Bolt Media recently conducted a survey which confirmed what most of us know already that TV viewing among young people is not their choice of media for entertainment.
TV viewing is only fourth on the list for what those in the 12 to 34 year old bracket prefer to do. The first is Web-surfing, followed by hanging around friends, then seeing movies and fourth is watching TV. When you consider how much time is spent on the first three, it leaves very little time for watching TV. Out of those that watch TV, the five most watched networks were Fox, Comedy Central, ABC, MTV, and Cartoon Network.
What is putting fear in the networks is that online places like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Revver, among numerous others, are hotbeds of young people interacting in community and user-generated content that is spread around all over the net and other devices. What is working for advertisers is the embedding of brands into user-generated content. This helps the users to not only spread their ideas and content, but the brand as well when it's done right.
While having approximately 77 million members, people are asking what the business model is for MySpace.
Colin Digiaro, senior vice president of sales at MySpace said "Early on, advertisers were wondering how to work with social networks as a whole, I think our approach is unique."
He explained that users tend to interact with brand created networks in the same way they do with their friend network. "It's a normal communication pattern. As a whole, this generation is very skeptical of media." Realizing that "they've grown up being told who they are and what they [should] listen to, being marketed to," helped the company figure out "how to talk to the MySpace generation."
Essentially what is unfolding right at the moment is that they are, along with newly emerging companies, building strategies that are customized for the brand advertisers. Already on MySpace there are a number of ways that advertising is being presented. Some companies themselves have their own profiles while others will sponsor specific users. Still others will sponsor band and concert tours.
One example that Digiaro gave was concering Sprite. He said they "took interesting content and incorporated it into the overall MySpace experience. It allows the brand to give the community something of value."
Finishing with his thoughts he concluded that "This generation is all about self-expression and consuming content in its own way."
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