Media today + Online to reach young adults

Media consumption has changed. I’m 24 years old and I hardly turn the TV on, I watch everything I can online. I go to my favorite channels online and choose when to see the TV shows. I can spend over an hour on YouTube jumping from video to video on the web. I even rent some movies on iTunes now that it has reached my country. (How I wish Hulu.com was reacheable worldwide)

When I join the rest of the family in front of the TV, I always have my Mac with me, and watch over the screen while I’m browsing and jumping from page to page: from Gmail, Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn to following world news on my favorite newspaper, check my bank account, and look for new books on Amazon... I’m connected almost all day long.

Young adults nowadays are more online than watching traditional TV – not only from my experience (which I know I should not take as an example) but from several studies I've had the chance to hear about from experts in the field  - from Millward Brown, Ogilvy and IESE. I see that my new habits are spread worldwide. 

When companies design campaigns, they should take this into account – and develop online campaigns that will reach this target and engage them with your brand. Some years ago, TV ads, had the guarantee that they would be widely viewed, but with the media split (with more TV channels, internet, smartphones, radio, magazines, iPads ...) this “guarantee” no longer exists.

Today, I only view great TV ads when:

·       A friend shares it on youtube

·       I receive it through a viral mail

·       People talk about them or sing their songs – I later search it on Youtube

I hardly ever will see it directly on TV. Last summer we developed a TV campaign for a local brand, and two months ago, when recruiting new trainees, none of them had seen the ad – none out of 10 had watched it on TV. I believe it is significant and should be taken into account.

Online campaigns should be designed in addition to traditional TV campaigns, in order to target and reach the population that today no longer pays as much attention to TV as they used to.