Rob Young is a founding partner and senior vice-president, planning and research at Toronto-based Harrison, Young, Pesonen & Newell, one of Canada’s largest media management operations.
Even before the tragedy at Columbine High, The Matrix had acquired a certain literary notoriety. Some reviewers addressed the religious symbolism found in the movie. Others uncovered an underlying theme about disenfranchised youth. Still others took away a message about the rise of modern humanity’s disconnection with reality, or the shallowness of modern consumerism.
I, too, came away from The Matrix with a sense of deeper meaning. My lesson, however, was a media epiphany that had little to do with the script, special effects or acting styles. It came during the scene where Keanu Reeves was taking virtual martial arts training from Laurence Fishburne.
As I watched Fishburne explain the principles of mind over matter in a machine-controlled virtual world, two points of bright red light suddenly appeared up Keanu’s nostrils. Someone in the audience had ‘laser penned’ the movie screen.
There was some laughter, a few complaints, several curses. With a single stroke of a laser pointer, a dramatic moment had been undermined by the techie equivalent of throwing a cream pie into a politician’s face.
Every day on this continent, moments of terror are turned into laughter, love scenes are made to look silly and heroes are reduced to mere mortals as someone hijacks the director’s vision with their trusty $25 laser pointer.
And that certain someone is usually a kid.
If there was one thing I took away from The Matrix, it’s this: Young people today are controlling content rather than being controlled by it. And their actions extend beyond the silver screen into almost every media form.
Their entertainment appliance of choice is not the TV set, but rather the monitor connected to computers, video games and VCRs. Why? Precisely because it provides an element of control. It’s for the same reason that young people have been early adopters of the Internet.
Media-controlling behaviour is best observed in the 5- to 20-year-old segment, those born roughly between the years 1980 and 1995. Marketers have labeled this group Generation Y and their media-controlling behaviour is the main reason why they’re so hard to reach.
The best laid youth-focused TV plans often break down as members of target group Y bounce like pinballs through cable channels, remote at hand.
A few weeks ago, my son was watching a Blue Jays baseball game on TSN, heard the crowd roar but saw nothing on the field to justify a crowd response, assumed they must have seen the Leafs score a playoff goal on the JumboTron, and switched to CBC just in time to watch the replay. That’s a good example of content control that flows out of a young person’s ability to multi-task. Generation Y comprises people who exhibit a remarkable breadth of attention.
If you look at a young person’s minute-by-minute TV program-tuning pattern, you’ll see a mountain range-like pattern of in-and-out channel switching compared to the obedient, flatline pattern exhibited by baby boomers and older members of Generation X.
In addition, Generation Y is now registering record low levels of TV tuning. The most recent BBM Bureau of Measurement’s TV data book shows teens watched 15.9 hours per week last fall, which is well down from the 17.1 hours tuned weekly in ’94 and almost half the level teens spent with TV just 15 years ago.
Radio plans are at risk too because the Y crowd extends its desire for control beyond the realm of the visual world into the audio world as well. Have you driven with a teenager recently? Have you tried to listen to one radio station for more than 15 minutes? Not possible. They surf dozens of FM signals searching for just the right song and then slide a CD into the drive and bounce randomly through selections. Have you ever seen a RIO in action? It’s used by the Y segment to download music from the Internet thanks to MP3 technology. It’s a do-it-yourself compilation CD and provides the ultimate in audio control.
Traditional media models require that the medium control the attention of a target group and facilitate the distribution of a commercial message to that group. But that model breaks down when the target group takes control of the medium. This helps explain why marketers who want to target Generation Y have such a tough time making a connection and making the sale.
So what’s a marketer to do?
My advice is to approach the ‘Y’ target group the same way you’d approach anyone who’s in control. Be careful. Show respect. Shun force. Think contract. Ask for permission. Compromise. Make lots of little contacts. Don’t hard sell.
And above all, don’t take yourself too seriously or you’ll wind up like Keanu Reeves with a laser beam up the nose.
Send your comments via e-mail to
ryoung@hypn.com.