Tweens: Putting It All Together
From "Tween Time"
May 2009
Tim Holt, of Holt Marketing/Geiger (asi/202900), has had some great success with this demographic. Riester, an ad agency working with the State of Arizona on a tobacco awareness program called “Venomocity,” approached Holt looking for the perfect products. The anti-smoking campaign was geared toward both tweens and teens, so he had to find products that would resonate across the board. In order to choose items that would be relevant to both age groups, Holt asked the teens and tweens in his life for suggestions. He then sent a list of over 30 products to the agency, which hosted focus groups to narrow down the list.
“We wanted the products in this campaign to become part of the tweens’ everyday existence,” says Cara Muccino, a context planner at Riester who worked hands-on with the Venomocity campaign. “The products had to allow them to engage with the campaign,” she says.
Riester completed more than 14 focus groups throughout the state of Arizona where they talked to tweens and teens about their drug use and what resonated with them as far as products and technology. “We got to know them, and they got to know us,” says Muccino. “We researched our target audience and chose products that would be attractive and useful to them, but we also figured out what would align with the brand – what items made sense for Venomocity.”
After much careful research and some great suggestions from Holt, the agency chose T-shirts in a combat green color with the campaign’s logo displayed in non-traditional locations, dog tags, lenticular journals for the students at school, one-song download cards, mood pens, iPod Nano skins and more. The products are appropriate for tweens, but grown-up enough to also be attractive to the teen market.
“We’re still in the early phase of the campaign, but we have done numerous launch events around the state,” says Muccino. “The kids obviously love T-shirts and tank tops and the dog tags were also a hot item.” So far the results are impressive. The success can be measured by hits to the campaign’s Web site. “Traffic to the Venomocity Web site has been growing steadily and quickly since the launch events took place,” says Muccino. “Since launch on February. 9, Venomocity.com has had more than 3,270 unique visitors and more than 25,000 page views. Of those visiting the site, they are looking at an average of 6.5 pages each time they visit and are spending on average 5.5 minutes on the site.”
Riester and their client were very happy with the service they received from Holt as well. “Tim is great,” says Muccino. “He helped us choose items that would resonate well and he had what we were looking for.”
Holt also learned a lot from working on this major campaign. His advice for reaching the tween market? “Just look at Hannah Montana and all the others that are marketing to teens. They are selling millions of dollars in merchandise successfully – it’s a huge market.
