The Golden Age of Youth

Introducing The Golden Age of Youth• Purpose: To explore the concept of the extension of Youth

and to understand the behaviour of 25-34 year olds around the world.

• Process: To explain how did we get here and what this tells us about the rise, spread and stretch of youth & the ‘youthification’ of culture

• Re-defining youth, Best years of your life, Youth mirage, Maturity tension, 4 global segments

• Payoff: A fresh perspective on Youth and to understand how brands and marketers can recognise this group and ensure their messages are heard.

• The boundaries of youth culture have grown and blurred

• What impact does this have on brands and our business?

• Essentially the ‘youth’ market is considerably larger than traditionally thought

• But how should we be talking to this broadened youth demographic, how are they different and what are the best ways to reach them?

Context

Why we did this study

• MTV Demographics:

– Increasingly a significant % of our audience are aged 25-34 as they remain with us for longer

– Why are they still coming to MTV? Who are they? And how are they different from our teenage target?

• Audience Spending Power:

– Have more money than students, but traditionally this money was spent on practical stuff, rather than lifestyle brands

% MTV Adult viewers aged 25+yrs

• Cultural change:

– 25 - 34s today are different to the past. Research suggests they need to be spoken to in a different way and can be reached through more effective channels

Qual and Quant research was conducted across 18 marketsArgentina, Australia/NZ, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Holland, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia*, Sweden, UK & USA

Qualitative

• 30 x Online Bulletin Boards (OBB) per market with 16 - 34 year olds

• 23 x expert interviews amongst sociologists, psychologists, authors, journalists, marketers

• In-home Interviews with selected respondents from the OBB

Quantitative

• 1500 online* interviews per market with respondents 16-46

• Sample had to have ready on-line access

How we did it

Note: *In-home interviews were not conducted in Saudi Arabia and the quantitative research was done face to face

How did contemporary culture get to this point?

• Between 1946 and 1964 76 million Americans were born

– By 1965, 25% of the population was under 20 years old

– America was predominantly a youthful society

• Rebelled against social and political conservatism of the 1950’s

• This movement had its own politics, music, art, fashion, drugs and literature

• Such was the size of this cohort that the worlds focus began to switch from adult to youth culture

The rise of youth culture

• Globalization has rapidly spread Western values and thus youth culture

– Media

– Economics

• In globalizing countries the spotlight shifts from the adult collective culture to the youthful individual culture

– Relaxing of marital and family expectations

– Disinterest in religious practices

– Distrust of government bodies

– Increase in urbanization

– Participating in Western culture

The spread of youth culture

The stretchof youth

Asia (excluding Mid East)

Central America & Caribbean

Europe

Mid East & North Africa

North America

Oceania

South America Sub-Saharan Africa

The ‘youthification’ of culture

• These 3 factors result in ‘The Youthification of Global Culture’

• Youthful attitudes and physical appearances become the centre of gravity and point of reference for all ages

• Youthful behaviors become socially acceptable for increasingly older ages

• What does this mean for brands?• How are youth today different?• How should we target them?

Re-defining youth

What does it mean to be ‘youthful’?• Youth can no longer be considered in

purely demographic terms

• Age is only one factor in determining youthful behaviour and attitudes

• Instead, youth can be defined more accurately based on:

levels of functional and / or emotional maturity

• Achieving both is occurring later and later in life globally

52% of 25-34yr olds globally agree that they

“still have a lot of growing up to do”

AVERAGE AGE OF GRADUATION = 25yrs

80% agree

Deferring adult responsibilities“Your 20’s should be a time of experimentation”

AVERAGE AGE OFA GAMER = 28yrs

The three stages of youth

FunctionalMaturity

EmotionalMaturity

Experimentation•Late teens - early 20’s•Beginning to achieve responsibility•Developing a sense of identity, experimenting with who they are

Golden•Mid 20’s - early 30’s•Many have achieved functional maturity•Many have achieved emotional maturity - have perspective on who they are•Few have achieved both

Discovery•Teenage years•Free of responsibility•Insecure about who they are and where they fit in

The best years of your life

...is the age people most want to be globally

Golden Youth - Happiness• Remaining younger for longer is a force for good

• Those who made major decisions in life too early = the most unhappy and stressed group of 25-34yr olds

25-34yr olds globally are 24% more likely

than 16-19yr olds to say that they ‘love’ life

Golden Youth - Confidence

• Teens find themselves under increasing pressure to figure out who they are and how to be successful

• Consequently, 25-34yr olds are less stressed and more happy than teenagers

25-34yr olds are less likely than teenagers

to agree...“Sometimes I get tired of all the responsibility in my life”

31,900

19,400

16,100

25-34yr olds enjoy almost double the personal wealth of teens

Golden Youth - Wealth

Average Global Income ($) - 2008

“I manage my finances to make sure I’ve got enough

money to treat myself”

60% of 25-34yr olds agree…

Youth Mirage

It’s a mistake to assume 25-34yr olds are the same as teenagers

Top Online Use

16-19’s 25-34’s

Same media, different needs

Top TV Content

16-19’s 25-34’s

Teens have more in common with their peers across the globe

Maturity tension

The maturity tension

• Levels of tension relating to youth and maturity varies across the globe

• Cultures with a strict social script = higher degrees of tension

• Cultures with more lax social script = lower degrees of Tension

Levels of tension vary by market

Resistance to rigid social expectations

Lower socialexpectations

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USA

Mex

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AU/N

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Global Segments

Golden Youth : global segments

Lower Emotional Maturity

Lower Functional Maturity

Higher Emotional Maturity

Higher Functional Maturity

Settled Achiever

Nostalgic Dreamer

Ambitious Striver

Threenager

I’m avoiding several conventional milestones like the plague. I just have no

interest in them! For me personally, starting a family would just interfere with the things I am interested in doing, like travel, art and

music.

Meet the Threenagers

Male, US

“

”

Optimistic

Spontaneous

IndividualisticExperimental

HappyStaying Young

Meet the Nostalgic Dreamers

Community

Stressed

Start over

SentimentalSwitching ‘off’

Family

I wish I could go back to that time! I miss my mother’s

cooking when I was single.

“”Male, Spain

Meet the Settled Achievers

Learn new skills

Positive

Comfortable with self

Responsible Family v Friends

I would say I have the most memorable experiences in my 30s. I began

proactively reaching out into the world and grasping what I wanted instead of

just reacting to what was happening around me. I love being in my 30s.

Female, US

“

”

Meet the Ambitious Strivers

Having fun

Seeking direction

Image conscious

Frustrated Aspirational

What frustrates me the most about being in my 30s is that I’m not in a place in my

life that I want to be right now. I don’t have my own place. I feel I haven’t

accomplished what I wanted to do with myself.

Male, US

“

”

Social power


Higher Functional Maturity


SERIOUSFUN


Targeting each segment requires a different approach

NostalgicDreamers

Settled Achievers

Ambitious StriversThreenagers

Golden Youth Segments: Consuming MTV content




Higher Functional MaturitySettled

AchieverNostalgic Dreamer

Ambitious StriverThreenager

25%

75%

Viewers Non-Viewers

46%54%

32%

68%

32%

68%

Regular MTVViewers

Heavy online users

Medium online users

Medium-low online users

Medium online users

Take-Aways

• The youth market has got bigger

• Youth can no longer be considered in purely demographic terms

– Today youthful behaviour and attitudes are no longer the sole preserve of the young

• There are 3 distinct stages of youth: Discovery, Experimentation & Golden

– All have unique attributes that require bespoke communication messages

• Those in the Golden stage of youth are the happiest, the most confident and

the most wealthy

– Within this there are 4 global segments, who respond best to individual targeting

• MTV is on of their windows on youth culture

Key Take-Aways

Thanks for listening

[email protected]

The Golden Age of Youth

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