18 May 2012
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ScamOur pioneering research project is all grown upSCAM – MediaCom’s youth project has been helping us to speak kids’ language for over a decade. This Christmas it turns teenager – and it’s still helping us keep clients (and schools) happy. Background – Kids move fast, industry research moves slowly…Remember what you were up to in 1996? The Spice Girls were chart toppers, there were just 4 kids TV channels and the internet wasn’t really a part of everyday life. Huddled together in a non-air conditioned office where everyone shared a single email terminal, a bunch of media folk were scratching their heads trying to work out what made kids tick. Kids change rapidly but data on Youth TGI was up to a year old (and still is), and buying additional research studies was expensive for an up and coming agency. The Big Idea – Help Britain’s underfunded schools and gaininsight tooLuckily for MediaCom’s future generation of planners, those folk came up with a brilliant, ethical idea. The School Children’s Attitude Monitor was born in December ’96. Ever since, we’ve been listening to 1000 children aged 8-16 three times a year with our quali-quant survey. The study covers their relationships with media and attitudes to hot topics. It tells us what’s hot and what’s not in the world of music, advertising, celebrities, films and more. To our knowledge, it’s the longest running insight project in any agency. Making It Happen – Building a two-way relationshipWe designed the project in conjunction with teachers of schools across the country, ensuring our surveys were responsible and wouldn’t interfere with school work. To give something back, we do prize draws for the kids and incentivise schools direct so they can buy books or technology. Our results get used in their lessons – one school has recently used the results of SCAM to further their understanding of how the economic downturn is affecting kids and their families. Marilyn Reich, one of our SCAM school teachers says: “Children always enjoy completing the questionnaires and have gained confidence and ‘awareness’ of the real world. And with the money you send the school we are saving for a lap top that year 5 and 6 can use for special work.” Results – SCAM gets top marks with our clients!A hard worker on new business… SCAM has been a lynchpin of our wins on new business pitches over the years, attracting and helping retain clients such as Tomy, EA, The Metropolitan Police, Re Creation and Mega Brands to name a few. Our success rate on youth brand pitches hits an impressive 85%. Helping Cartoon Network chalk up more viewers…SCAM helps us understand kids’ relationships with social media in the face of unlinked industry figures. SCAM quantifies that just 13% of 8-12 year olds claim not to use social sites. It tells us which ones they love and how they are being used. So when it came to planning the Ben 10 launch, we were confident about how to design our campaign. We achieved the highest recall of an online campaign for 7-11year olds boys (50%) on Dubit’s ad tracking survey, and the show achieved the channel’s strongest ratings since 2005. Avoiding ‘down with the kids’ syndrome - no “dad dancing”in sight…Credible communication is all important for this target market - SCAM’s ‘what’s hot’ section has continually helped steer our clients towards the right celebrity endorsements, We helped our client Re Creation Games choose the coolest footballers for a new handheld football game, and helped the Met Police find credible celebs for their anti bullying campaign. So with all that insight for all those years - it’s no wonder SCAM gets a good report! Client QuoteMediaCom have repeatedly proven to us that they are passionate about and understand the children and youth market. This is best exemplified by their continued investment in the SCAM research project which keeps them up to date with trends in our market and helps drive the media strategy and planning process. Joanne Gray, Head of European Marketing, Tomy |
