Tweens: A consuming army

Tweens: a buzzword created on Madison Avenue? Probably.

Nevertheless, when this pre-teen, toy-abandoning, video-game loving, fashion forward, techno-savvy, fickle consumer demographic makes a move, we all watch while holding our collective breath.

Never before has a group of youngsters—with an age span from 8- to 12-years old—wielded so much consumer clout. As proof, just about every industry—especially the toy biz, suffering from the loss of tween interest in traditional toys—is bending over backward trying to catch their attention and tap into their surprisingly plump wallets.

Just this summer, a new Nickelodeon/Youth Intelligence June 2005 Tween Report stated that tweens are definitely “firmly entrenched consumers,” with an average of $9.15 per week in allowance or spending money, paying out $27.00 of their own money on their last shopping trip. Additionally, they have tremendous sway with adults, demonstrating a surprising range of family purchasing decisions, the report stated.

And in their book, The Great Tween Buying Machine (Paramount Market Publishing, Inc.), authors David Siegel, Timothy Coffey and Gregory Livingston suggest that tweens themselves now “spend approximately $10 billion annually on their own.”

Now this is definitely a demographic wallet worth tapping, however difficult it may be.

In fact, many toymakers are expanding into the only recently charted tween terrain, hoping to catch the attention—albeit short—of its population.

Indeed, it's a risky business and the savvy toy pro does not venture forth unarmed—with information.

Jay Gissen, founder, CEO and creator of RIOT media, New York, a lifestyle brand for tween boys, has spent years compiling top research data on that demographic, and shares much of it now with Playthings readers.

“I assembled it from work I commissioned from a professional researcher who gave me hundreds of pages of research reports,” says Gissen, adding that he culled and categorized what he believed to be the most relevant and interesting points. The research itself is from a variety of trusted and reliable research sources, notes Gissen.

Although he oversaw the launch of several successful magazines, he credits himself with “having the maturity of a Webelos,” the tween rank from Cub Scout to Boy Scout. In fact, the father of two boys and two girls credits his years as a Cubmaster with giving him “a personal perspective on today's American tween.”

These days, Gissen is running full-throttle—along with company president Dave Reisman—developing RIOT as a brand, following introduction of its “humorously irreverent” Web site for tween boys, www.riotweb.com.

In addition to the site, featuring the company's emblematic chimp, RIOT's 2005 business plan includes the premiere issue of RIOT magazine and comic book, as well as trading cards, posters, stickers and a wide array of apparel.

Following are some key research findings Gissen finds particularly compelling.

Nearly two-thirds of children have at least one form of video or PC technology in their room, and those with more than that are likely to use them simultaneously, according to Knowledge Networks/SRI.

Children with such bedroom media technologies as TV, PCs, video games and Web access are more responsive to advertising and have less parental supervision than those who do not.

More than two-thirds of children have TV in their bedrooms, while 40 percent have a video game console and 15 percent have a DVD player. The media habits of kids who have access to such technology in their rooms differed from those who do not.

Among children with an own-room TV, 75 percent report multitasking while watching compared with 65 percent of those without their own sets. Only half of such kids say they have parental rules regarding use of TV versus 61 percent of those without TVs in their rooms.

Among children with Internet access, 57 percent say all their Internet use is in their rooms. Of them, 61 percent report parental rules restricting usage versus 69 percent of those who don't have their own Web access, says an Oct. 7, 2003 report in MediaPost, New York.

Tweens are spending more than twice as much time online as they did a year ago, according to a recent poll by Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y.

The report also found that children ages 6-17 spend 3.1 hours a day watching TV and 2.9 hours a day using digital media such as the Internet, the computer for non-Internet activities, and video games.

A majority of parents agreed that they had knowledge of and influence over children's online activities. More than 86 percent perceived their role as that of a guide to good content rather than a watchdog. Eighty-one percent of parents also said that their children's online use helped in their learning.

If they were allowed access to only a single medium and had to choose which one that would be, a majority of children would rather have the Internet than TV, radio or magazines, according to a study conducted for Advertising Age by NeoPets, a youth-oriented Web site.

Multiple studies suggest Sony leads the three dominant game-system companies. Its PS2, the most prevalent system in U.S. homes, recently passed U.S. unit sales of 25 million consoles. That's in addition to Sony's PlayStation, which is at 30 million units and still selling.

Nintendo's Game Boy Advance SP has sold approximately 6.5 units in North America since its introduction in March 2003. More than 150 million Game Boys have been sold.

By the end of 2006, when all three major companies are expected to have launched their next-generation consoles, Sony will have a North American installed base of 37.4 million PS2s, Microsoft will have 16.3 million Xboxes and Nintendo will have 13.9 million GameCubes in homes, forecast analysts.

Various research also found that:

• Seventy-five and a half percent of gamers are male; 37.5 percent are younger than 18.
• For Computer Gamers, 30 percent of most frequent game players are under 18 years old.
• For Console Gamers, 38 percent of most frequent game players are under 18 years old.
• The average video game player was at it 6.5 hours a week.
• Half of all Americans age 6 and older play computer and video games.
• Young people using their TVs to play video games in prime time doubled in the last year.
• Forty-three percent of game players say they play games online one or more hours per week, up from 37 percent in 2003.
• More than half of game players expect to be playing as much or more 10 years from now as they do today.
• Thirty-seven percent played online in 2003, up from 18 percent in 1999.

From banner advertising and branding to product placement and even integrated story lines, the trend of adding advertising to video games is growing rapidly.

According to Activision, Santa Monica, Calif., the company spent $10 million on in-game product placement in 2003. Cambridge, Mass.-based market research firm Forrester Research, estimates that revenues for this segment will hit $700 million by 2005.

Analysts estimate that wireless games will grow into a $2 billion business over the next few years. Once standards and compatibility issues are resolved and data speeds improve, we will see a new kind of smart phone allowing for mobile games that depend heavily on social contact, communication and community.

The explosion of wireless phones and other mobile devices have some industry experts predicting that online games accessed by these devices will create a $2.6 billion industry in the U.S. by 2010.