Study: Mobile teens want talk, not ads

Teens may not be as receptive to ads-for-minutes as mobile marketers originally thought. According to recent research from comScore, teens in the US love their phones and love to talk, text or chat but they don't love ads in exchange for talking, texting and chatting.

by Kristina Knight

Also, because most teens' bills are being paid for by parents, they aren't as likely to really look into ads-for-time offers. Jen Wu, comScore marketing analyst, presented this information during a recent webinar utilizing data from comScore M:Metrics, MediaMetrix and VideoMetrix. Wu says that despite the fact that teens are early adopters and should be great targets for marketers, they are limited by the costs of new services. Nearly 20% of teen mobile users are on a prepaid plan and nearly 70% are on a family plan.

"…They ma want to download games and ringtones, or send picture messages, [but] the often need to ask for permission first," said Wu. She continued that teens don't like the interruption that many ads force them to make. "Texting is a short, eas form of communication for them but it would be disjointed for them to get an ad while they're texting back and forth with their friends.

Also, Wu found that most teen phones aren't cutting edge. Many don't offer much more than text or talk. The most popular teen phone is the Motorola RAZR V3m (500,000 teens have it) but for many this phone was a hand-me-down and doesn't have the fastest online speeds or the best storage capability. The most popular mobile activity for teens remains texting (74% text) and instant messaging (13% IM).

Another reason teens aren't a great mobile target? Because of their parents. In many cases, parents have warned their teens about spam and online ads; teens are likely taking these warnings to the mobile web.