Today’s kids are tomorrow’s prospective college students, right?
That’s why “The Kids’ Social Networking Study,” a study conducted by Grunwald Associates LLC and released earlier this week, could be particularly interesting as higher ed institutions start to work on their next marketing strategy to face the upcoming decrease in the prospective student pool.
The study is comprised of three parallel national surveys with Kids ages 9-17, Parents and School District Decision Makers. Carefully constructed, nationally representative samples of 1,200 teens/children, 1,000 parents and 250 school districts.
Unfortunately, this kind of intelligence comes with a relatively hefty price – for smaller institutions, at least – as data licenses start at $5,000. This is probably why most of licensees listed in the study marketing literature include big corporate names such Disney, Warner Brothers, Scholastic, Nickelodeon, Pearson, Discovery, Apple, Nestle, Leo Burnett, Starcom, AOL, Leapfrog, Facebook, Barnes & Noble.
Fortunately, the good folks at MediaPost Publications managed to share some interesting findings pertaining to TV and Online use in “Study: Kids Are Master Multitaskers On TV, Web, Mobile,” an article written by Tanya Irwin:
About 64% of kids go online while watching television, and nearly half of U.S. teens (49%) report that they do so frequently–anywhere from three times a week to several times a day.
[…]
According to the study:
- 50% of 9- to-17-year-olds visit Web sites they see on TV even as they continue to watch,
- 45% of teens have sent instant messages or e-mail to others they knew were watching the same TV show,
- 33% of 9- to-17-year-olds say they have participated in online polls, entered contests, played online games or other online activities that television programs have directed them to while they are watching.
At the same time, it is clear that online activities are the primary focus of TV-online multitaskers, and an increasing determinant of what they choose to watch:
- 47% of kids say they focus their attention primarily online while multitasking between TV and the Internet,
- 42% of kids say they focus on TV and online activities equally,
- Only 11% of kids say that TV holds their primary attention while multitasking,
- and 17% say they have chosen what to watch on TV based on what they are doing online–up from 10 percent in 2002.
But, what does it mean for your institution?
Don’t even think about launching a TV advertising campaign targeted to prospective students without a strong online component.
With this generation, it could be the difference between a hit and a miss.
So, how do you integrate the Web into your TV campaigns? Tell us by posting a comment.