Response Magazine

product or leaving the Web site. The speed of your retail site becomes the differentiator, a way of keeping that Gen X or Y consumer on your Web site.”

Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator helps online retailers speed up their Web response times — a must when marketing to today’s broadband-accustomed youth.

One satisfied customer is Philadelphia-based specialty retailer Urban Outfitters Inc., which caters to a young, hip demographic. ”Urban Outfitters came to Akamai looking for a sub-one second response time on its home and getaway pages. It achieved a 35-percent increase in quarterly direct-to-consumer sales, a 50-percent increase in site traffic and had reduced site abandonment after installing this solution.”

The Age of Micro-Targeting

The challenge for companies hoping to tap into the lucrative youth market is to find ways to engage kids wherever they are, whether it’s on the Internet, on TV, on the radio, their mobile devices or through viral marketing activities. These days, one’s advertising approach has to be fragmented just as the media is fragmented. “You can’t put all your eggs in one basket and hope for the best,” says Carter.

“The first step is picking the right tactics,” according to Mr. Youth’s Britton. With the abundance of options available to to-

day’s youth, they will only consume specific media. “Advertisers need to ‘micro-target’ the message to make sure it’s relevant because kids are only going to consume media that interests them.”

Some companies are finding creative ways to engage consumers with that kind of micro-targeting. Recently, Lions Gate Entertainment teamed up with GGL Global Gaming, which provides a social networking environment for video gamers, to create an online community for its martial arts film Forbidden Kingdom with Jet Li and Jackie Chan.

It’s a natural fit because, “Every single one of our audience is going to go see that film and putting [content] in front of them is like candy,” explains Greg Johnson, GGL’s chief marketing officer. For Lions Gate, he adds, “It’s a completely different experience than they would get on

Source: Grunwald Associates Kids Social Networking ^other ^sites.”

For marketers
looking to reach
males in the 18-34 demographic, an environment like GGL’s
makes a lot of sense. “We’ve got inside access to video gamers
who are often big influencers in technology, so for people like
tech retailers and technology brands it makes a ton of sense be-
cause they’re getting access to these guys inner stuff, what they
really want to do and pay attention to,” Johnson contends. “Bet-
ter yet, it’s not just a two-minute engagement with customers
— it’s a long engagement.”

Fuse Marketing has worked with PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew brand since 1998 and Carter views them as another example of a good youth marketer. “They’ve spread messaging through many different platforms and are willing to roll with changes as