A plethora of brands these days are fighting for the attention of teenagers, through varying social media platforms and by using creative and visually engaging media. For example we commonly see YouTube takeovers, intuitive Facebook apps, enticing incentives, competitions and advertising to draw a teen in. At Habbo we think carefully before structuring our campaigns to ensure our teens are stimulated by rich and engaging content, rewarding them with branded items and providing them with a place to hangout. Here we share a few things to think about when looking to engage with young people online.
1.) ‘Is the content rich and exciting enough?’
Teens consume media very differently to adults. Young people watch TV, whilst playing Habbo, browsing Facebook, texting their friends and doing homework! One thing they love to do is watch videos and play games – the less reading the better.
To ensure teen engagement with a branded hub (such as a page on Facebook, or channel on YouTube), it is imperative these hubs contain visually rich and interactive elements such as images, video, games and competitions. A page that provides these key elements will significantly increase page dwell times and virality.
Ensure that your branded hub contains clear call to actions to other interactive channels – ‘What else can the user do when immersed within your online branded experience?‘
Providing interactive social media channels which are clearly linked and signposted enables teens to be engaged for longer, increasing brand awareness and interaction, whilst enriching their experience.
2.) ‘Does it make them laugh, is it worth sharing?’
Why should teens read your content? What’s in it for them?
They love to trawl the internet for edgy, interesting, humorous content, especially keeping up with popular culture, music and other funny videos on YouTube. Aligning your copy to things that are happening in the real world enables teens to relate to what you are trying to say.
Tone of voice is extremely important for this age group – it is imperative copy is written ‘for teens’. Do not talk down to them, or be too pushy on the sales talk – make them feel valued and wanted. However, don’t overdo it, be careful not to sound like an embarrassing Dad, getting down with the kids and dropping in too many words to look ‘cool’.
Content needs to be creative to stimulate this audience, it should also provide an avenue to an activity such as a competition, game or incentive. Using social media plug-ins can encourage more conversation and social interactions between users.
What would you go for?…
Once you have decided on your copy you need to think about the structure and layout of the text – this is key for engaging teens – saturating a page with too much text is a real turn off for this audience! Creating visually appealing and bite size amounts of text with the main points serves better than War and Peace. Think Twitter v Broadsheet newspaper article, or put it this way… when you buy a new camera or TV, how many of you read the instructions before you start playing with it?
3.)‘OMG how do I get my hands on that!’
Getting a teen audience to participate in an activity or campaign can be difficult unless you incentivise. Traditionally brands give away physical items such as gadgetry or games consoles. However more and more we are seeing the incentivisation of online branded virtual items. For example in Habbo, branded virtual items are extremely sought after by the community – they love to collect and show off to their friends in order to gain reputable status amongst their peers! (See pic below). Making these products exclusive and highly sought after will increase demand and create buzz. Using these types of incentives can dramatically increase participation from this audience – Show them what they can win – dangle the carrot!
Other social gaming and networking platforms offer incentives in different ways, such as Facebook credits or discount vouchers for in-store items. Communities love free stuff – How many of you got a free Marmite bar off Facebook?
4.) Teens want to express themselves!
This audience love interacting with their peers and expressing themselves with the multitude of content offered via social platforms. Brands have started to connect with teens, influencing their look, the way they feel, or what they create.
A lot of self-expressive content spreads through social platforms quickly through virtual word of mouth. In the virtual space at Habbo you can quite literally see branded content popping up in real-time throughout the hotel – see some of our effects here.
Another great example of this was the avatar creator that was part of the Simpsons Movie campaign, where users used numerous body parts of Simpsons artwork and then setting them as their Facebook profile picture.
‘Why is this self-expressive branded content so popular?’
Quite simply…‘for teens, it is something new, cool and fun to interact and experiment with’.
For a brand this type of content provides huge visibility and engagement, whilst generating a lot of buzz about the product.
5.) ‘When I was a lad…’
…Hanging out in the park or youth club used to be the norm. However, these days teens ‘hangout’ in online, virtual spaces and often role play.
‘Why do they like hanging out in online branded spaces?’
Young people already possess strong affiliations and connections to particular products and brands, finding them extremely appealing. These online hangouts are the perfect area to discuss particular topics with like minded individuals; they provide an opportunity to inform the audience on a campaign or activity and can be used to house games, competitions, polls and quizzes, which deliver high brand visibility, long dwell times and large volumes of traffic. At Habbo we have created a number of branded spaces for teens to hangout, see them here.
Jason Steele, Global Campaign Manager, Habbo
@steele_jason
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