Advertising Media and Forms and their Perception by Young People

Advertising Media and Forms and their Perception by Young People (13-18)

Brand and product advertising uses a wide variety of media, such as newspapers, radio, television or websites to create needs and trigger interest. Below are listed the main forms of media advertisements:

Online Advertising

On websites there are advertising banners that use colour effects, sounds or changing content. On social networks, advertising is usually displayed in a personalised form between the postings or at the edge of the page, while audiovisual advertising clips are inserted upstream and downstream in videos. On social networks there are certain forms of advertising that are deliberately designed so that they are not immediately recognised as advertisements, they seem to be part of the content/news feed and have just small print saying, for example, ‘sponsored’.

On social networks like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, there are certain people, that are branded as ‘influencers’ that usually advertise certain brands, services, etc. This advertising might also not be explicitly labelled as such and even adults could be confused whether this is part of the content or advertisement. On You Tube there are also similar advertising strategies, as used in the social networks.

There is also this popular practice of ‘unboxing’ where these influencers show their shopping hunts. This could also be a form of advertising if certain brands pay to the influencers to do unboxing with their goods. Read the article Why Teens Are the Most Elusive and Valuable Customers in Tech that we have linked in our resources section to learn more about the importance for online advertising for this age group.

Advertising in Apps

In free apps one can often find advertisements in the form of faded-in pictures, as recorded videos or as small advertising banners. The full paid versions are usually without advertising. A separate form of advertising in apps are the so-called "in-app purchases" or "in-app items". This means that, for example, in a free game app, additional materials can be purchased to help the player reach the goal of the game faster. While big advertisements in apps such as banners, videos or pop-ups can usually be identified by differences in appearance and content, corresponding purchase recommendations for in-app items can usually only be identified by careful reading of the message and are therefore often not clearly perceived as advertising by the adolescence audience. There is also the risk of tweens and teens paying for digital offers without their parents' consent. When selecting apps, care should also be taken to ensure that the advertisements are disabled.

Of course, there is also the Television Advertising, Print and Poster Advertising and Radio Advertising. More information on this topic you can find in our advertising courses for younger age groups.

Learn More

The most common advertising strategies the marketers use to reach teens are:

Exploiting insecurities. Brands appealing to teens take advantage of their particular vulnerabilities: the desire to fit in, to be perceived as attractive, and to not be a considered a loser. Tweens and teens are extremely attuned to their place in the peer hierarchy, and advertising acts as a kind of "super peer" in guiding them toward what's cool and what's acceptable. Both teen boys and girls are highly susceptible to messages around body image, and marketers use this to their advantage.

Tracking data. Once children turn 13, companies have little restrictions over marketing to them and collecting their data. The information they collect isn't personally identifiable -- it's far more valuable. Tracking teens' digital trails helps companies precisely determine their tastes, interests, purchase histories, preferences, and even their locations so they can market products to them or sell that data to other companies. It is important to talk to the teens about using privacy settings and understanding what information they're unwittingly giving to companies.

Using peer influence on social media. Advertisers actively enlist teen followers on social media to market products. You can find this in online stores where you can share items you like with friends. Many brands encourage teens to broadcast their interactions with brands (such as uploading pics of themselves with a particular purse, drink, or outfit). These techniques reinforce the idea that brands "make" the person, and it is essential to help teens realise that their self-worth is not determined by what they own (or don't own).

To learn more about methods and strategies used by marketers to reach young kids read the article What is the impact of advertising on kids? that we have linked in our resources section and which we used as a source. The article Why Teens Are the Most Elusive and Valuable Customers in Tech explains why teens are so important for marketers and how advertising wants to give them what they want.

Exercise

It is important that young people are encouraged to think about how advertising influences ideas about how girls, boys, women and men should look, wear, do, eat and drink. Also, tweens and teens can start thinking about political advertising and how it affects people's attitudes towards things like wealth, fairness, etc. The lifestyle in which products are presented has a big impact on young adults. Take a look at advertising yourself and answer the following questions before asking parents (and they later their children):

How real is the lifestyle being advertised? Do you know anyone who lives like that?
Are the foods and drinks in advertisements healthy choices? Why aren’t vegies and fruit advertised like burgers?
What do advertisements say about gender, families, body shape and cultural diversity? Do they reflect real life?
How does the information people post on social media influence the kinds of advertisements you see on social media?

Young people also need to learn about the small print. For example, a telephone contract is not only a certain amount per month – there’s also an ongoing commitment.

(Source: Advertising - how it influences children and teens)

What you learn in this course

You'll know the different characteristics of the advertisements in different forms of media.
You'll be able to distinguish advertising media and forms of advertising from each other .
You'll be ablte to name and describe main strategies marketers use to reach young people.
You can list features that make it possible to recognise advertising.
You can name the importance of online advertising in this age group.

Get ready: Tips for MediaParent consultants

When talking to young people about advertising, help them to see the difference between products and the strategies used to sell them. Parents could discuss with young people what strategies are used to promote products in different media. How is a beauty product advertised on TV, in magazines and social media? What do teenagers find most appealing and why? Parents could also ask tweens and teens to 'dissect' an advertisement and share their findings about the message the advertisement conveys and the strategy it uses to appeal to the target audience.

As always, this exercise can also be a visualisation for the parents' evening. Prepare advertisements of the same product in different media and let the parents discuss differences. In addition to classic TV commercials and advertisements, use stories and videos by influencers as well as advertisements that are played on social media to make the differences clear. Also ask how to recognise the advertising in the respective medium, is there a label?