Want to reach youth? Think mobile. Two in five eight- to 11-year-olds will have mobile phones by 2008. Three in five tweens will have cells and the 15-29 penetration will exceed 80%. This according to a forecast by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group. Key factors driving mobile phone growth in the 8-11 and 12-14 groups are cool factor, parental safety/security concerns, ‘kidfluence,’ (a.k.a. peer pressure) and availability of affordable family plans and mobile units, says the study.
SRG’s forecasts are based on the recent InFocus Sessions with teens on technology and entertainment, part of the Fast Forward Trend Research Series.
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Inquisite, an Austin, Tex. provider of feedback and survey technology, is rolling out Inquisite 7.0, the next version of a system that lets companies extend their surveying capabilities and use the feedback from customers, employees, partners and stakeholders to evaluate business processes. The company says that since the surveys are online the resulting feedback is current and actionable. It can be integrated with current data and analytical tools, and can increase response rates because it makes real-world, time-to-completion reminders possible.
http://www.inquisite.com

* 1.5 million (6%) Canadians attended a sportsman/outdoor show one or more times during the past year.
* The majority of the sportsman/outdoor show attendees are male (63%).
* Sportsman/outdoor show attendees are evenly spread across Canada.
* 58% of sportsman/outdoor show attendees are 25-54.
* Sportsman/outdoor show attendees participate in camping (71%), fishing (69%), gardening (66%), and swimming (65%) as leisure activities.
* Around 33% of sportsman/outdoor show attendees have bought equipment related to camping or fishing within the past two years. Attendees are two times more likely to have bought camping equipment compared to average Canadians and 3.2 times more likely to have bought fishing equipment.
* 23% of sportsman/outdoor show attendees drive a sedan, while 20% drive pickup trucks.
* The top three media for yesterday exposure for sportsman/outdoor show attendees are television (92%), radio (87%), and daily newspaper (56%).
* News/talk (17%), adult contemporary (15%) and classic/mainstream rock (14%) are the top three radio formats preferred by sportsman/outdoor show attendees (weekly reach).
* The three most popular TV program genres among sportsman/outdoor show attendees by weekly average viewing are movies (80%), news/current affairs (67%), and hockey (when in season) (55%).

Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’03 / Spring ’04

The preceding information is from BBM RTS, a syndicated consumer-media survey of over 55,000 Canadians, conducted twice a year by BBM Canada. For more information contact Craig Dorning of BBM Canada: cdorning@bbm.ca.

OMD Vancouver has successfully wooed TBWAVancouver media director veteran Rick Sanderson. The newly minted GM will start at OMD on May 30 and will report to OMD Canada president Lorraine Hughes. His last day at TBWAVancouver is May 20. ‘I’ve been at TBWA for over 10 years and I’m sad to be leaving but at the same time, I’m excited for the chance to work with a very forward-thinking company like OMD,’ he says.
In addition to OMD-only business, which includes McDonald’s, Sanderson will be working with DDB staff on their accounts, as OMD does DDB’s media. Sanderson will be replacing OMD’s former media director Jeff Berry.

Hot chocolate drinkers

Leo Burnett division Leo She recently conducted a study of 1,000 North American women to uncover how their attitudes towards their homes might be used as insight towards more effective brand communications. Methodology included online panels and ‘friendship group’ interviews conducted in their homes to keep the honesty factor up, augmented by pop culture audits of homes to suss out media habits. Universal truths revealed included ‘clutter is the new fat’ and that more women are associating their home with stressful rather than joyful emotions. As more women take on more roles outside the home (while men aren’t taking on more roles inside the home) a few related psychographic segments have been identified, and downshifting, outsourcing and hiving are among the resultant trends.
One of the home types identified which accounts for 29% of women is described as ‘Treading Water.’ They want to keep a nice house but feel overwhelmed by the workload, and are therefore looking for easy-fix products, consume fast-solution type media and respond to ads that stress simplicity. Another group (22% of women) dubbed ‘Keep It Simple’ are more focused on quality of life and relationships than the perfect house, and would be a Real Simple mag reader. Ads that emphasize ease, quality and how the product will enhance their life should click with this type. The ‘House Proud’ set (37%), are achieving their idealistic home standards and tend to read Better Homes, Creative Home and Living, and respond to ads that give details, as she likes to be a maven. The final 12% fall into a sad ‘Keeping Up With the Joneses’ group that strive for perfection to impress others more than for personal satisfaction, and are therefore grumpily obsessed about it. They tend to read House Beautiful, and are less creative than the House Proud set so respond to adverts that speak with authority and make guarantees.
Another trend noted was the elevation of the ordinary, as great style comes to everyday products, and how some marketers are responding to the stressed-out home-CEOs – such as a grocery store in Sweden arranged in a snail pattern, starting with everything you need for breakfast and ending with the dinner items.
Check out http://www.leoburnett.ca to take the quiz and see where you fall.