The baby boomer generation is known for a number of offline advances such as motivating social security reform. Subsequent generations, the gen-x’s (27 – 40 years old), gen-y’s (18 – 28 years old) and gen-z’s (born 1999 or after), will be known for their online usage and contributions.

This brief inquiry highlights the ramifications of youth choosing the Internet as their primary medium. Additionally, online US Hispanic versus non-Hispanic youth nuances will be explored, as well as the subsequent implications for marketers.

Consider two important research headlines published this month.

The home personal computer (PC) had its 25 th year old birthday this month. This means that those 25 years old or younger simply cannot imagine a world without the PC. Indeed, 18 – 26 year olds spend more time online (12.2 hours per week) than watching TV, according to Forrester Research’s recent North American Consumer Technology Adoption Study.1 This achievement is all the more remarkable since the Internet has only become available since 1990, while TV programs have been around as far back as the 1930’s.

1. Klaasen, Abbey. McKinsey Study Predicts Continuing Decline in TV Selling Power. Aug. 6, 2006. <AdAge.com>

According to a new study by McKinsey & Co., traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective as it was in 1990. Why? It assumes a 23% decline in ads viewed due to switching off; a 9% loss of attention due to increased multitasking and a 37% decrease in message impact due to saturation. 2

McKinseys’ study demonstrates that, “They [teens] spend less than half as much time watching TV as typical adults do. Teens also spend 600% more time online, surfing the web.”3

That said, what are the available options to target this premium audience?

2. Klaasen, Abbey. McKinsey Study Predicts Continuing Decline in TV Selling Power. Aug. 6, 2006. <AdAge.com> and Elkin, Tobi. Loggin’ Time. August 4, 2006. <mediapost.com>

3. Klaasen, Abbey. McKinsey Study Predicts Continuing Decline in TV Selling Power. Aug. 6, 2006. <AdAge.com>

No other medium offers the degree of interactivity and wealth of on-demand content, available 24*7, than the Internet. Chart #1, below, drills down on specific gen-y online activity which shows the diversity, importance and usefulness of this medium as they do everything from bank online to chat.

As displayed in chart #1, above, gen-y’s mainly use the Internet to communicate and stay abreast of breaking news. The top three activities for gen-y’s are e-mail, IM, and news/weather content. US Hispanic gen-y’s over-index in playing online games, downloading music files, listening to Internet radio, online photos, chat and web-based magazine/newspaper consumption.

Chart #2: US Hispanic versus Non-Hispanic (General Market) Time Spent Online By Age & Gender, July 2006 4

Chart #2 proves that US Hispanic youth spend a great deal of time using the Internet: 2-17 year olds average 2,066 minutes per visitor which is 71% higher than 2-17 year olds in the general market; 18 – 24 year olds average 1,913 minutes per visitor which is 16% more than 18 – 24 year olds in the general market .

This is not a population that can be ignored. US Hispanic Internet users, especially the youth segment, are poised to grow rapidly. As seen in Chart #3, there are expected to be 7.3 million US Hispanic Internet users under age 25 by 2010.

4. comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic Service, Demographic Report, July 2006

US Hispanic youth have different reasons for using the Internet than US Hispanics overall. As seen in Chart #4, not surprisingly, US Hispanic youth primarily go online as a resource for research with tasks such as homework and to meet new people, while Hispanics overall claim their top reason is to stay abreast of their interests.

Terra acknowledges the importance of this population segment and reaches them in dynamic ways through communities like Terra Fotolog (photo blogging), Blogs, Terra TV, Terra Radio, Games, Reggaeton and more. And we invite advertisers seeking this hard-to-find segment to explore, not only contextual targeting, but also behavioral targeting. You can read more about behaviorally targeting the youth segment (and others) on Terra at: http://www.terra.com/terraenlaprensa/pdf/REVSCIjul6FINAL.pdf

Advertisers have more recently recognized the reliance on the Internet by the youth segment. Accentmarketing’s, Jorge Mercado, Digital Marketing Manager/Media Supervisor, sheds light on the subject:

"To put it simply, the Internet is the medium of choice for today’s youth. Teens today are multitasking more than ever. They’re bombarded by a plethora of media outlets, but unlike traditional media outlets, the Internet is their instant gratification tool. It is the way they prefer to search for and receive their information as well as interact with each other. As the future of media becomes more content-driven, this trend will only continue to grow."

Be a Smart Marketer. Accept the popularity of the Internet as the prime medium for young users. And exploit all that this medium has to offer to reach this growing market segment. Clearly, the younger generations will rely more and more on the Internet as it expands its content and services year by year. Officially, the offline generations have ceded to the online generations in terms of media preference and shifting usage, from traditional broadcast outlets, to the Internet. We are only now just beginning to glimpse the effects of this truism.

To learn more about how you can reach Terra.com's quality audience with your marketing message, call us at 212-354-2700. Visit http://www.terra.com/advertise/ and http://www.terra.com/terraenlaprensa/.

By Natasha Funk Published August 28, 2006. If you missed past issues of Terra’s Smart Marketer Series and would like to obtain them, please send an email to: smartmarketer@terra.com.