A generation gap has opened up between parents, who still regard TV as the most important medium, and people under 25.

“Today’s generation has always had TV and is much more media savvy. Research shows that younger people are more likely to believe a stranger in an internet chat room than a TV advertisement,” said Roisin Donnelly, marketing director of Procter & Gamble.

So P&G, is increasingly focusing on magazines, radio, the internet and “word of mouth” advertising, where consumers tell people directly they use a product.

The company now distributes cosmetics products to celebrities in the hope they will mention that they use them in interviews in weekly gossip magazines.

And four years ago when P&G launched a new toilet paper, it distributed samples to opinion leaders and “chat” leaders – ordinary people who influence their social or work group.

From The Guardian.
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