Talking not interrupting 16 to 34 year olds

September 2nd, 2004

Steve Rubel posted a note on how marketers are starting to realise and use blogging or ‘online publishing and conversations’ to engage with 18 – 34 year olds.

His note is inspired by Tobi Elkin of the Mediapost

Elkin points out:

Probably the best example of the buzz-generating power of blogs is Gawker Media, publisher of several popular blogs that combined have managed to rack up some 15 million total page views per month. Monthly unique page views for each property range from 300,000 to 900,000.
Gawker Media’s portfolio consists of Gawker, Gizmodo, Fleshbot, Kinja, Wonkette, and Defamer. Currently the toast of the mediarati, Gawker Media has a target demographic aged 26 to 35, according to advertising data on its Web site, although founder and publisher Nick Denton says he’s focused primarily on 18- to 34-year-olds. Either way, the influence of Gawker Media properties extends far beyond those groups. Wonkette’s avid following includes Washington, D.C., power brokers, wily political operatives, and elected representatives and their staffs.
More than 85 percent of readers of Gawker Media blogs are college graduates and have bought airline tickets online. More than 30 percent of readers have household incomes more than $100,000, while two thirds earn more than $50,000.

Nick Denton comments

We all know that 18- to 34-year-olds, particularly males, are disappearing from traditional media, so there’s only so much advertising you can buy on the ‘Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Denton muses. There’s obviously been a shift in budgets to the Web. If you’re marketing a mass-market film, you’ll go to Yahoo! Movies for mass reach. If you’re pitching a niche movie and trying to reach tastemakers, there aren’t all that many options out there.

Tobi Elkin also points out Nike’s move to the custom blog GawkerMedia has significantly moved the perception of blogs from geekdom to mainstream. In the same way that the I think games like the Sims have legitimised gaming in many ways, and the FT supports this view from their article Gamers learn to grow up. Both mediums are interactive, are engaging, have rich content which anyone can participate in.

Audiences are aggregated, they are pulled to the content and the experience, in doing so delivers, as Mike Bayler would say context & meaning.

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