Vodafone, like most mobile operators, faces the ongoing challenge of being relevant to the next generation of its customers (youth) while at the same time not losing its broad appeal. It couldn’t re-invent itself as another Blyk or Boost Mobile (nor would it want to) but at the same time, as with the current problem facing the BBC and the recorded music industry the beginnings of a disconnect with young consumers may not be felt today but represents the manifestation of a long term and, importantly, irreversible disease.

Some of the points I discussed in my presentation to Vodafone about the MobileYouth Report include:

* How to build trust through relevance by drawing down on the insight from how brands such as Toyota (through Scion) have already achieved this. Also how brands can use simple metrics such as net promoter score and customer lifetime value to measure progress.
* How to be a remarkable youth brand (see Jones Soda)
* How to communicate directly with youth through their own channels (eg using Youtube rather than mass media and press releases (in this example we look at EA and the recent Tiger Woods “Jesus Shot” fiasco - which is also very funny).

Presented by Graham Brown author mobileYouth.org

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1.1 billion consumers aged under 30 with a combined spend on mobile of a quarter of a trillion dollars ($270 billion)! That’s the size of the mobile youth market according to mobileYouth’s latest 2008 research - the mobile youth report. Here are some sample data sets from the report available for download & sharing.

Mobileyouth Data Sample

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: statistics data)

The industry’s official guide to 15-29 yr old mobile youth culture

Download FREE Global Youth Data from the 2008 Mobile Youth Report

“We use Mobile Youth extensively within International Marketing at T-Mobile.”
Tony Kypreos, International Vice President, T-Mobile

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“You get all happy thinking that someone loves you, then you realize they just want you to buy something - It breaks my heart” says one 18 year old about mobile operators marketing to him.

As a sneak preview of mobileYouth’s upcoming 2008 mobileYouth report out next week here are insights into mobile Youth consumers taken on the street.

See also Mobile Youth Report website for more news

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