Social Media Is For Life, Not Just For Christmas
What are this season's must-have toys? How much buzz is there about them online? And can we use social media to accurately predict this year's bestseller?
That's our challenge...
It's nearly Christmas, and according to various retail associations, one in five purchases are expected to be made online. A much higher percentage of purchasing decisions – up to 50% depending on who you listen to – will be researched on digital channels.
So, we've been taking a close look at children's use of social media and the ways in which brands can embrace these channels to get closer to their audiences – and create the pester power that can drive phenomenal peaks in sales.
Then, using our exclusive Social Media Reputation audit methodology, we reveal what young customers are saying about you.
Second Nature
2009's under 16s might be second generation digital natives, but they're the first group to have grown up with social media playing such an integral part to their everyday lives.
By not engaging children across social media channels, brands and retailers are missing a huge trick. But there is still a surprisingly widespread nervousness among brand owners about where to start, and how to avoid the many pitfalls.
Young consumers, typically aged between 7 and 13, have been tagged ‘older younger consumers’. Another buzz-phrase for a sector with more than its fair share, the term aims to highlight the increasing sophistication and questioning nature of consumers.
According to research from Azure, a girl born in the early 1990’s would typically put her doll to rest at 11 years old. Now it’s as young as seven.
The toys and games industry in the UK is estimated to be worth up to £2.2bn (IAB) *. So getting the marketing right can have a huge effect and you’d expect this sector to be pioneering the use of the social media to win youthful hearts and minds.
So what are the tools in the social media toolbox? And who is using them to best effect?
The key with social media channels is to realise their respective merits and areas of potential. One strategy does not fit all. Brands should carefully consider which to use and for what purpose.
Virtual Worlds
For instance, for adults, virtual worlds might have been labelled by the intelligentsia as 'gimmicky' at best, and a 'cult for pervy weirdos' at worst, for children they provide entirely different scope.
Disney paid in excess of $350m for Club Penguin, and Cyworlds generates over $200 million dollars a year in revenue. Virtual worlds for kids really are big business.
But, not all of these worlds are being used for direct revenue.
Build a Bear, the bricks and mortar retail operation, have designed a virtual world to support and enhance its retail sales. Children who have purchased products from the store can create an online presence for both their bear and themselves. In order to continue this virtual existence it’s necessary for consumers to purchase further products. In fact, ‘Build-a-Bearville’ has been so successful that Maxine Clare, CEO and founder of Build a Bear, has recently announced plans to expand and further monetise the platform.
Virtual world environments provide brands with scope to forge a deeply engaging and long-term connection with customers. They can also be a direct sales channel and, monetised effectively, they can pay for themselves. Look out for the imminent launch of Lego Universe – a virtual world for the resurgent brand.
A virtual world won’t suit every brand, so what else is there?
Socially Networked
The answer usually lies within the big social networks. For these age groups, bebo and facebook aren’t just places to add a couple of pictures or find out what happened to the people they went to school with - they are a part of everyday life.
96% of generation Y and Z have at some point joined a social network.
Recent research by Azure found that 86% of children who go online do so to play social games and interact with their friends. And it is exactly this type of interaction where buying decisions are often made. A child asks for a friend’s opinion on say, a computer game, and then peer pressure influences behaviour.
Children’s brands should be aware of how, where and when they are being discussed.
How can a brand possibly execute a successful marketing strategy without knowing how it is perceived and what its consumers actually want?
Just Ask
Social media users are more than happy to tell brands what they think about them, but this shouldn’t be done via online surveys or other older research methodologies as the landscape changes so quickly.
The beauty of social media is that you can find out what people really think about you and your products.
You can do this through direct interaction - via social channels like blogs, Youtube, Facebook or Twitter. You can also do this by closely observing your online reputation, to find out what’s being said about you, across all the channels. Either is good. Both are better.
To show you how this is done, and to show the reach these networks have when it comes to children’s buying decisions, Yomego has devised a system when brands can gauge and track their popularity in social spaces. Our Social Media Reputation scoring system looks at the noise being generates and aggregates it against sentiment to generate a score out of 100.
This research highlights tricks that being missed and, when set aside competitors, provides a quantitative comparison that can be aligned against spend as a return-on-investment model.
2009’s Hot Toys
So which of the toys vaunted to be the best-sellers are having the most impact in social media circles?
The SMR scores, below, tracks reach (or ‘noise’) and uses sophisticated language recognition software to track sentiment across the world. A metric around ‘recency’ is applied in each case to highlight which brands are really on the tip of tongues at the crucial time.
So which of these is Santa likely to be settling under your tree?
|
Battle strikers |
Transformers Bumblebee Helmet |
Go Go pet hamster |
Sylvanian family caravan |
Ben 10 action Cruiser |
| Noise |
|
|
|
|
|
| Level |
58.25 |
67.89 |
59.36 |
45.21 |
62.59 |
| Recency |
59.21 |
64.25 |
62.31 |
49.25 |
71.02 |
| Sub-Total |
58.73 |
66.07 |
60.84 |
47.23 |
66.81 |
| Sentiment |
|
|
|
|
|
| Tone |
71.25 |
89.21 |
75.42 |
72.12 |
86.52 |
| Recency |
70.12 |
88.95 |
77.62 |
75.26 |
85.69 |
| Sub-Total |
70.69 |
89.08 |
76.52 |
73.69 |
86.11 |
| Total SMR |
64.71 |
77.58 |
68.68 |
60.46 |
76.46 |
Winners & Losers
From our results, there are two clear runaway favourites; the Bumble Bee helmet and the Ben 10 Action Cruiser.
The positive sentiment behind each brand carries its score but there would seem to be scope for a late charge by, say the Go Go Pets hamster if flames were fanned in the right social media places.
Conclusions
Social media strategies demand specialist attention and techniques.
But get it right and the potential rewards can be huge.
A social media push, in isolation is unlikely to cut-through so activities should be integrated with other marketing spend. To generate impact across social media channels, a brand will need to provide content and / or assets to enable consumers to engage with it.
Ideally these will be exclusive to each channel, easily shared, and provide direct added value. Seeding ads on facebook isn’t a social media strategy and the approach needs to be part of the ongoing marketing mix; not just for Xmas.
Joe Hughes,
Research & Insight Manager, Yomego
