72 per cent of teens say they are willing to friend a brand in Habbo Hotel compared to 40 per cent of adults on Facebook.
Habbo Hotel, the worlds largest virtual community for teens, discovers that brand friending for teenagers online is a powerful way to build brand advocacy.
Brands play a key part in how teenagers define their interests and beliefs and it seems this association is just as strong online as it is offline. Today’s teenagers don’t differentiate between the online and offline worlds and brands that engage and involve teens are just as likely to form a part of their digital persona, as they are a part of their real life identity.
In January 2010 Habbo Hotel asked over 5,300 teens what they thought about brands appearing in their favorite digital spaces. The Habbo Hotel survey was influenced by FEED Razorfish’s annual study, charting how technology is changing the way consumers engage with brands. FEED asked 1,000 connected adult consumers about their opinions on how online brand activity influences their decisions. The Habbo Hotel survey revealed that adults and teens think very differently about brands and branding in online environments with younger consumers willing to more actively engage if the brand conversation is relevant.
The biggest differences between adults and teens were seen in their willingness to associate themselves (“friending”) with brands online. 72 per cent of teens say they are willing to friend a brand in Habbo Hotel compared to 40 per cent of adults on Facebook. In Habbo Hotel this applies especially to branded items.
Not only are more teens friending brands but they are far more engaged as well. Compared to 70 per cent of Facebook or MySpace’s connected adults, some 92 per cent of teens want to take part in brand activities or contests in Habbo Hotel. Moreover, 40 per cent said they have produced content for these brand activities, which matches Habbo’s experience.
Perhaps even more impressive is how teenagers are willing to continue showing their allegiance long after a brand promotion has finished. Some 93 per cent of Habbo Hotel teens continue to show their loyalty through showcasing branded badges or virtual goods long after the event. This high degree of loyalty defies the rapid brand switching culture of today and provides indications as to the long-term value of branded content in the form of virtual goods as a new marketing platform.
“Teenagers are a pretty discerning bunch and gaining their support and loyalty can be tough for brands. They live their lives as much online as offline, which gives brands an ideal opportunity to engage with this hard to reach group,” says Phil Guest, Executive Vice President of Global Advertising Sales, Sulake. “Engagement happens when relevant brands involve rather than interrupt. We see this happening in Habbo Hotel everyday, where unrivaled levels of engagement are measured in many ways including the level of friending and brand conversations.”
