The news that Yahoo is paying a reported $1.1 billion for Tumblr says a great deal about the differences in how broadcast and digital media executives view teens – otherwise known as Generation Z.
For Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, there’s a realization that in web circles, her brand is graying – rapidly. While Yahoo was a hot, exciting search brand that we all remember from our early days on the “worldwide web,” today it is struggling for relevance, especially among younger Internet users.
As The New York Times notes, Yahoo has systematically missed the boat on social and mobile, and with those omissions, so goes teens. The acquisition of Tumblr provides a path to social media, and an avenue to the Gen Z mindset.
Now segue over to radio, where teens continue to be systematically ignored because they essentially aren’t even players in the 18-34 or 18-49 year-old sales sweepstakes.
Yet, as we learned in Techsurvey9, they provide the digital breadcrumbs that reveal to marketers what we’ll all be doing in just a few years. If you have a teenager in your home – or you’ve raised teens within the past decade or two – you know exactly what I’m talking about.
From social to mobile to texting to gaming, yesterday’s teenagers provided great teachings – if we chose to listen to them. And when radio loses generations of listeners, its relevance in the world of media options is going to be called into question.
There’s a lot to be said for Gen Z. While they only represented 4% of the overall sample in TS9, these 3,000+ respondents spoke volumes about the power of mobile, social, and relationships. As Marissa Mayer knows only too well, there are many reasons why teens are a key conduit to moving brands forward – about 1.1 billion reasons.
One interesting morsel for you is Snapchat, a social network you may not have heard of. With essentially our entire sample, this new platform barely made a ripple.
But among our Gen Z respondents, Snapchat is emerging as a fast-growing platform that is worth watching and understanding. It allows users to take and share photos that disintegrate in just a few seconds after they’re viewed by the recipient. I’ll leave Snapchat photo content to your imagination.
Now if you’re thinking, “Why would I ever want to do that?” remember that you probably said the same thing about Facebook. Or perhaps you questioned why anyone would want to retrieve email on their phones. Or at one time you thought that texting was stupid because people could just pick up the phone if they wanted to talk to you.
If you want to know what you’ll be doing in a couple of years or so, study teens. Because if you don’t do the research and take the time to listen and learn from Gen Z, you lose powerful insights into what may be right around the corner – your corner.
Assuming, of course, that you really want to see what’s next.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Males and Females about the same.
Robin, it’s coming down to that. After watching men dominate in gadgets for a few years, we’re seeing near gender equality for smartphones, tablets, and other activity. Women tend to be more “social,” while guys are more likely to stream their favorite content. But there’s no reason to believe this won’t equalize in the next few years. Thanks for the comment.