Mikey's Dog News

This is not really a marketing blog post but my friend Mike sent me his 8-year-old son’s first edition of  “Mikey’s Dog News,” and I had to share it with the blogosphere. Let us know if you want a subscription!

We all know that teenagers have a strong tendency to engage in risky behavior. But a new study referenced in the New York Times today suggests the degree of risk teens are willing to take rises dramatically when they’re hanging out with friends instead of being by themselves or with family.

The message to parents is that, when your teen is going somewhere with a group of friends, you should anticipate some acting out. That’s the time to raise the issue of rules–as in, these are the rules, don’t break them. Make plans with them to  stay in touch by cell phone, and then check in with them. And, before they depart, find out as near as you can where the kids intend to go and what they intend to do. Finally, give them a drop-dead time to be home.

With teens, there’s no way to watch them every minute. You have to give them some freedom and you have to give them the opportunity to prove they can be trusted. But that doesn’t mean you can’t set the expectations. And those expectations should be reviewed when your teen is headed out with the pack.

If you have a product aimed at the teen market, then you care about Brittany.

Brittany is what we call an influencer. Whatever she does, the other kids want to do. Because she’s cool. She’s a trend-setter. Problem is, Brittany only cares about herself and her 20 closest friends. She does not care about you or your product. She’s 16, cute beyond belief, spends all her money (and her parents’ money) on stuff to make her even more alluring. She has the other kids watching her every move; if she buys something, they want it. But you won’t get her to purchase your stuff until you get her cell phone number, or find her on Facebook. Because she does not Tweet. She does not use email. She does not watch TV (she views shows on her computer–no ads, get it?).

Brittany lives mostly on her phone. Last month, she sent 22,000 text messages from her cell phone. Do the math: That’s almost 1,000 each day (she must text in her sleep). Every spare moment she has, Brittany is texting. Just ask her teachers at school, her family at the dinner table, her date at the movies.

Obviously, you need Brittany touting your product. But how do you find her? She’s the coolest kid at her school, and might as well live on the dark side of the moon if you’re trying to reach her through the usual advertising channels. Don’t fret; there are ways to connect with Brittany. At Brink, we “talk” to the cool kids like Brittany several times a day. We can help you reach her. But first, you’re going to have to throw out your old teen marketing strategy, and let Brittany and Brink create a new one for you.

I'll never forget the day I stopped forever using plastic bags to haul groceries in. In was June 8, 1993. I was editing a small newspaper in Pittsburgh. I had a smart young guy working for me, Bill O'Driscoll, probably 24 or 25 at the time. He saw me coming back from the supermarket to the office with a couple of plastic bags full of groceries.

"Dan, what are you dong?" he asked with sincere incredulity.

"Uh, coming back to the office?"

"No, I mean with the plastic bags? Don't you know they're horrible for the environment?"

I thought about that. I knew he was right. "Yeah, I guess I should ask for paper."

O'Driscoll rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a canvas tote bag.

"No, you should skip right past paper and get yourself a couple of nice, long-lasting, totally recyclable canvas bags like the ones I use." He held it up for my closer inspection.

I thought about that. I knew he was right.

It took Bill O'Driscoll all of about two minutes to forever change the way I package items I buy in the store.

How long will it take to educate the rest of those who still think using plastic bags is OK, let alone those who think reusing a paper bag is the best solution for the environment? I hope Bill O'Driscoll is still hard at it, wherever he is. We need more like him.

The Portland, OR-based web consulting company AboutUs.org recently posted this article about optimizing your site for search engines to find it.

This is an area of web activity that is constantly changing, so it’s important to keep up with the latest trends. We have found that AboutUs.org offers a constant stream of excellent advice about building and maintaining any sort of web presence. They are quite responsive to inquiries. We recommend them to anyone with any questions about the best way to help search engines–and your target audience–find you on the web.

Parents of teenagers in the United States are afraid of their own children. They don’t want to know what’s going on. They turn a blind eye to the obvious signs of trouble. They opt out of true parenting. And, in the end, their  behavior robs them of sharing in the real joys of being around teenagers.

This reality was again revealed, this time via the quasi-reality MTV show ‘Skins,’ the U.S. version of a popular United Kingdom show. Ad Age, in this recent article, discussed the differences between the UK public’s overall acceptance of the show (including advertisers) and the completely predictable panic with which American mainstream groups and corporate advertisers greeted the show–even before it had aired its first episode. US sponsors were running for the exits at the first whiff of controversy.

In so doing, they were sending this message to young people: We don’t value you as customers. British advertisers didn’t flee in horror as the series chronicled the sometimes-appalling behavior of UK teens. Maybe they understood that the young people watching the show were also watching their ads and thinking, I kinda like a company that sponsors my favorite show! Maybe I’ll buy its product.

At Brink, we understand that teens will act out, take huge risks, bully and belittle their peers and engage in self-destructive behavior. We also know they have vast stores of energy that can be channelled to accomplish amazing things. Teens will exhibit boundless compassion toward others. Teens will knock the SAT tests out of the park.  Teens will embrace concepts like equality, environmentalism and inclusiveness with a passion that doesn’t demand logic or debate. Teens can move mountains when asked to nudge a hill, and teens can make you laugh till you cry.

One thing we talk about all the time at Brink is how quickly most adults forget their own teens years and their own risky and unpredictable behavior. Our culture encourages teens to act out and parents to look the other way.  Seems like whenever a show like ‘Skins’ tries to portray teens honestly, U.S. adults don’t want to learn from it–they just want to make it go away. Yet all of them were once teenagers, and most survived into adulthood. From where they now point in horror at their teens and say, ‘We were never like that!’ Hmmmm….

Saw this blog post today and it reminded us that we overheard two college girls discussing their planned purges last fall. It was sort of a shocker. See, they felt the need to cleanse themselves because adults they admired were doing it. Teens purging? Really?

But when you think about it, it makes sense. The video material they watch, the ads they see, articles they read and stars they worship are constantly purging, detoxing, fasting and in other ways depriving themselves so that they can then party, binge and burn themselves out again. Our culture damns anorexia in theory but encourages it in practice.

We think our teens aren’t listening to us or watching us, but in fact they are. And if their parents aren’t modeling healthy behavior, where will they see the alternative to the behavioral madness our sales-driven society bombards them with? Teens are going to try radical and risky, even unhealthy, behavior. It’s up to adults to provide them with healthy alternatives instead of engaging in all-or-nothing lifestyle choices that are very unhealthy for teens to emulate.

We were referred to this article on the Non-Toxic Kids blog the other day. The blog reviewed a new book, The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule, which addresses the need to nurture creativity within your family instead of just depending upon school and outside activities to meet your kids’ creative needs and instincts.

One of the creative activities suggested by the book was something called The Joy Jar. Kids are encouraged to honor someone–a friend, relative, neighbor, teacher–by filling a Mason jar with notes and little artifacts about that person.

This reminded us that, while most 16-year-olds would probably roll their eyes at the very idea of a creative project suggested by a parent, the younger ones still retain and reach out to the youngster in them. It is amazing how these middle school/junior high aged kids (11-14) will respond to a game, a toy or an activity that targets a much younger child. These tweeners still hang on to their inner child. That’s why they still cry uncontrollably in public  sometimes (and not over a shattered love affair) or reach out spontaneously to take Mommy or Daddy’s hand.

For parents, this is powerful information. Don’t assume your middle schooler is done with his Legos or her fancy kid’s bike. Let them decide when it’s time to give them away or put them in the attic. Don’t give up on suggesting “wholesome” family activities. The young ones will tell you when they no longer want to play Littlest Pet Shop with you.

For businesses, this tendency for tweeners to hang on to their inner child represents marketing opportunities. Products have to be positioned differently. But when presented in a fashion acceptable to the tweener, you can well find yourself with a consumer who received things as a  child and who now figures out how to buy them as they begin to understand the mystical world of money.

How do you present a product to this group? Ah, for that, you must ask Brink!

We were reminded again today of the power you can unleash when you have the right teens working on behalf of your cause or brand.

Lilly and Erin, our Polar Plunge recruitment leaders for Grant High School in Portland, OR, emceed a 50-minute assembly at the school this morning to raise awareness among their peers about the need to stop using the word ‘retard.’

We were a bit apprehensive as the day of the assembly approached. Grant is a large urban high school, and trying to convince 1,600 students on a Monday morning to listen to a presentation about being inclusive and sensitive to the needs of others seemed like a lot to ask.

Well, Lilly and Erin didn’t think so. And, as so often happens when you ask the right teens to take something on, they totally nailed it. The event was perfectly scripted, with a video on Project Unify and presentations from Special Olympics representatives and the family of a student athlete from Grant who has Down Syndrome. The student body was respectful and supportive, and afterwards dozens of students signed up for the Pledge & Plunge.

Lilly and Erin were understandibly pleased with their efforts afterwards. But they weren’t surprised. They said they know their school well and were certain students would respond to this simple request to reach out in friendship and with respect to  students who have disabilities.

Here’s a tip to those of you out there who are trying to get your message across to a teen audience. If you have a Twitter account … wait–if you don’t have one, stop reading and get one NOW!

OK, now that you have a Twitter account, use the search function to locate any of a number of teen tweeters.  Many of these accounts are not actually teens but adults pretending to be teens. You can almost always find a link on the Twitter account to the blog or web site behind it, which will help you determine if you’ve got an actual teen doing the tweeting.

When you’ve ID’d a few, follow them. Their tweets will give you true insight into teens’ passions, moods, interests and buying habits. It may be a lot of chaff to get the few wheat kernals that will be of use to you. But it’s worth it, because it’s coming from a genuine source.

One that we like is dailyteen. This account is fast closing in on 80,000 followers, and it’s because the tweets have the ring of truth to them. Whoever is behind dailyteen serves up teen thoughts and emotions in tweet-length phrases throughout the day. Dailyteen has a Facebook page as well, but it’s just the tweets linked to the Facebook page. We think you can get plenty of benefit just from following the tweets.