Today, I attended a consumer trend Web seminar led by Forrester titled “A Marketer’s Dream? Connecting with U.S. Gen Y through Interactive Media.” The research firm explained the shift from offline to interactive media and marketing channels, and demonstrated how U.S. adults and Gen Yers (18 – 27 year olds) use and feel about media and advertising in games, mobile devices, Internet video, and rich media.
Gen Y
The presentation was based on a global insight survey, representing 50% of the world’s population and 68% of global GDP, on how consumers adopt and use technology in order to shop, bank, learn, consume media, entertain and interact. The data behind this teleconference was drawn from a U.S representative sample of over 55,000 consumers.
While most of the material was not shocking, I did find a few key tidbits I would like to share with community builders and youth marketers:
* 29 percent of Gen Yers admit being influenced by brand Web sites, while only 11 percent of users 29+ do
* 27 percent posts consumer opinions online (compared to 14 percent in the older age bracket)
* 42 percent of the Gen Y group use social networks. I thought this would be higher.
Gen Yers find advergames less annoying then other demographics
56 percent of guys and gals 18-28 use instant messaging and 73 percent have Web-based email
