WHAT DO TEENS WANT, LISTEN TO, WATCH & BUY? ...moderated by Rob Souriall, VP Strategic Marketing & Promotions, Hollywood Records...this panel earlier this month proved an eye-opener for this blogger Joyce Schwarz, JCOM, www.joycecom.com , emerging media & entertainment consultant and author. Here's a quick recap of some of the highlights from the panel of teens -- watch for more in my upcoming article on the PMA Starpower conference at www.imediaconnection.com.
Click on thumbnail to see JPEG of the PMA Starpower conference live consumer panel at Universal Studios, moderated by Rob Souriall, VP Stretegic Marketing & Promotions, Hollywood Records.
ABOUT THE PANEL --NOTE: The panel of teens was recruited from Los Angeles and Orange County by Schlesinger Associates, an LA market-research firm. Tobey Belsky, facility director was kind enough to talk with me and tell me a little about their services. Also FYI -- I did see Tobey and her colleague handing out envelopes to the teens afterwards so I'm assuming that there was a reseach payment fee for the panelists that also included parking reimbursement.
INTERESTING PANELIST COMMENTS: Covering one of these live panels is always a trip -- so I've just included some of the comments made by the panelists and some general observations. I also put in a call to moderator Souriall @ Hollywood Records 
and was fascinated about how brilliant he is about this marketplace and what's happening in it and how they track trends in the making.
For more on that scroll down. By the way check out the www.hollywoodrecords.com site-- they're doing some kewl stuff and you can get some links to free sampler tunes too!
TEEN COMMENTS --HOT OR NOT STUFF & MORE
*HELP WITH GROCERY SHOPPING. Rather amazingly almost the whole panel of teens say they help with grocery shopping. Even those that don't make sure they give their parents (moms) their grocery list including according to one dude on the panel-- pasta, steak, PopTarts etc.
*THEY CARRY SHOPPING BAGS !PLUS almosts all the kids say they get roped into carrying the bags into the house--Blogger note -- as a marketer my first thought was -- kewl --put an insert in the bottom of the bags aimed at the teens -- free sampler CD or a sticker/label you tear off and check on the web for freebies.
*They are not too keen on sweepstakes-- they wouldn't buy Pepsi because they could win a million bucks-- most of the teens seem skeptical with these kinds of promos-- they prefer McDonalds Monopoly type promos where there is a 50/50 chance of winning --even something small like free fries or large soda. Blogger note-- the question wasn't asked what do they think of free stuff-- from what I understand -- this generation LOVES FREE STUFF....so if you got a free t shirt or cap for entering the contest -- that might be a kewl incentive.
*HOT WORDS/PHRASES?? What's hot and what's not? Asked about cool phrases they offered such words as " RAD * CHILL *TIGHT *SWEET and *FINE.....*
*MYSPACE IS THEIR SPACE....going across the panel person by person -- it seemed that the average time spent on Myspace (and I believe everyone on the panel was on Myspace.com) was an astounding 3 hours or so -- some even spent 3 1/2 hours a day --and that's what they're admitting!
*THEY ALL ATTEND MOVIES -- yes, they go to theatres-- seems like most of them just want to get 'out of the house' but they like the community aspect of going to movie theatres versus just watching DVDs at home.
*They buy CDs -- yes, the buy MUSIC --almost the whole panel (who expressed an amazing diversity of music likes -- from Metallica to 'anything with a beat' say they buy CDs at stores. And yes, they buy tunes online...Blogger note -- it sure ain't the year 2000 or 2001 anymore...iTunes seems to be training the crowd that tunes cost at least 99 cents! This seemed to be a point of discussion later with some of the attendees who don't believe it's like that Back East -- they don't think kids are buying CDs anymore?
*They watch some TV -- Although surprisingly to this blogger no one admitted being a big American Idol fan or voter they do watch TV -- among the shows mentioned "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES" !
*Surprisingly they all have mobile phones but only a few had iPods...blogger note-- not sure if they're waiting for the video iPod or if younger teen iPod ownership is spotty still....They buy ringtones -- and change them regularly -- especially one chick who said that she gets free ringtones with her mobile service. And they text and text and text.....
Moderator Rob Souriall's call on the panel: A quick call by this writer to Rob Souriall got us right through to the man himself..here are some of his comments about the panelists and what's happening in music today....
*Sure seems like they are texting more on their phones than talking!
*You have mini-generations of teens-- this generation is getting used to paying 99 cents per song versus the free - downloading generation of 2000 - 2001.
This blogger was fascinated to find out from Rob that at Hollywood Records his firm is using a company called Big Champagne (check it out-- Marketing research focused on file-sharing networks, with "TopSwaps" charts of most-popular musical...(www.bigchampagne.com
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