Can’t pay attention, won’t pay for content
Pauline Robson, Director – Real World Insight, MediaCom: How are we going to persuade our digital-savvy kids that content should not always be free?
Who remembers the Amiga, Amstrad or Commodore 64? These were the PCs that kids had in 1997. The pace of change in technology and communication over the last decade or so has been unprecedented; at the forefront of it are children. Though the average 11 year old may not be an active member of the Twitterati or fit the profile of the classic early adopter, much technology adoption (PCs, online penetration, multichannel TV) has been driven by households with children in them. The current generation of youngsters are true “digital natives”, growing up in a world where the internet, social networking and mobile phones are not the next new phenomenon but established technologies that have been around for as long as they can remember. Our research has identified a number of key themes for digital natives that will be explored at the forthcoming MRG conference in Malta. We will however focus on two of those themes here.
How can media owners make meaningful connections with the ‘quick fix’ generation?
As the digital world speeds up children become ever more proficient at multi-tasking and keeping up with the dizzying pace of change. But at what cost? Nicholas Carr, author of ‘The Shallows – What the internet is doing to our brains’, suggests that the way we consume content online is having an effect on our brains and that people are losing the ability to immerse themselves in long-form text or concentrate on one task for long periods of time.
Whether this assertion is borne out by research in neuroscience remains to be seen, but if Carr’s theory is correct it is fair to assume that this effect will only be more pronounced in our current and future generations of digital natives. How kids who have grown up with online content, instant messenger, text messages and social networking process information has profound implications for the way that advertisers and media owners (not to mention educators) can build meaningful connections with them.
Despite having more disposable income, kids expect their content to be free
More alarming from a business perspective is the notion that an entire generation is growing up with the idea of free access to content and services. Whereas once we paid for an AtoZ to help us navigate around town, we now have googlemaps on our mobiles; where we might have bought a daily newspaper on the way to work, we can now access much of this content for free online. This is already causing enough of a problem for content providers looking to run a viable business, but when we consider that an entire generation is growing up expecting content of any description to be free, we can see that there may be an even more troubled future ahead.
This can be observed very starkly when it comes to music – young children are downloading music for free – nearly three-quarters of 8-12 year olds who download music don’t pay for it. Very often this is the easiest option available to them as they don’t have credit or debit cards with which to purchase online. Mobile phones are also increasingly being used as a means of sharing music between friends instantly. Once these children are familiar with the idea that music or other types of content are free, it becomes extremely difficult to persuade them to pay and this has huge implications for content providers everywhere, from music to film to online publishers. Ironically, our research shows that kids have more disposable income than they have ever had before and more children than ever are buying goods online.
Out of these two trends, one is easier to address than the other – our research into kids over the last 13 years had given us a clear set of guidelines for how best to communicate with children. But a harder nut to crack is the problem of monetising content. Children are growing up believing that access to content should be instant and more importantly free. Pandora’s box is open and content providers are going to have to work harder than ever to persuade future generations that their stuff is worth paying for.
Pauline will be speaking at this year’s MRG conference in Malta from 3rd to 6th November. Click here for more information or to book your ticket.