For more information please visit http://www.mobileYouth.org

1. Open to Discrete: Key Trends in Teenage
Girls and Mobile Usage
by GRAHAM BROWN on MARCH 1, 2012
Mobile is Getting Excited About Youth
This week saw a big media push into the youth space by the mobile industry:
 MTV networks ties up with AKQA
 Nokia targets youth with Lumia 610
 Orange launches “cool” youth offer in Africa
There’s no doubt mobile is chasing the youth dollar. The mobileYouth 2012 report identifies how this
market is key for future revenues and innovation – particularly the young female market (Disruptive
Divas). But, this is a market littered with the wrecks of brands dashed at the rocks of poorly executed
strategy, often at the hands of poorly informed creative agencies.
image (c) Flickr
http://www.mobileYouth.org

2. In this article I’ll discuss the challenges in teen youth marketing, especially for girls. I’ll look at how
mobile brands need to approach this segment and how they can avoid the pitfalls.
On Monday, I read an article about the Museum of Salford (in Manchester England) forcibly ejecting two
such teenagers from their premises. The reason? Smoking? Tampering with exhibits? Graffiti? No, these
two young girls weren’t in uniform. They weren’t in uniform because they were visiting the museum
*during the school vacation*.
According to the Museum’s spokesperson the two teenage girls were ejected for reasons of “safety” citing
they encouraged teens to visit but only in school uniform.
Teen Girls and the Loss of Social Space
Go to the Museum of Amsterdam or some of the more radical displays like those in Japan and you see
teens running around, climbing on exhibits, hanging out and making a lot of noise. There are no wardens
telling them to be quiet or “do not touch”. What teens want isn’t “entertainment” but Social Space.
 Teens grow under the watchful gaze of parents, society, employers and educators.
 Teens don’t have the hangout places (the 3H we talk about in our research) that their parents’
generation once had.
 Teens are moved on from malls and parks by the police, they can’t play out until dark or talk to
strangers.
“There’s lots of infrastructure and amenity that’s missing for a lot of these kids” said researcher Pip
Williams in studying the lives of modern teens and how they were losing Social Space, “… things to do, for
a start. For a lot it’s even things related to their aspirations, careers and adulthood.”
Teen Girls Need a Place to Talk and Share (Privately)
Teens feel stressed about their lives and resort to what adults see as wasteful behavior like “hanging out”
and playing the computer. They retreat to their bedrooms behind the “KEEP OUT” sign to create that
Social Space or hang out in malls or parks in groups that make adults feel unwelcome.
http://www.mobileYouth.org

3. Social Space is key to teens. It’s here they can discuss issues and emotions that wouldn’t be fit for the
public domain. The typical media image portrayed by MTV in “16 and pregnant” or those in the glossy
magazines telling stories of teens driven by fashion, sex, rebellion and cool are far from reality. Teen girls
especially are involved in more intimate and honest subjects less concerned with the public perspective
e.g. body image.
“It’s amazing how common it was for photographs to center around body-image issues,” researcher
Engelbrecht said in her Girl Project. “It sort of crosses race and ethnicity and economic background. It’s
such a big part of being a young woman – which then, of course, translates into being a woman.”
Teen Girls and Social Media: From the Kitchen to the Bedroom
Social Space is also a key element of managing their Discrete networks on the mobile phone because
Social Space isn’t just a physical construct. Think for example about txtpsk and how teen girls developed it
as a barrier to their parents. If we look at this aspect of how teenage girls use Facebook we get an idea of
the opportunities for brands. Teens aren’t fleeing Facebook as some popular sources cite, they’re merely
moving from Open to Discrete networking;; they’re simply shutting out brands and advertisers. KEEP
OUT.
Teen girls are particularly sensitive to control over their Social Space:
 Women are more likely to unfriend on Facebook than men.
 They have more restrictive privacy settings.
 44% deleted comments on their profiles regularly and a further 37% deleted tags.
Facebook now isn’t the private Social Space for teen conversation it once was (see this video of a father’s
response to his daughter’s Facebook posting to see why teens are very careful of what they post). That
doesn’t mean they’re going to leave Facebook, they’ll just use it for a different purpose – purely functional
(like the kitchen rather than the bedroom).
http://www.mobileYouth.org

4. Facebook is Vanilla. The Interest Economy is Cookies & Cream
The bedrooms are where the growth is in teenage girl media usage. I’m talking about the real bedrooms
but the digital equivalents where private conversations and emotions are shared.
 Teen girls are moving to Twitter.
 Think Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram – private Social Spaces that don’t encourage networking but
encourage connection through shared passions and interest.
This is the Interest Economy we talk about in our research.
The Interest Economy is a growth opportunity for mobile companies because it offers a level of intimacy
the other services can’t provide;; a girl’s mobile phone is with her all the time and not shared with parents.
That’s why BBM has been a big hit not with office execs but with teen girls. We charted the rise of BBM
within this group back in 2010, focusing on the Change Agents known as Disruptive Divas.
Teen Girls: Curate don’t Control
The biggest mistake is trying to “be part of their conversations”. We want them to talk about our brand
but in reality they want a space where you’re not involved. Many teens share passwords to sites like
Facebook as a sign of intimacy or trust. They don’t share them with brands or parents. We don’t belong,
respect the “KEEP OUT” sign.
Museums, like mobile operators and handset manufacturers, are constantly struggling to remain relevant
especially with young teens. Parents drag girls round the exhibits, they run through the hallways, take
turns at spinning an interactive driving wheel, press a few buttons and then, like the whirlwind that
brought them in, speed off into the next room. I recall the pained expression of one teen who stood staring
at her own bored expression in the glass while encouraging parents looked on at an interactive exhibit
explaining how plants source nitrogen through their roots.
And herein lies our challenge. We want teens but we want them on our own terms. We like their money,
marketing and innovation but we’d like them to do it in uniform. Making it exciting and palatable means
http://www.mobileYouth.org

5. adding a few buttons and lights (a Facebook fan page?) to make it interactive (when all along Wikipedia or
Youtube would be far more educational).
Only creepy brands want to hang out in a teen girl’s bedroom. Not only do you look out of place, you won’t
add any value to the communication.
 What mobile brands can do is facilitate that conversation by curating it not controlling it.
 You can provide the space without hanging out there.
In our mobileYouth 2012 report we identify key action points brands can implement to create a better
Customer Experience for female teens. Here are a few questions to get you thinking:
 How can you support Discrete (BBM etc) rather than Open (SMS) instant messaging?
 How can you create a Social Space for them to hang out (Apple Store etc, Orange Rockcorps) rather
than a community about your brand focused on “creating a dialogue with customers”?
Contact us for report, workshops, webinars and more:
Josh Dhaliwal
Director, mobileYouth
http://www.mobileYouth.org
http://www.mobileYouthReport.com
Tel: +44 203 286 3635
Mob: +44 7904 200 513
http://www.mobileYouth.org

6. THE MOBILEYOUTH 2013 REPORT
youth marketing insights for handset brands,
content providers and operators
features:
29 reports
400+ pages
data, charts, cases
mobileYouth:
tracking youth & mobile culture since 2001
MOBILEYOUTH
youth marketing mobile culture since 2001

7. THE MOBILEYOUTH 2013 REPORT
http://www.mobileyouth.org
MOBILEYOUTH
youth marketing mobile culture since 2001