Happy Birthday Popeye! (80) Scooby-Doo! (40), The Simpsons! (20), Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner! (60). You all look terrific, you haven’t aged at all. You’ve got what they call... timeless beauty. And a good story to tell.

Yesterday’s Seattle Times picked up the Toledo Blade’s recent retrospective of classic cartoons (and their 2009 birthdays) and I couldn’t help but smile. Regarding ancient classics like Felix the cat (90!) when cartoon shorts were just getting their start in the silent film era, Andrew Farago, curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, said “I don’t think the Disney empire could have happened without him.” (Was it a game of cat and mouse? Sorry—couldn’t resist that one.)

It reminded me of an Animation exhibit I attended earlier this winter at the Pacific Science Center where kids got to experience first hand the art of animation, including drawing, video and special effects.

One thing always leads to another. Yet as we go into 2010 and view new animated films – like the Princess and the Frog, getting back to the Disney magic minus all the bells and whistles or Avatar, and its breakthrough special 3D effects – I wonder what the next decades will reveal.

Sometimes it's the quiet guy who makes the biggest waves. Roy Disney, nephew of Walt Disney, longtime Disney board member and avid sailboat racer, died yesterday at the age of 79. He left a legacy that anyone in the children's entertainment or marketing business should pay close attention to.

1. Stay true to your core. In the 1980s Roy grew frustrated with Disney company management and likened the company to "a real-estate company that happened to be in the movie business." (Los Angeles Times, 12/17/09). It was time to get back to the company's core roots, i.e. the feature animation film business.

2. Clear out the dead wood, bad apples and in-laws, if necessary. If there people within your organization that are not upholding or enhancing your brand's mission and values, particularly at the highest levels of the company, get them out of the way as quickly as possible. Ousting of company executives, first with Ron Miller (Walt Disney's son-in-law) and later with a shareholder revolt against Michael Eisner (whom Roy had helped bring into the company) certainly was not a pleasant process, but a necessary one.

3. Evangelize. "It was Roy who was the protector. It was Roy who was the godfather, the champion and believer in it," said Peter Schneider, former President of Walt Disney Feature Animation, "Animation doesn't work without someone who believed, and Roy believed." (LA Times)

4. Protect the brand. "People always underestimated Roy," said Schneider. "You underestimate Roy at your peril, as many have learned." It does appear as though company management is finally on track, as anyone can attest with Disney's string of recent animation, film, TV and other on-brand success stories.

5. Continue the legacy. "Roy's commitment to the art of animation was unparalleled and will always remain his personal legacy and one of his greatest contributions to Disney's past, present and future," said Bob Iger, current Disney company president, who early on made peace with Roy Disney. Smart move.

So I finally, finally got a chance to see New Moon. Yeah, you know, that one. The one with the cult-like following that’s breaking box office records? Maybe you’ve seen it twice already. All I have to say is… oh, what a disappointment. I laughed my way through almost the entire movie and not because the film was intended to be funny.

I did see the first Twilight movie and I’ve read the first two books. I wouldn’t call myself a fan necessarily, but I find the series to be entertaining – as well as wholesome—in a vampire meets werewolf love triangle sort of way of course. The first movie was pretty bad, mostly due to the lame special effects, poor acting and uninspired dialogue. With a new director, a new budget and the promise of a clan of shirtless young boys I had higher hopes for New Moon. How bad could it be?

Bad. I had a serious case of the giggles that began with the cheesy opening credits, increased with each gratuitous shirtless scene and glitter-glue-on-the-face special effect and resulted into flat out laughter when Bella and Edward took a Estee Lauder perfume ad-like jaunt through the woods.

Apparently I wasn’t the only theater goer who found the movie laughable. It seemed as if we (teens, moms, young girls, gray-haired couples) were all laughing and giggling at this ridiculous high-budget B-movie quality film.

So what on earth is driving sales? One thing: romance. Pure and simple, the Twilight saga connects with us on a deeper level and does an excellent job in this regard. What Stephanie Meyer has brilliantly done is created a brand that speaks to women and girls in a new old-fashioned way. When was the last time you saw a really good romantic film or read a great romance that wasn’t filled with gratuitous sex, violence or both? In my opinion, the market is wide open on this one. Even better, content creators and marketers don't even need to worry too much about quality.

Say what you want about vampires and werewolves being the next big craze, but it’s not about that. That’s just the icing—er, eyecandy—on the cake.

P.S. Go TEAM JACOB!!!

Wow, December already. November was a flurry of activity and I didn’t even have time to write a single blog post. Not that you needed to pay close attention... perhaps you couldn't even find the blog. That's because I changed the name and the URL. The Hopscotch Consulting business strategy has shifted somewhat as well, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

First let me tell you about November. November was National Novel Writing Month or (NaNoWriMo). On a whim I decided to participate. The challenge seemed daunting – what kind of person can write 50,000 words in a month and create some semblance of a storyline? I can, I discovered, and that was exciting. The fire is now lit under my rear end to finish this book as well as one other novel that I’m co-writing with a friend that we began last year. My goal is to have both complete by spring 2010. I’m also in early discussions to author two different children’s book series, and have a number of other ideas percolating that may be worth pursuing at some point down the road. When I have a few things off my plate, that is.

So, here comes the change in strategy part. Hopscotch, which was never intended to be a full-scale marketing agency to begin with, will now exclusively focus on more of the content and brand strategy side of things. We’ll be your startup’s secret weapon. We’ll help you create your brand strategy and marketplace positioning so you can get on your way to becoming the next big thing. We’ll write and edit your copy, give customers and reporters a reason to check you out; in short, we’ll help you make money.

If you think that you might want to work with me, please check out the newly revised Hopscotch Consulting website and list of services that I offer. Then, let’s talk!

In the meantime… Happy Holidays!

In case you were wondering if kids were watching less TV now that we have so many new and exciting new media options, including online games, virtual worlds, consoles, iPods –not to mention the media blitz surrounding the links between TV watching and childhood obesity— in fact, TV watching is actually on the rise. At an eight-year high, according to a new Nielsen study released yesterday.

The report states that children ages 2-5 spend an average of 32+ hours a week in front of the TV. Children ages 6-11 watch about 28 hours per week. TV watching is now defined as watching what is currently on TV, watching playback programming via DVR, DVDs and videos.

As the Nielsen report states, "While 97% of kids’ viewing is through live TV, younger kids spend more time than the older group viewing via DVR, DVD and, to a lesser extent, VCR. Four percent of kids aged 2-5 watch via those devices on average across total day compared to 2.3% for those aged 6-11. Their considerable use of these devices at a young age points to them being able to adopt new devices comfortably as they grow up."


Also of note, especially for you media literacy types: younger children watch more commercials than the older kids. Is anyone surprised?

In case you were wondering if kids were watching less TV now that we have so many new and exciting new media options, including online games, virtual worlds, consoles, iPods –not to mention the media blitz surrounding the links between TV watching and childhood obesity— in fact, TV watching is actually on the rise. At an eight-year high, according to a new Nielsen study released yesterday.

The report states that children ages 2-5 spend an average of 32+ hours a week in front of the TV. Children ages 6-11 watch about 28 hours per week. TV watching is now defined as watching what is currently on TV, watching playback programming via DVR, DVDs and videos.

As the Nielsen report states, "While 97% of kids’ viewing is through live TV, younger kids spend more time than the older group viewing via DVR, DVD and, to a lesser extent, VCR. Four percent of kids aged 2-5 watch via those devices on average across total day compared to 2.3% for those aged 6-11. Their considerable use of these devices at a young age points to them being able to adopt new devices comfortably as they grow up."


Also of note, especially for you media literacy types: younger children watch more commercials than the older kids. Is anyone surprised?

In case you were wondering if kids were watching less TV now that we have so many new and exciting new media options, including online games, virtual worlds, consoles, iPods –not to mention the media blitz surrounding the links between TV watching and childhood obesity— in fact, TV watching is actually on the rise. At an eight-year high, according to a new Nielsen study released yesterday.

The report states that children ages 2-5 spend an average of 32+ hours a week in front of the TV. Children ages 6-11 watch about 28 hours per week. TV watching is now defined as watching what is currently on TV, watching playback programming via DVR, DVDs and videos.

As the Nielsen report states, "While 97% of kids’ viewing is through live TV, younger kids spend more time than the older group viewing via DVR, DVD and, to a lesser extent, VCR. Four percent of kids aged 2-5 watch via those devices on average across total day compared to 2.3% for those aged 6-11. Their considerable use of these devices at a young age points to them being able to adopt new devices comfortably as they grow up."


Also of note, especially for you media literacy types: younger children watch more commercials than the older kids. Is anyone surprised?

Holy government intervention, Batman! Two things happened this week that caused me to smile:

1.The FTC finally issued a crackdown on mommy bloggers who write product endorsements without disclosing their relationships with those products (i.e. they got the products for free or—even better—they are getting paid to write the review) and
2. The FTC is also reviewing standards and practices around advertising to kids.

As David Vladeck, the new director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection is quoted in this week's MediaPost article "The distinction between ads and other content is often blurred to the point that even older kids may not get when they are being pitched," he said. "The goals are to teach kids to be aware of ads, analyze and understand them, and the benefits of being an informed consumer."

The FTC actions include a new educational campaign aimed at tweens next year that will teach kids how to recognize and analyze advertising.

That's all fine and good, but what about the advertisers? As Meredith from YPulse points out in her update from this week's CARU conference, the discussions centered around "reconciling the unilateral marketing standards of the past with the ubiquitous connectivity and multiple platforms of the new media landscape. As the regulatory processes continue to be fine tuned and consumers of all ages become more active players (whether as Facebook fans, content creators, bloggers, etc.), we see a shift from messaging as a one-way broadcast to an ongoing dialogue with youth."

It's an interesting issue and one that is going to be mighty tough to regulate when the lines between advertising, editorial, social media, wireless communications and even mommy’s blog are blurred.

Marketers love tweens and moms right now. And why wouldn't they? Collectively tweens have a spending power of over $30 billion and they influence about 70% of household purchases. And their mothers, who influence 85 percent of their household purchases, collectively spend about $2.1 trillion per year.

Women and children of America, unite! The advertising issue is one that by and large, will be solved by you. Education begins at home.

Holy government intervention, Batman! Two things happened this week that caused me to smile:

1.The FTC finally issued a crackdown on mommy bloggers who write product endorsements without disclosing their relationships with those products (i.e. they got the products for free or—even better—they are getting paid to write the review) and
2. The FTC is also reviewing standards and practices around advertising to kids.

As David Vladeck, the new director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection is quoted in this week's MediaPost article "The distinction between ads and other content is often blurred to the point that even older kids may not get when they are being pitched," he said. "The goals are to teach kids to be aware of ads, analyze and understand them, and the benefits of being an informed consumer."

The FTC actions include a new educational campaign aimed at tweens next year that will teach kids how to recognize and analyze advertising.

That's all fine and good, but what about the advertisers? As Meredith from YPulse points out in her update from this week's CARU conference, the discussions centered around "reconciling the unilateral marketing standards of the past with the ubiquitous connectivity and multiple platforms of the new media landscape. As the regulatory processes continue to be fine tuned and consumers of all ages become more active players (whether as Facebook fans, content creators, bloggers, etc.), we see a shift from messaging as a one-way broadcast to an ongoing dialogue with youth."

It's an interesting issue and one that is going to be mighty tough to regulate when the lines between advertising, editorial, social media, wireless communications and even mommy’s blog are blurred.

Marketers love tweens and moms right now. And why wouldn't they? Collectively tweens have a spending power of over $30 billion and they influence about 70% of household purchases. And their mothers, who influence 85 percent of their household purchases, collectively spend about $2.1 trillion per year.

Women and children of America, unite! The advertising issue is one that by and large, will be solved by you. Education begins at home.

Holy government intervention, Batman! Two things happened this week that caused me to smile:

1.The FTC finally issued a crackdown on mommy bloggers who write product endorsements without disclosing their relationships with those products (i.e. they got the products for free or—even better—they are getting paid to write the review) and
2. The FTC is also reviewing standards and practices around advertising to kids.

As David Vladeck, the new director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection is quoted in this week's MediaPost article "The distinction between ads and other content is often blurred to the point that even older kids may not get when they are being pitched," he said. "The goals are to teach kids to be aware of ads, analyze and understand them, and the benefits of being an informed consumer."

The FTC actions include a new educational campaign aimed at tweens next year that will teach kids how to recognize and analyze advertising.

That's all fine and good, but what about the advertisers? As Meredith from YPulse points out in her update from this week's CARU conference, the discussions centered around "reconciling the unilateral marketing standards of the past with the ubiquitous connectivity and multiple platforms of the new media landscape. As the regulatory processes continue to be fine tuned and consumers of all ages become more active players (whether as Facebook fans, content creators, bloggers, etc.), we see a shift from messaging as a one-way broadcast to an ongoing dialogue with youth."

It's an interesting issue and one that is going to be mighty tough to regulate when the lines between advertising, editorial, social media, wireless communications and even mommy’s blog are blurred.

Marketers love tweens and moms right now. And why wouldn't they? Collectively tweens have a spending power of over $30 billion and they influence about 70% of household purchases. And their mothers, who influence 85 percent of their household purchases, collectively spend about $2.1 trillion per year.

Women and children of America, unite! The advertising issue is one that by and large, will be solved by you. Education begins at home.

It wasn’t the $39.50 tickets that somehow turned into $75 with fees and taxes. Or the hour-plus drive to and from Tacoma. Or the collective eardrum-piercing high-pitched screams from thousands of pre-teen girls. Or the wait to buy overpriced concert merchandise like a $10 glow stick (that should not have cost more than 25 cents.) Or the Walmart mannequins and banners lining the walls promoting the new Miley Cyrus clothing line. Or even the fashion booths (also Walmart) where moms and girls lined up their picture taken in front of a green screen next to Miley and other models wearing her new clothing line. No, no. I fully expected and embraced all of that.

The surprise was that the Miley/Disney/Walmart/Touchstone/ marketing machine took center stage on stage and passed for entertainment. Now, I know what you’re thinking… I’m in the business; nothing should shock me, right? Advertising is the new entertainment. But after having to suffer through the opening act (Metro Station, headed by Miley’s brother Trace Cyrus), the band closed with "Shake it" which also doubled as a…. Walmart advertisement. Every single video screen was devoted to promoting the Miley Cyrus clothing line as models danced on a runway showing off their new threads. Admittedly, the video was well produced and the song was catchy, but still. It’s an ad. On stage. Tacky.

That was just the beginning, the icebreaker if you will (incidentally, Miley herself opened up the show pounding inside a fake chunk of ice and then had a “Breakout” moment where she suddenly appeared amidst ‘fire’ and smoke—very This is Spinal Tap if you ask me but I digress…). Where was I? Oh right, back to the advertising-as-entertainment. Three or four songs into her performance, Miley paused for reflective moment. She told us about what a great summer she had on Tybee Island in Georgia: “It really gave me a chance to connect with people I love most in my life…” she said. “And now… to show you what I’m talking about, I’d like to show you a clip from my latest movie, The Last Song.” Really? We get to watch a movie trailer in the middle of a concert? Disney/Touchstone, you’ve reached a new low. I would like my money back! But wait—that's not all. Miley of course sang a few songs from the movie (the songs are not bad and Miley does truly have a lovely voice when she’s not screaming or violently flipping her hair). Perhaps the concert promoters thought we'd get bored if there wasn't enough going on on stage during one of her slow songs, so they played more movie clips while she sang. Why bother to go see the movie when you can see all the main scenes during the concert? Good grief.

I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who's bothered by this kind of insidious marketing. My 7 year-old daughter, her friend and the thousands of other little girls at the Tacoma Dome thought it was the best of both worlds.

It wasn’t the $39.50 tickets that somehow turned into $75 with fees and taxes. Or the hour-plus drive to and from Tacoma. Or the collective eardrum-piercing high-pitched screams from thousands of pre-teen girls. Or the wait to buy overpriced concert merchandise like a $10 glow stick (that should not have cost more than 25 cents.) Or the Walmart mannequins and banners lining the walls promoting the new Miley Cyrus clothing line. Or even the fashion booths (also Walmart) where moms and girls lined up their picture taken in front of a green screen next to Miley and other models wearing her new clothing line. No, no. I fully expected and embraced all of that.

The surprise was that the Miley/Disney/Walmart/Touchstone/ marketing machine took center stage on stage and passed for entertainment. Now, I know what you’re thinking… I’m in the business; nothing should shock me, right? Advertising is the new entertainment. But after having to suffer through the opening act (Metro Station, headed by Miley’s brother Trace Cyrus), the band closed with "Shake it" which also doubled as a…. Walmart advertisement. Every single video screen was devoted to promoting the Miley Cyrus clothing line as models danced on a runway showing off their new threads. Admittedly, the video was well produced and the song was catchy, but still. It’s an ad. On stage. Tacky.

That was just the beginning, the icebreaker if you will (incidentally, Miley herself opened up the show pounding inside a fake chunk of ice and then had a “Breakout” moment where she suddenly appeared amidst ‘fire’ and smoke—very This is Spinal Tap if you ask me but I digress…). Where was I? Oh right, back to the advertising-as-entertainment. Three or four songs into her performance, Miley paused for reflective moment. She told us about what a great summer she had on Tybee Island in Georgia: “It really gave me a chance to connect with people I love most in my life…” she said. “And now… to show you what I’m talking about, I’d like to show you a clip from my latest movie, The Last Song.” Really? We get to watch a movie trailer in the middle of a concert? Disney/Touchstone, you’ve reached a new low. I would like my money back! But wait—that's not all. Miley of course sang a few songs from the movie (the songs are not bad and Miley does truly have a lovely voice when she’s not screaming or violently flipping her hair). Perhaps the concert promoters thought we'd get bored if there wasn't enough going on on stage during one of her slow songs, so they played more movie clips while she sang. Why bother to go see the movie when you can see all the main scenes during the concert? Good grief.

I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who's bothered by this kind of insidious marketing. My 7 year-old daughter, her friend and the thousands of other little girls at the Tacoma Dome thought it was the best of both worlds.

It wasn’t the $39.50 tickets that somehow turned into $75 with fees and taxes. Or the hour-plus drive to and from Tacoma. Or the collective eardrum-piercing high-pitched screams from thousands of pre-teen girls. Or the wait to buy overpriced concert merchandise like a $10 glow stick (that should not have cost more than 25 cents.) Or the Walmart mannequins and banners lining the walls promoting the new Miley Cyrus clothing line. Or even the fashion booths (also Walmart) where moms and girls lined up their picture taken in front of a green screen next to Miley and other models wearing her new clothing line. No, no. I fully expected and embraced all of that.

The surprise was that the Miley/Disney/Walmart/Touchstone/ marketing machine took center stage on stage and passed for entertainment. Now, I know what you’re thinking… I’m in the business; nothing should shock me, right? Advertising is the new entertainment. But after having to suffer through the opening act (Metro Station, headed by Miley’s brother Trace Cyrus), the band closed with "Shake it" which also doubled as a…. Walmart advertisement. Every single video screen was devoted to promoting the Miley Cyrus clothing line as models danced on a runway showing off their new threads. Admittedly, the video was well produced and the song was catchy, but still. It’s an ad. On stage. Tacky.

That was just the beginning, the icebreaker if you will (incidentally, Miley herself opened up the show pounding inside a fake chunk of ice and then had a “Breakout” moment where she suddenly appeared amidst ‘fire’ and smoke—very This is Spinal Tap if you ask me but I digress…). Where was I? Oh right, back to the advertising-as-entertainment. Three or four songs into her performance, Miley paused for reflective moment. She told us about what a great summer she had on Tybee Island in Georgia: “It really gave me a chance to connect with people I love most in my life…” she said. “And now… to show you what I’m talking about, I’d like to show you a clip from my latest movie, The Last Song.” Really? We get to watch a movie trailer in the middle of a concert? Disney/Touchstone, you’ve reached a new low. I would like my money back! But wait—that's not all. Miley of course sang a few songs from the movie (the songs are not bad and Miley does truly have a lovely voice when she’s not screaming or violently flipping her hair). Perhaps the concert promoters thought we'd get bored if there wasn't enough going on on stage during one of her slow songs, so they played more movie clips while she sang. Why bother to go see the mov

If you’ve seen the trailer for The September Issue, a documentary film about the fashion industry, you’ll understand why fall is such a critical time.

For kid, tween and teen retailers, back to school is the equivalent of the September issue.

While the economy has affected the situation somewhat, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Back to School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average family with students in grades kindergarten through 12 is expected to spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a decline of 7.7 percent from $594.24 in 2008. Total spending on back to school is expected to reach $17.42 billion. 2009 back-to-college and back-to-school spending combined will total $47.50 billion.

And that's about it for the bad news. The good news? According to recent research from Burst Media on back-to-school shopping habits, "only 15.7% of shoppers will spend less money this back-to-school season and almost one-quarter (24.9%) will actually spend more money than last year."

So, then, where is everyone shopping? Which retailers have the best merchandise? Which brands have the best campaigns?

Ypulse featured a great post yesterday "What Worked in This Year's Back to School Campaigns." It's a terrific summary of this year's best BTS promotions and current youth marketing best practices.

Our favorites? Nordstrom's Twilight Saga: New Moon promotion, including exclusive movie merchandise, Kmart's "Schoolebrity" campaign, featuring a sweepstakes, games and special layaway programs, and Sears' "Arrive Lounge” featuring celebrity Selena Gomez.

Let us know your favorites as well. Also, Targeting Kids is on the lookout for cause-related marketing campaigns (both current and up and coming) that target kids, tweens or teens so please let us know about those too.

Happy back to school shopping!

If you’ve seen the trailer for The September Issue, a documentary film about the fashion industry, you’ll understand why fall is such a critical time.

For kid, tween and teen retailers, back to school is the equivalent of the September issue.

While the economy has affected the situation somewhat, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Back to School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average family with students in grades kindergarten through 12 is expected to spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a decline of 7.7 percent from $594.24 in 2008. Total spending on back to school is expected to reach $17.42 billion. 2009 back-to-college and back-to-school spending combined will total $47.50 billion.

And that's about it for the bad news. The good news? According to recent research from Burst Media on back-to-school shopping habits, "only 15.7% of shoppers will spend less money this back-to-school season and almost one-quarter (24.9%) will actually spend more money than last year."

So, then, where is everyone shopping? Which retailers have the best merchandise? Which brands have the best campaigns?

Ypulse featured a great post yesterday "What Worked in This Year's Back to School Campaigns." It's a terrific summary of this year's best BTS promotions and current youth marketing best practices.

Our favorites? Nordstrom's Twilight Saga: New Moon promotion, including exclusive movie merchandise, Kmart's "Schoolebrity" campaign, featuring a sweepstakes, games and special layaway programs, and Sears' "Arrive Lounge” featuring celebrity Selena Gomez.

Let us know your favorites as well. Also, Targeting Kids is on the lookout for cause-related marketing campaigns (both current and up and coming) that target kids, tweens or teens so please let us know about those too.

Happy back to school shopping!

If you’ve seen the trailer for The September Issue, a documentary film about the fashion industry, you’ll understand why fall is such a critical time.

For kid, tween and teen retailers, back to school is the equivalent of the September issue.

While the economy has affected the situation somewhat, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Back to School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average family with students in grades kindergarten through 12 is expected to spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a decline of 7.7 percent from $594.24 in 2008. Total spending on back to school is expected to reach $17.42 billion. 2009 back-to-college and back-to-school spending combined will total $47.50 billion.

And that's about it for the bad news. The good news? According to recent research from Burst Media on back-to-school shopping habits, "only 15.7% of shoppers will spend less money this back-to-school season and almost one-quarter (24.9%) will actually spend more money than last year."

So, then, where is everyone shopping? Which retailers have the best merchandise? Which brands have the best campaigns?

Ypulse featured a great post yesterday "What Worked in This Year's Back to School Campaigns." It's a terrific summary of this year's best BTS promotions and current youth marketing best practices.

Our favorites? Nordstrom's Twilight Saga: New Moon promotion, including exclusive movie merchandise, Kmart's "Schoolebrity" campaign, featuring a sweepstakes, games and special layaway programs, and Sears' "Arrive Lounge” featuring celebrity Selena Gomez.

Let us know your favorites as well. Also, Targeting Kids is on the lookout for cause-related marketing campaigns (both current and up and coming) that target kids, tweens or teens so please let us know about those too.

Happy back to school shopping!

PBS Kids recently earned the distinction as the #1 educational children’s media brand, according to a new GFK Roper survey that polled over 1,000 U.S. adults in April, asking questions about PBS Kids as compared to Leapfrog, Nick, Jr., Playhouse Disney, Noggin, Discovery Kids, National Geographic Kids, KOL (a.k.a AOL for Kids) and YahooKids, among others.

Surprise? Not to those who already know and love all things PBS Kids, including popular programs/brands such as Sesame Street, Word World, Super Why and Cyberchase.

According to the study, “PBS KIDS excels at addressing key curriculum areas and children’s cognitive and social/emotional developmental needs. Respondents concurred that PBS succeeds in delivering important topics to young viewers with reading and literacy (80%) ranking as the topic that PBS speaks to best. Other developmental areas that follow literacy include the arts (75%), science/technology/engineering/math (74%), social/emotional development (74%), healthy living (73%), and the environment (71%).”

Can any other educational children's brands be held to such a high standard? Apparently not. Truth be told, the FCC is partially to blame. The Children's Television Act (CTA) enacted by Congress in 1990, requires broadcasters to provide at least three hours a week of educational/informational (E/I) programming for kids between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. But there's no definition of what "educational" actually means. Therefore, it's no big surprise that a 2008 Annenberg study found that merely 25% of E/I shows were of "minimal educational value." Worse, nearly 70% of the shows aimed at school-age kids contained violence and harsh language.

But this blog isn't aimed at parents who have ample reason to turn off their television sets forever. It's targeted at you (and me): the children's media producer, the brand marketer, the content creator, the television executive, the toy licensor; those of us who fuel the amazing machine that churns out kids media and the related "stuff" that goes along with it. You and I both know that a lot of it is pure crap. And that it contains absolutely no educational value whatsoever.

So now what? I say take a few pointers from PBS Kids. Here are a few:

1. Establish a curriculum. Don't know how to do this? Hire a curriculum consultant! There are plenty of them out there and they would love to work with you.
2. Pick a subject area (or two) and stick with it - i.e. math/science, social/emotional, language development. Keep it simple, keep it fun.
3. Form an educational advisory board (yes, with real educators and child development specialists) to review scripts, storyboards, even licensing deals - to ensure that everything is on brand and that the content meets the highest standards possible.
4. Determine how you will measure the success and educational outcomes of your children's media property (hint: your curriculum consultant and/or educational advisory board can help you do this).
5. Get an independent, ideally educationally-based organization to conduct a research study or brand audit. For example, a Georgetown University study, "Educational TV: 30 Years of Sesame Street Research" found that the children who had watched more Sesame Street as young children had higher school performance as adolescents, as measured by grades in English, math, science and overall GPA.

Can your children's media brand pass the test?

PBS Kids recently earned the distinction as the #1 educational children’s media brand, according to a new GFK Roper survey that polled over 1,000 U.S. adults in April, asking questions about PBS Kids as compared to Leapfrog, Nick, Jr., Playhouse Disney, Noggin, Discovery Kids, National Geographic Kids, KOL (a.k.a AOL for Kids) and YahooKids, among others.

Surprise? Not to those who already know and love all things PBS Kids, including popular programs/brands such as Sesame Street, Word World, Super Why and Cyberchase.

According to the study, “PBS KIDS excels at addressing key curriculum areas and children’s cognitive and social/emotional developmental needs. Respondents concurred that PBS succeeds in delivering important topics to young viewers with reading and literacy (80%) ranking as the topic that PBS speaks to best. Other developmental areas that follow literacy include the arts (75%), science/technology/engineering/math (74%), social/emotional development (74%), healthy living (73%), and the environment (71%).”

Can any other educational children's brands be held to such a high standard? Apparently not. Truth be told, the FCC is partially to blame. The Children's Television Act (CTA) enacted by Congress in 1990, requires broadcasters to provide at least three hours a week of educational/informational (E/I) programming for kids between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. But there's no definition of what "educational" actually means. Therefore, it's no big surprise that a 2008 Annenberg study found that merely 25% of E/I shows were of "minimal educational value." Worse, nearly 70% of the shows aimed at school-age kids contained violence and harsh language.

But this blog isn't aimed at parents who have ample reason to turn off their television sets forever. It's targeted at you (and me): the children's media producer, the brand marketer, the content creator, the television executive, the toy licensor; those of us who fuel the amazing machine that churns out kids media and the related "stuff" that goes along with it. You and I both know that a lot of it is pure crap. And that it contains absolutely no educational value whatsoever.

So now what? I say take a few pointers from PBS Kids. Here are a few:

1. Establish a curriculum. Don't know how to do this? Hire a curriculum consultant! There are plenty of them out there and they would love to work with you.
2. Pick a subject area (or two) and stick with it - i.e. math/science, social/emotional, language development. Keep it simple, keep it fun.
3. Form an educational advisory board (yes, with real educators and child development specialists) to review scripts, storyboards, even licensing deals - to ensure that everything is on brand and that the content meets the highest standards possible.
4. Determine how you will measure the success and educational outcomes of your children's media property (hint: your curriculum consultant and/or educational advisory board can help you do this).
5. Get an independent, ideally educationally-based organization to conduct a research study or brand audit. For example, a Georgetown University study, "Educational TV: 30 Years of Sesame Street Research" found that the children who had watched more Sesame Street as young children had higher school performance as adolescents, as measured by grades in English, math, science and overall GPA.

Can your children's media brand pass the test?

PBS Kids recently earned the distinction as the #1 educational children’s media brand, according to a new GFK Roper survey that polled over 1,000 U.S. adults in April, asking questions about PBS Kids as compared to Leapfrog, Nick, Jr., Playhouse Disney, Noggin, Discovery Kids, National Geographic Kids, KOL (a.k.a AOL for Kids) and YahooKids, among others.

Surprise? Not to those who already know and love all things PBS Kids, including popular programs/brands such as Sesame Street, Word World, Super Why and Cyberchase.

According to the study, “PBS KIDS excels at addressing key curriculum areas and children’s cognitive and social/emotional developmental needs. Respondents concurred that PBS succeeds in delivering important topics to young viewers with reading and literacy (80%) ranking as the topic that PBS speaks to best. Other developmental areas that follow literacy include the arts (75%), science/technology/engineering/math (74%), social/emotional development (74%), healthy living (73%), and the environment (71%).”

Can any other educational children's brands be held to such a high standard? Apparently not. Truth be told, the FCC is partially to blame. The Children's Television Act (CTA) enacted by Congress in 1990, requires broadcasters to provide at least three hours a week of educational/informational (E/I) programming for kids between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. But there's no definition of what "educational" actually means. Therefore, it's no big surprise that a 2008 Annenberg study found that merely 25% of E/I shows were of "minimal educational value." Worse, nearly 70% of the shows aimed at school-age kids contained violence and harsh language.

But this blog isn't aimed at parents who have ample reason to turn off their television sets forever. It's targeted at you (and me): the children's media producer, the brand marketer, the content creator, the television executive, the toy licensor; those of us who fuel the amazing machine that churns out kids media and the related "stuff" that goes along with it. You and I both know that a lot of it is pure crap. And that it contains absolutely no educational value whatsoever.

So now what? I say take a few pointers from PBS Kids. Here are a few:

1. Establish a curriculum. Don't know how to do this? Hire a curriculum consultant! There are plenty of them out there and they would love to work with you.
2. Pick a subject area (or two) and stick with it - i.e. math/science, social/emotional, language development. Keep it simple, keep it fun.
3. Form an educational advisory board (yes, with real educators and child development specialists) to review scripts, storyboards, even licensing deals - to ensure that everything is on brand and that the content meets the highest standards possible.
4. Determine how you will measure the success and educational outcomes of your children's media property (hint: your curriculum consultant and/or educational advisory board can help you do this).
5. Get an independent, ideally educationally-based organization to conduct a research study or brand audit. For example, a Georgetown Uni

“The average 10-year-old has memorized about 400 brands, the average kindergartner can identify some 300 logos and from as early as age two kids are "bonded to brands." Some may call it brainwashing, others say it's genius; regardless of how you see it, the approach is the same: target young kids directly and consistently, appeal to them and not the adults in their lives and get your product name in their heads from as early an age as possible.” --- Juliet Schor, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture

According to recent research “even in these tough economic times, tweens wield $43 billion in spending power annually, and influence the spending of billions more on everything from cell phones to vacations to automobiles.” Statistics also show that kids and tweens influence another $150 billion of their parents' spending. So what are we to do with this information?

Wherever you stand on the issue of marketing to kids and teens, there’s no disputing that (done right), an early investment in the kids and tweens business can be a driving force in your company’s future and long term success. The question is… how do you do it right?

We at Hopscotch Consulting spend a lot of time pondering this issue, advising companies on appropriate marketing campaigns and brand strategies that empower kids (and don't exploit.) We have lots of great ideas and insights; eventually we'll write our own book. In the meantime, we'd like to share a number of titles on the topic that tackle the issue of marketing to kids from multiple angles:

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
By John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
As a lawyers who specialize in intellectual property and information issues, Palfrey and Gasser discuss the ways "downloading, text-messaging, massively multiplayer game-playing, YouTube-watching" youth are transforming society.

Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
By Juliet Schor
Schor exposes what she believes to be a huge cesspool of materialism, consumerism and commercialization that perhaps is leading to a generation of kids that won't learn what is important and truly necessary in life.

Brand Child: Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids & Their Relationships with Brands
By Martin Lindstrom and Patricia B. Seybold
Brand Child provides a comprehensive account on how current tweens perceive brands, react to marketing and decide to spend their considerable financial buying power.

Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds
by Susan Gregory Thomas
"The moment a baby can see clearly, she becomes a consumer." Investigative journalist Thomas interviewed child development experts, product developers, marketing consultants and educators in this exposé on how marketers are targeting young minds - even before they leave the womb.

Consumer Kids: How Big Business is Grooming Our Children for Profit
By: Ed Mayo and Agnes Nairn
How do children become targeted by big business and why does it matter? Mayo and Nairn show how corporations have exploited and packaged childhood and why too much marketing can make you unhappy.

Creating Ever-Cool: A Marketer's Guide to a Kid's Heart
By: Gene Del Vecchio
What's secret formula for achieving “ever-cool” status- one of the key attributes that the most successful kids’ products have in common? Del Vecchio provides some great tips on how to best establish a lifelong relationship with the youth market.

Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail
By Kit Yarrow, Jayne O'Donnell
Yarrow and O'Donnell argue that Gen Y consumers have revolutionized the way Americans shop by turning traditional sales and marketing strategies upside down. The book offers an in-depth look at what motivates these young people to buy certain products and reject others.

Getting Wiser to Teens: More Insights into Marketing to Teenagers
By: Peter Zollo
This book gives readers a thorough understanding of what teens think, feel, and need, what they do, what they buy, and how marketers should--and shouldn't--reach them.

The Great Tween Buying Machine: Capturing Your Share of the Multi-Billion-Dollar Tween Market
By: David L. Siegel, Timothy J. Coffey, Gregory Livingston
What drives tweens, and what are the social and personal implications for this market? This book explores how this target market has changed over the last few years and reveals key information on how to expand a company's marketing base.

Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation
By: Don Tapscott
As a result of their access to the digital media, today’s kids, teens, and tweens learn, work, think, shop and create differently than their parents. This book provides valuable insights for marketers who wish to understand this new generation that is surrounded by high-tech toys and tools from birth (full disclosure- when some of us at Hopscotch were employed by FreeZone.com back in the mid 1990s we worked with Don in providing many key insights)

The Kids Market: Myths and Realities
By: James U. McNeal
Called the "godfather of kids marketing," by U.S. News and World Report, James McNeal shares all his knowledge gained from years of experience marketing to kids in the USA and Asia.

Marketing to the New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid
By: Timothy Coffey, David Siegel and Gregory Livingston
Insights into understanding how moms make shopping decisions and how children are very much involved in the decision-making process.

Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
By: Anastasia Goodstein
Ypulse founder and blogger Anastasia Goodstein explains how teens use technology--including the benefits and drawbacks--and how parents can set realistic boundaries in cyberspace.

What Kids Buy and Why
By: Daniel Acuff and Robert H Reiher
Grounded in brain development with a sound underpinning of why kids behave as they do at specific ages and across gender, Acuff and Reiher take you behind the scenes of many major successful brands.

Got a favorite book to share? Let us know!

“The average 10-year-old has memorized about 400 brands, the average kindergartner can identify some 300 logos and from as early as age two kids are "bonded to brands." Some may call it brainwashing, others say it's genius; regardless of how you see it, the approach is the same: target young kids directly and consistently, appeal to them and not the adults in their lives and get your product name in their heads from as early an age as possible.” --- Juliet Schor, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture

According to recent research “even in these tough economic times, tweens wield $43 billion in spending power annually, and influence the spending of billions more on everything from cell phones to vacations to automobiles.” Statistics also show that kids and tweens influence another $150 billion of their parents' spending. So what are we to do with this information?

Wherever you stand on the issue of marketing to kids and teens, there’s no disputing that (done right), an early investment in the kids and tweens business can be a driving force in your company’s future and long term success. The question is… how do you do it right?

We at Hopscotch Consulting spend a lot of time pondering this issue, advising companies on appropriate marketing campaigns and brand strategies that empower kids (and don't exploit.) We have lots of great ideas and insights; eventually we'll write our own book. In the meantime, we'd like to share a number of titles on the topic that tackle the issue of marketing to kids from multiple angles:

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
By John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
As a lawyers who specialize in intellectual property and information issues, Palfrey and Gasser discuss the ways "downloading, text-messaging, massively multiplayer game-playing, YouTube-watching" youth are transforming society.

Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
By Juliet Schor
Schor exposes what she believes to be a huge cesspool of materialism, consumerism and commercialization that perhaps is leading to a generation of kids that won't learn what is important and truly necessary in life.

Brand Child: Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids & Their Relationships with Brands
By Martin Lindstrom and Patricia B. Seybold
Brand Child provides a comprehensive account on how current tweens perceive brands, react to marketing and decide to spend their considerable financial buying power.

Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds
by Susan Gregory Thomas
"The moment a baby can see clearly, she becomes a consumer." Investigative journalist Thomas interviewed child development experts, product developers, marketing consultants and educators in this exposé on how marketers are targeting young minds - even before they leave the womb.

Consumer Kids: How Big Business is Grooming Our Children for Profit
By: Ed Mayo and Agnes Nairn
How do children become targeted by big business and why does it matter? Mayo and Nairn show how corporations have exploited and packaged childhood and why too much marketing can make you unhappy.

Creating Ever-Cool: A Marketer's Guide to a Kid's Heart
By: Gene Del Vecchio
What's secret formula for achieving “ever-cool” status- one of the key attributes that the most successful kids’ products have in common? Del Vecchio provides some great tips on how to best establish a lifelong relationship with the youth market.

Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail
By Kit Yarrow, Jayne O'Donnell
Yarrow and O'Donnell argue that Gen Y consumers have revolutionized the way Americans shop by turning traditional sales and marketing strategies upside down. The book offers an in-depth look at what motivates these young people to buy certain products and reject others.

Getting Wiser to Teens: More Insights into Marketing to Teenagers
By: Peter Zollo
This book gives readers a thorough understanding of what teens think, feel, and need, what they do, what they buy, and how marketers should--and shouldn't--reach them.

The Great Tween Buying Machine: Capturing Your Share of the Multi-Billion-Dollar Tween Market
By: David L. Siegel, Timothy J. Coffey, Gregory Livingston
What drives tweens, and what are the social and personal implications for this market? This book explores how this target market has changed over the last few years and reveals key information on how to expand a company's marketing base.

Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation
By: Don Tapscott
As a result of their access to the digital media, today’s kids, teens, and tweens learn, work, think, shop and create differently than their parents. This book provides valuable insights for marketers who wish to understand this new generation that is surrounded by high-tech toys and tools from birth (full disclosure- when some of us at Hopscotch were employed by FreeZone.com back in the mid 1990s we worked with Don in providing many key insights)

The Kids Market: Myths and Realities
By: James U. McNeal
Called the "godfather of kids marketing," by U.S. News and World Report, James McNeal shares all his knowledge gained from years of experience marketing to kids in the USA and Asia.

Marketing to the New Super Consumer: Mom & Kid
By: Timothy Coffey, David Siegel and Gregory Livingston
Insights into understanding how moms make shopping decisions and how children are very much involved in the decision-making process.

Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
By: Anastasia Goodstein
Ypulse founder and blogger Anastasia Goodstein explains how teens use technology--including the benefits and drawbacks--and how parents can set realistic boundaries in cyberspace.

What Kids Buy and Why
By: Daniel Acuff and Robert H Reiher
Grounded in brain development with a sound underpinning of why kids behave as they do at specific ages and across gender, Acuff and Reiher take you behind the scenes of many major successful brands.

Got a favorite book to share? Let us know!

“The average 10-year-old has memorized about 400 brands, the average kindergartner can identify some 300 logos and from as early as age two kids are "bonded to brands." Some may call it brainwashing, others say it's genius; regardless of how you see it, the approach is the same: target young kids directly and consistently, appeal to them and not the adults in their lives and get your product name in their heads from as early an age as possible.” --- Juliet Schor, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture

According to recent research “even in these tough economic times, tweens wield $43 billion in spending power annually, and influence the spending of billions more on everything from cell phones to vacations to automobiles.” Statistics also show that kids and tweens influence another $150 billion of their parents' spending. So what are we to do with this information?

Wherever you stand on the issue of marketing to kids and teens, there’s no disputing that (done right), an early investment in the kids and tweens business can be a driving force in your company’s future and long term success. The question is… how do you do it right?

We at Hopscotch Consulting spend a lot of time pondering this issue, advising companies on appropriate marketing campaigns and brand strategies that empower kids (and don't exploit.) We have lots of great ideas and insights; eventually we'll write our own book. In the meantime, we'd like to share a number of titles on the topic that tackle the issue of marketing to kids from multiple angles:

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
By John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
As a lawyers who specialize in intellectual property and information issues, Palfrey and Gasser discuss the ways "downloading, text-messaging, massively multiplayer game-playing, YouTube-watching" youth are transforming society.

Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
By Juliet Schor
Schor exposes what she believes to be a huge cesspool of materialism, consumerism and commercialization that perhaps is leading to a generation of kids that won't learn what is important and truly necessary in life.

Brand Child: Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids & Their Relationships with Brands
By Martin Lindstrom and Patricia B. Seybold
Brand Child provides a comprehensive account on how current tweens perceive brands, react to marketing and decide to spend their considerable financial buying power.

Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds
by Susan Gregory Thomas
"The moment a baby can see clearly, she becomes a consumer." Investigative journalist Thomas interviewed child development experts, product developers, marketing consultants and educators

My cell phone woke me up at the crack of dawn this morning. I thought, “Who could be texting me this early?!” Is it an emergency? Does a friend need some help? I anxiously reached over to my nightstand and quickly opened my phone. It was an auto company wanting to give me a 20% discount if I texted back “SAVE.” Talk about a rude introduction to mobile marketing.

According to a research study that was presented last week in New York by Peter Johnson, VP of market intelligence and strategy at the Mobile Marketing Association, “Mobile marketing represents 1.8% of all marketing expenditures in 2009, and while this may seem like a small number, the average mobile marketing budgets are growing by 26% per year…this growth, it should be noted, is happening when marketers are seeing a 7% drop in their average marketing budgets.”

Also recently released, results from the second annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report show that this year, "nearly 60% of mobile phone owners use their phones to text, with 94% of teens the largest user group, and 20-somethings at 87%.”

With these surprising numbers, you would think that teens are a great target and would respond well to mobile marketing. Teens have embraced texting more rapidly than the other demographics and texting has become their ultimate direct response vehicle. However, there is another side to the research which shows that teens do not want to be bothered with SMS ads and they don’t like to use a short code displayed in an advertisement. At the recent YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup in San Francisco last week, Fuse presented their study which found that even though SMS ads were up 30% this year, less than 10% of teens surveyed approved of those messages or wanted to be marketed to via that platform.

So what's a marketer to do? Teens are more likely to respond to contests or freebies such as cool downloads, exclusive content and other items of value. In fact, according to a 2008 survey by the Direct Marketing Association, 19% of teens ages 15 to 17 have responded to a mobile phone offer. So my big question is: if teens are drivers of change in society, can they drive change in mobile advertising as well?

-- Posted by Chelsie Friend, Research Assistant, Hopscotch Consulting

My cell phone woke me up at the crack of dawn this morning. I thought, “Who could be texting me this early?!” Is it an emergency? Does a friend need some help? I anxiously reached over to my nightstand and quickly opened my phone. It was an auto company wanting to give me a 20% discount if I texted back “SAVE.” Talk about a rude introduction to mobile marketing.

According to a research study that was presented last week in New York by Peter Johnson, VP of market intelligence and strategy at the Mobile Marketing Association, “Mobile marketing represents 1.8% of all marketing expenditures in 2009, and while this may seem like a small number, the average mobile marketing budgets are growing by 26% per year…this growth, it should be noted, is happening when marketers are seeing a 7% drop in their average marketing budgets.”

Also recently released, results from the second annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report show that this year, "nearly 60% of mobile phone owners use their phones to text, with 94% of teens the largest user group, and 20-somethings at 87%.”

With these surprising numbers, you would think that teens are a great target and would respond well to mobile marketing. Teens have embraced texting more rapidly than the other demographics and texting has become their ultimate direct response vehicle. However, there is another side to the research which shows that teens do not want to be bothered with SMS ads and they don’t like to use a short code displayed in an advertisement. At the recent YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup in San Francisco last week, Fuse presented their study which found that even though SMS ads were up 30% this year, less than 10% of teens surveyed approved of those messages or wanted to be marketed to via that platform.

So what's a marketer to do? Teens are more likely to respond to contests or freebies such as cool downloads, exclusive content and other items of value. In fact, according to a 2008 survey by the Direct Marketing Association, 19% of teens ages 15 to 17 have responded to a mobile phone offer. So my big question is: if teens are drivers of change in society, can they drive change in mobile advertising as well?

-- Posted by Chelsie Friend, Research Assistant, Hopscotch Consulting

My cell phone woke me up at the crack of dawn this morning. I thought, “Who could be texting me this early?!” Is it an emergency? Does a friend need some help? I anxiously reached over to my nightstand and quickly opened my phone. It was an auto company wanting to give me a 20% discount if I texted back “SAVE.” Talk about a rude introduction to mobile marketing.

According to a research study that was presented last week in New York by Peter Johnson, VP of market intelligence and strategy at the Mobile Marketing Association, “Mobile marketing represents 1.8% of all marketing expenditures in 2009, and while this may seem like a small number, the average mobile marketing budgets are growing by 26% per year…this growth, it should be noted, is happening when marketers are seeing a 7% drop in their average marketing budgets.”

Also recently released, results from the second annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report show that this year, "nearly 60% of mobile phone owners use their phones to text, with 94% of teens the largest user group, and 20-somethings at 87%.”

With these surprising numbers, you would think that teens are a great target and would respond well to mobile marketing. Teens have embraced texting more rapidly than the other demographics and texting has become their ultimate direct response vehicle. However, there is another side to the research which shows that teens do not want to be bothered with SMS ads and they don’t like to use a short code displayed in an advertisement. At the recent YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup in San Francisco last week, Fuse presented their study which found that even though SMS ads were up 30% this year, less than 10% of teens surveyed approved of those messages or wanted to be marketed to via that platform.

So what's a marketer to do? Teens are more likely to respond to contests or freebies such as cool downloads, exclusive content and other items of value. In fact, according to a 2008 survey by the Direct Marketing Association, 19% of teens ages 15 to 17 have responded to a mobile phone offer. So my big question is: if teens are drivers of change in society, can they drive change in mobile advertising as well?

-- Posted by Chelsie Friend, Research Assistant, Hopscotch Consulting