Metro always has an eye for the future and as a forward thinking brand we recognise the need to predict trends - before they affect our business.

In order to do this, we recruited hundreds of 16 and 17 year olds to our award winning Urban Life panel and got some of them involved in a bespoke, revolutionary research project. This was designed to bring you new insights which can help you and your clients engage these budding Urbanites* in the future.

A selection of our initial findings can be found here, but as a permanent fixture of our research panel, this audience is available for you to tap into and ask anything you think might help shape new campaigns for you or your clients – FOR FREE!

For more information, or to suggest questions to ask our panel of youths, just contact sally.evans@ukmetro.co.uk

*18-44 year old urban professionals

Desk Research And Social Media Tracking

  • Assessed the changing nature of teenagers’ collective relationship with the city
  • Used social media tracking to identify how teenagers discuss their offline worlds online, how they organise and congregate
Expert Interviews
  • We got expert opinions on how young people are connecting social media/technology and the city and the implications of this.
Online Research
  • We developed an online space through which 16 and 17 year olds contributed directly and collaboratively
  • We developed a mechanic to allow them to build their own perfect city of the future
  • They each wrote a brief description of their city - how it functions, what makes it special, the impact of technology/social media on it
Depth Interviews And Blogging Diaries
  • Each participant kept a two week blog-based diary, outlining their daily use
    of social media/technology and their offline communication with friends

Here’s a few nuggets of knowledge from our brand new youth panel...

Some quick fire stats!
  • 83% of 16-17 year olds are active on wikis (e.g Wikipedia)
  • 60% are active on review sites (e.g. trip advisor or Amazon)
  • 93% are active on social network sites
  • 85% are active on video sharing sites

Social media and technology:

Action 16-17 (%) Urbanites (%)
Heard of Facebook Places 66 41
Heard of Foursquare 22 30
Watched TV online 85 60

Mobile phones:

Action 16-17 (%) Urbanites (%)
Download/listen to music via mobile 53 36
Bought or downloaded music in last month 75 51
Attended a music festival in last month 22 12
Access mobile internet 5+ days per week 33 37
Use PAYG Tariff 46 21

Top 3 Handsets for 16-17 Top 3 Handsets for Urbanites
Sony Ericsson (33%) Nokia (38%)
Nokia (27%) Apple (21%)
Samsung (22%) Sony Ericsson (20%)

Media:

Action 16-17 (%) Urbanites (%)
Visited cinema in last month 80 55
Think will still be reading content from physical newspaper in 3 years 66  
Think they will be doing this via an app 42  

Further education:

Action 16-17 (%) Urbanites (%)
Would attend University, regarding recent tuition fee changes 58 31

Olympics:

Action 16-17 (%) Urbanites (%)
Excited about Olympics 9 15
Planning to purchase tickets 15 40

We asked our panel of 16-17 year olds to build their idea of a perfect city from a toolbox of elements we gave them.

To see what they came up with and what their peers thought of their ideas, go to http://metro.crowddna.everycity.co.uk/build.html and enter the following:

Username: metropartner 
Password: metroview

Here’s a condensed version of what we found out about Urbanites of the future, from our first phase of research. You can view this presentation here or download it and use when discussing your client’s brand strategies.

You can also download the presentation as a PDF, click here or alternatively as a Powerpoint document, click here.

This is just the beginning. Don’t forget we’ll be speaking to this audience regularly across the year. So, if you want to ask them anything at all, just contact sally.evans@ukmetro.co.uk for details.

And remember, it won’t cost you a penny!

Here, Stephen Greene, head of Youth/Social Responsibility at charity Rockcorps gives us a couple of insights into what drives and motivates 16-17 year olds.