Teens and college students are a coveted demo among advertisers. Eighteen to 22-year-old adults don’t have considerable wealth, but when they finally do get some scratch in their pockets, big purchases will be the norm. Advertisers will want to get in the faces of high school graduates and college kids, especially if they didn’t get they chance in their tween years.
A recent survey on Niche asked high schoolers and recent grads “What are the most popular social networks, apps, and websites for high schoolers?” Seven thousand teens responded. Instagram was the clear winner for “most engaged users” and Facebook, obviously, takes home the crown for most daily users. YouTube had the most widespread usage among teens.
But here’s where the information gets interesting, especially for advertisers trying to sell a ton of shit to a massive amount of consumers — the text message reigns supreme as the top app for teens. About 87% of the teens said they text numerous times a day. Honestly, 87% seems low. I’m guessing the 13% either don’t own cell phones, don’t have friends or lost all of their fingers in a horrible accident.
As these kids get older, texts will continue to be the dominate means of social interaction. Just like your grandparents still use the phone and parents prefer to calls occasionally, email constantly and text as a last resort.
According to the Atlantic, text message services and ads aren’t far away.
Last week, PayPal president David Marcus jumped to Facebook to lead its messaging team, which made some people speculate about Facebook Messaging as a commercial network to send money between users. Maybe that interpretation is too small. Messaging is an everything network. It’s identity, it’s social, it’s intent (“hey do you want to see Spider-Man”), it’s location (“yo I’m in the theater”). It’s the purest form of social network, so simply social that we scarcely consider it a network. But commercialization dependably follows our attention, with a lag. I’d watch this space.
Hey, I said it first! Not as cool as “I’d watch this space” but don’t be shocked if eventually cell phone manufacturers and service providers figure out a way to embed a McDonald’s commercial between every fourth chat box or create sponsored messaging.
“This horrible break-up text brought to you by OKCupid!”
[via The Atlantic]