Best Buy is now supporting teenagers. No, not giving them money to buy geek toys, but in helping them to feel good about being teenagers. In what is both a subtle marketing strategy and a website dedicated to teen empowerment, they have launched at15.com.
On this site teens are encouraged to share their opinions, and to step forward and make a difference in their schools and communities. They can even cast votes on where Best Buy donates some of it's charitable funds.They are currently running what's called the IMHO @15 Survey. They are asking teens for their perspectives on the upcoming presidential election, and more. They also promise to summarize the collected data and share it with people and groups in positions to act on behalf of teens
and ensure their collective voice is heard. Totally cool.
They have a chat room where teens can have discussions about the current state of US politics and the candidates, and in the tradition of social networking sites, there is a place teens can post "profiles" and a photo.There is even a blog teens can post to with categories like Politics, Environment, Music, Relationships, Technology, Games, and Movies.
It's barely off the ground, but it's an interesting approach to teen-esteem . . . and brand recognition. I love the subtlety of the phrase, "How would your parents know what to buy without you?" Now that's real teen empowerment.
Thanks for the info, Earl. I went to the site and checked it out. Interesting and positive, there take on their site at "About Us."
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting, only 3 blogs since August and most of the profiles (at least on page 1) are girls...
The website is barely launched, but the idea of corporations investing in youth, however selfishly, intrigues me. We'll see what happens with the site. I know someone at Best Buy and may get an audience with the folks in charge of the promotion. I hope to get them to think about boys specifically and man-making in general as part of the initiative.
ReplyDeleteHow about another phrase/slogan, 'How would teens buy anything without their parents?'
ReplyDeleteAlso, what other important categories like Spirituality/Religion/Meaning of life for extracting teen-esteem voices about the events that are raging around their lives?