Advertising Preferences by Gender–Chart by Label Networks, Winter 2009

What now makes up effective advertising methods has changed considerably since we started running this question 5 years ago. For example, while most agencies still refer to the 30-second TV pitch as their signature marketing and advertising campaign, we’ve been able to quantify for years the decreasing percentages of 13-25-year-olds in North America who actually prefer this type of advertising.

In this story we take a look at the distinct results to the question, “Since companies have to advertise, what type (i.e., TV, Print, Internet, Samples, Flyers) of advertising do you prefer?” The results taken from a recent survey of more than 5,000 13-25-year-olds across 40 regions in our representative sample (including 2,200 done in face-to-face interviews), we can say that there have been some interesting changes overall in top preferences from today’s youth generation.

First, as noted previously, TV is no longer the top preferred type of advertising, coming in at 14.3% or 3rd overall, whereas advertising via MySpace/Facebook sites has increased the most since last year ranking 2nd at 18.5%. The #1 form of preferred advertising is Samples at 23.3%. Because Samples rank so high, this also helps to quantify the importance of grassroots sponsorship, which is still one of the most vital ways to reach youth culture (because through grassroots campaigns, such as music event sponsorship, it’s traditionally been a useful conduit to give away free samples.)

Other interesting things to note overall are that Cell Phone and Video Games, while still relatively low, do now pop onto the radar as a preferred type of advertising. This is something to note for the future.

In addition, Internet Banners are relatively high in 4th at 8.7% followed by Posters at 7.7%.

If you look at the results by gender however, you can see some real differences based on demographics. For example, Samples ranks #1 overall for both, but they are significantly higher among females at 26.3% compared with 19.9% of males. Males rank TV significantly higher than females at 18.3% compared with only 10.9% of females. MySpace/Facebook sites tend to do well with both genders but are slightly higher among females. Other interesting characteristics for targeted advertising is that Posters and Flyers are preferred by females in higher percentages whereas Internet Banners and Street Marketing are preferred in higher percentages among males.

Overall this indicates important insight when it comes to effectively targeting specific demographics.

Advertising Preferences by Age Groups–Chart by Label Networks, Winter 2009

Finally, looking at the results by age groups is also quite telling: There’s a correlation by age that the younger the demographic the higher the percentages for preferring MySpace/Facebook site advertising, whereas the older the demographic the higher the percentages preferring Samples. Other interesting things to note by age are that Flyers do well for younger age demographics whereas Posters and Cell Phones both peak among 15-17-year-olds. Print advertising has its highest percentages among older demographics at 21-25-years-olds.

By tracking the changes over time and the differences in preferred advertising by gender and age groups, brands can create a far more targeted campaign. In addition however, it also shows where advertising has been losing ground the most, such as TV ads with females, and where new forms of advertising are attracting a new generation of consumers, such as Cell Phone ads for 15-17-year-olds and MySpace/Facebook sites for 13-17-year-olds.