Marketing to the digerati (teens)

Does your kid have a special relationship with Procter & Gamble? If so - to marketers, anyway - there's method to this madness. Procter & Gamble's experimental teen marketing unit, Tremor, has established relationships with more than 200,000 teen movers and shakers - "people who operate in multiple social circles and are likely to talk openly [including online, of course] about the products they use," ClickZ.com reports. The teens like the arrangement because they get free samples and they're "flattered and excited to be among the first to get a look at the product." Another marketer, BrandPort, pays teens to watch its ads - $5 for every 10 ads watched (their reactions are part of the deal). In both cases, the idea is to get the young person - who spreads the word via chat, IM, email, blogs, journal sites, etc. - to "engage with the brand." These extraordinary measures are increasingly needed, advertisers say, because media consumption has changed, and young people not only watch less TV and use the Web more, they multitask, using both or more media simultaneously. Which means they're slightly distracted in any single medium like TV. Marketing now is more targeted and more assertive, and "viral" online communications have to be part of the media mix, these marketers say. Either scary or simply marketing evolution, depending on one's point of view - send your anytime via feedback@netfamilynews.org, or post right here.