In this story, we take a look at the results to the question, “Since companies have to market and advertise, what type do you prefer?” The results indicate clearly what’s preferred in sponsorship effectiveness as well as where specific opportunities lie in terms of reaching new markets via changes in marketing and advertising.

Overall, Samples are the preferred type of marketing and advertising to reach youth culture markets in North America among 13-25-year-olds at 27.1%. However this has dropped significantly since last year at 38.2%. One reason for this is that other forms of effective marketing and advertising have moved up the ranks, namely Myspace/Facebook sites at 18.1%. In comparison to last year, young people responded Internet at 18.8% (not to be confused with Internet Banner Ads). What this means is that MySpace/Facebook or social networking site in general tend to be where young people are mostly, and therefore, makes the most since if marketing or advertising was integrated into these online communities. As indicated by the results also, they are among the most preferred ways of reaching the demographic.

This drops to TV at 12.2% which has decreased from 15.5% last year, and continues to drop overall. This quantifies that young people are most affected by marketing and ads via online than TV and should be noted as a drastic change in perceived perceptions by the advertising industry in particular of what works in reaching youth culture. After TV, other significant changes include the increase in street or grassroots marketing practices as effective, with Flyers at 9.2%, followed by Street Marketing at 7.7%, Posters at 7.5%, Internet Banner Ads at 6.6%, Print at 4.1%, Billboards at 2.9%. What should also be noted is that while many companies believe Google Keyword searches are an effective marketing or advertising campaign, this ranks the lowest among 13-25-year-olds in North America at only .4%.

By gender, there are some distinct differences to note. While Samples rank high for both, they are slightly higher among females at 27.7% compared with 25.1% of males. This is also true of MySpace/Facebook sites at 18.4% of females and 17.1% of males. After these top 2 methods, the percentages vary and should be noted for targeted advertising. For example, 16.5% of males say TV compared with only 11% of females. In comparison to last year, 19.8% of males said TV compared with 13.5% of females, which indicates that TV has decreased for both genders. 10.1% of females say Flyers compared with 6.2% of males. Street Marketing and Internet Banner Ads are also higher in percentages among males than females, whereas Posters, Print, and Billboards are higher among females. Interestingly, Radio is higher among males at 3.1% compared with 2.3% of females, even though females tend to listen to the radio more often and longer than males (see also Label Networks’ Spring Youth Culture Study 2008, Music section).

By age groups even more is revealed. While Samples are high across the board they increase in percentages the older the age demographic indicating the importance of Samples when reaching 21-25-year-olds compared with 13-14-year-olds. On the flip side, Myspace/Facebook sites peak among younger demographics at 20.4% of 13-14-year-olds compared with 13.6% of 21-25-year-olds, indicating that these sites are the most effective and preferred type of advertising. This is a direct correlation with younger demographics which shows the changing landscape of marketing and advertising clearly. What some people are confused by when they read such results is that they think for some reason that as a person gets older they will switch from online to say, TV. But what these charts indicate is that we have a generation that’s grown-up online and have come to expect such access to entertainment, marketing and advertising delivered online and they are not going to suddenly change their source of information whenthey’ve grown up with Internet as that main source to TV. This is why it’s important to often look at the youngest demographics to get a sense of where things are headed as this new consumer group grows up.

However what’s interesting compared with last year is that while MySpace/Facebook sites are highest among 13-14-year-olds TV has increased among this age group. TV now has the highest percentages among 13-14-year-olds and again among 21-25-year-olds, but dips among 15-17-year-olds and 18-20-year-olds. Street Marketing is relatively high across all age groups, but increases slightly the older the demographic, whereas things such as Flyers and Posters are higher among younger demographics (in comparison t Print, such as magazines, which increase the older the age group).

Overall, you can clearly see by specific target demographics where and what marketing and advertising young people today prefer as well as where the marketplace is headed. These results should be taken into account not only for sponsorship strategies and planning, but in general brand marketing and advertising awareness overall.