Headline, July03, 2013

'''TEENS : THE TERMS 

-THE TRUMPETS- THE TRAMPOLINE​'''

Brimming with fun. laughter and energy and abundance of genius, the four high-school students are shooting pool, listening to rap phenom Eminem, and arguing about whether it's okay to tell people that you are already 16 years old when in fact you'll be 15 for two more months.

The room they are in contains a mini-refrigerator, an inflatable chair, and a bulletin board decorated with magazine cutouts and pop stars   -all of the trappings of the suburban rec room. But these kids are at the Stamford, Connecticut-based headquarters of North Castle Partners, an advertising agency obsessed with teenagers that it has created an on-site clubhouse just for them.

And the year in question is 2001.

It's easy to understand why. At the year and time there were 31.5 million kids in America between the ages of 12 and 19, part of the biggest population surge since the baby boom. And these kids had money to burn. Teens spent $105 billion of their own money that year, according to Teenage Research Unlimited. But these numbers also represented a challenge. How do you even begin to figure out what's interesting to today's media- and tech-savvy kids?

If  you want to understand teenagers, you have to form relationships with them. That's something that the agency had been doing and perfecting for the past eight years. To do that, North Castle immersed itself in teen culture by attending sporting events and concerts, and accompanying kids on shopping trips to the Mall. And then, in 1996, the agency partnered up with four high schools  -two in Connecticut, one in the Bronx, and one in Virginia.

Agency execs began teaching biweekly advertising and marketing classes in exchange for the chance to run focus groups with the students.

''There was a chance with Slim Jim when the light came on and we said : ''Let's talk to the teens on their terms,  not on our terms.''

All this while, the Students created and engaged in a wide range of activities. They created time capsules that reflected their lives, drew storyboards for the products, and played guessing games with music and consumer products.

And because North Castle saw the same students over and over and over during the school year, the kids began to feel more comfortable and their responses grew more genuine. But one critic looked at it as such : ''Companies are using the classroom for a private interest. Plus we are telling the kids to look at the world as salesmen, and that makes them start thinking about their relationships in terms of selling things and making money. Their friendships get modified.''

But Paul Robinson, thought otherwise and believed that his experience with North Castle made him more media-savvy  -and that it had given him a career goal. ''My whole perspective on the commercials is not the same as it used to be,'' he said. ''I don't just see everything as a consumer.'' He added that his mother was proud of his ad for a softdrink and kept playing the tape for family and friends.

The bitter fact is : that we are all going to fail as adults if we think that what we were like as teens is what teens are like today. In part, adults inability to understand teens is due to the increasingly short life of ''coolness''.

But it's also because today's teens live in a different world than their predecessors did. That makes sustained personal contact  -like North Castle's biweekly panels with high school students  -that much more important.

The agency had certainly learnt how to appeal to its Teen Panelists. ''North Castle is awesome,'' said  Geoff Hawes, who attended Wilton High School. ''When they'd come to our class, it was a great break in the day. They played cool game with us, and they'd brought us presents.''

So like this agency, the world too, -must learn to listen to Teens

Hey Teens : What's the buzz then. Heroes? 

With respectful and loving dedication to All the Teens of the World. 

!WOW! The World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless will honor them by naming a permanent module for their affairs and their world.

See ya all on !WOW! 

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless