialogue, two attributes at the very core of mobile telephony. As Jonathan MacDonald pointed out in his presentation, our perception of advertising needs to be re-defined. Mobile is not a broadcast channel but a communication medium and serving ads based on assumptions is the road to ruin. (I’d also like to say a big thank you to Jonathan once again for his outstanding performance as chair on Tuesday).” @ MSearchgroove

Mobile behavior and advertising
* A look at mobile behavior in defining advertising
* Does mobile advertising impact youth flirting mobile behavior? @ Priyanka’s blog

Interesting uses
* Obama used mobile advertising to target youth (over @ Moconews and mobile software free)
* Can mobile ads sell cars? (Fiercemobile)
* Comscore’s trend in SMS advertising for food (Gomonews) : ““The fastest-growing category of SMS advertising since August 2007 is food, at a rate of 53 per cent, followed by clothing/fashion at 38 per cent and restaurants at 37 per cent.” Hang on. That means that food based products have two out of the three fastest growing sectors, doesn’t it?”

Social media
* Is blogging the new advertising? Pepsi seems to think so. “By now you may have seen some posts from several social media influencers (Peter Shankman, Chris Brogan, PSFK, Jason Falls among others) in the marketing and advertising field about Pepsi’s innovative new campaign being dubbed by many the “Pepsi 25″ for their choice of 25 bloggers to single out and send three packages over the course of an hour.” @ DMWMedia
* There are still plenty of issues with social media advertising as highlighted by Daniel Herman

Media agencies
* Media companies gain on agencies. “As the big media companies go heavily digital, they are generating and owning more of the consumer-behavior data that is one of the marketing’s industry’s most valuable tools. This new trend also enhances their ability to provide ad-agency-like services directly to their advertising clients. Ad agencies, meanwhile, are at an increasing disadvantage in their market if they can not gain access to such data, according to Booz & Co. VP Chris Volmer, who spoke at the recent ANA Conference.” @ Adage
* Companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark Corp., Clorox Co., Hewlett-Packard and Verizon also have enlisted media companies lately not just as conduits to reach consumers but also as co-creators of programs to do so. And they sometimes bypass their usual media and creative agencies in the process. @ Advertising Age

New methods
* Bluetooth marketing at events @ MJelly
* Big brands such as Pepsi are embracing mobile barcodes. 400 million (YES 400 MILLION) Pepsi cans will have QR codes on them in the UK (see here: http://foodbev.com/ArticleDetail.aspx?contentId=1738). This means that education or additional cost on education in the mobile space will not be necessary. Brands are doing the hard work and piggybacking on the success with a QR campaign will be a breeze. (GoMoNews)
* Telematics update on mobile advertising @ Andrew Grills Blog

Technorati Tags: mobile advertising, youth advertising, mobile marketing, youth marketing

Technorati Tags: mobile youth report, youth research, youth social media, social media, mobile social media

Continuing on the theme of research about mobile behavior and youth on the street in their natural environment, here’s new video [#%0#2]research[/#%0#2] for youth marketing on mobile behavior in US, Philippines, Pakistan, Estonia and China provided by mobileYouth.org and available for full viewing along with other mobile videos over at mobile youth net.

If you’re following crowdsourcing with youth, consider what kind of insights we could get from this type of [#%0#3]research[/#%0#3] on mobile behavior.