It’s a no-brainer that teens are influenced by celebrities and respond to well-chosen spokespeople. The hard part is figuring out who. Stars see their stock go up or down almost daily.

So I was interested to read the results of Pangea Media’s survey, conducted on the teen quiz site Quibblo, of the pop culture bests and worsts of 2009. Pangea connects marketers and consumers using quiz-based advertising solutions and focused market research. In this case, Pangea tracked the attitudes of more than 1,200 teens.

In terms of music, Taylor Swift was the favorite artist of 41 [ ...continue reading ]]]>

It’s a no-brainer that teens are influenced by celebrities and respond to well-chosen spokespeople. The hard part is figuring out who. Stars see their stock go up or down almost daily.

So I was interested to read the results of Pangea Media’s survey, conducted on the teen quiz site Quibblo, of the pop culture bests and worsts of 2009. Pangea connects marketers and consumers using quiz-based advertising solutions and focused market research. In this case, Pangea tracked the attitudes of more than 1,200 teens.

In terms of music, Taylor Swift was the favorite artist of 41 percent of respondents, getting twice as many votes as Beyoncé and Muse. She was also the best teen celebrity role model. The best pop album was The E.N.D. by the Black-Eyed Peas.

As for the worsts, Miley Cyrus has gone from teen idol to most annoying celebrity and worst teen celebrity role model, according to 44 percent of respondents. Also a poor role model, for 30 percent, is Jamie Lynn Spears (who announced she was pregnant at age 16). A quarter said Kanye West is annoying—quite likely a reaction to his crashing Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMAs.

Teens’ best TV shows included “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” “CSI” and “Glee.” The most popular animated movie was Up. But what teens are really excited about is the upcoming release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse—53 percent said this is the movie they’re most looking forward to, twice as many as said they’re anticipating the latest Harry Potter film.

Entertainment aside, teens reported that their No. 1 concern for 2010 is grades—followed by their parents’ job stability and the economy.

You’ve probably heard about R&B singer Rihanna’s spectacular rise and fall last year. Poised to become the most successful female pop star of the decade—five No. 1 singles, nine Grammys, a CoverGirl endorsement deal—she gained notoriety of another sort instead. At age 20, she was a victim of domestic violence, then stayed silent about it for nine months, during which time nude photos of her were leaked. Gone were the favorable press and long-term fans.

So orchestrating her comeback was no simple matter. As an article in Advertising Age put it, “Rihanna’s return to the pop stratosphere last [ ...continue reading ]]]>

You’ve probably heard about R&B singer Rihanna’s spectacular rise and fall last year. Poised to become the most successful female pop star of the decade—five No. 1 singles, nine Grammys, a CoverGirl endorsement deal—she gained notoriety of another sort instead. At age 20, she was a victim of domestic violence, then stayed silent about it for nine months, during which time nude photos of her were leaked. Gone were the favorable press and long-term fans.

So orchestrating her comeback was no simple matter. As an article in Advertising Age put it, “Rihanna’s return to the pop stratosphere last month was a lot more challenging than it should have been. After the pop princess with a string of No. 1 hits and telegenic good looks appeared in the tabloids battered and bruised following a domestic disturbance with her ex-boyfriend, she couldn’t rely on a new album to reboot her career.”

She worked with Steve Stoute, the founder and CEO of Translation, a music marketing agency, who has aligned Beyoncé and Jay-Z with brands. He set out to restore her position as a global pop diva and present her as a role model for teen girls despite her initial silence.

Stoute told Ad Age that his assistance is “brand work” and said: “With brand work you gotta run a marathon. You can’t just put out a single, sweep an issue under the rug and get out of it through popularity.”

His first priority was Rihanna’s first interview after she broke her silence. Amanda Silverman, Rihanna’s longtime publicist, told Ad Age, “We wanted her to talk and for the music to come so much later.”. She added that Rihanna “is her [own] best spokesperson.” The first interview was with Diane Sawyer on “20/20.”

Even though her comeback album and its singles haven’t been a blowout success, Rihanna’s star is rising again. The “20/20” interview drew 8.18 million viewers (and the show’s best ratings with the 18-to-49 demographic in three years), and she kept the deal with CoverGirl—no small feat in this age when brands are (understandably) skittish about aligning with celebrities who may self-destruct.

There’s even a social responsibility angle to this story. After Rihanna appeared on “20/20,” calls to domestic violence centers went up 59 percent overall and up 72 percent among teen girls.

They do. Teens empowered with the distance-eliminating, cost-free tools of social media have transcended the once all-powerful magazine editor and are looking past divas who once monopolized style to finding their own way around today’s markets.

The case couldn’t have been made better than it was by Tavi Gevinson, a 13-year-old from the Chicago suburbs whose blog inspired a collection by top fashion designers and sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, owners of high-fashion line Rodarte. “Tavi makes you think about things differently, makes you see things differently,” Kate told The Wall Street Journal. The collection went on to influence [ ...continue reading ]]]>

They do. Teens empowered with the distance-eliminating, cost-free tools of social media have transcended the once all-powerful magazine editor and are looking past divas who once monopolized style to finding their own way around today’s markets.

The case couldn’t have been made better than it was by Tavi Gevinson, a 13-year-old from the Chicago suburbs whose blog inspired a collection by top fashion designers and sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, owners of high-fashion line Rodarte. “Tavi makes you think about things differently, makes you see things differently,” Kate told The Wall Street Journal. The collection went on to influence the fashion of teens around the world (not to mention Rodarte lovers including Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett).

News articles might report on surveys about teens identifying Michelle Obama as their favorite role model and Miley Cyrus as their least favorite, but the role model identified in a survey doesn’t translate into influence. In fact, the reality is usually the opposite: Michelle Obama might be seen as important to teens when they’re asked about it, but when it comes to choosing between fashion brands, mobile devices or even when to start having sex, it’s Miley who’s going to be consulted.

Importantly, the power of influence on teenage girls increases as the influencer gets closer. Teenage girls are much more likely to spend money while shopping with a friend than when alone. And they’ll spend three times more money when shopping with their mom than when shopping with a friend. Influence, for the teenage girl, is about closeness. It’s about the person or outlet they can relate to and that can relate to them. It’s about sisterhood.

In a wider sense, the same trend is visible in teen magazines, which have sharpened their focus by integrating the trend of social media influence, as exemplified by style blogger Tavi Gevinson. Instead of twenty- or thirtysomething A-listers appearing in the magazines and offering advice between the covers, it’s teen stars on the covers and, much more important, teenage bloggers offering style advice in the magazine.

Teens want to hear from one another about what’s in and what’s out, what’s effective or offensive. Seventeen magazine’s Style Blog features teenage bloggers like “Courtney” and “Stephanie” who translate the style of teen stars into wearable outfits. The fact that readers can comment adds a level of engagement that translates into influence. The influence is coming in the form of a conversation with figures who represent the teens themselves.

It feels like a homecoming for me, since I’ve been working with teenagers almost since I was one myself. In 1989, I became president of a company that marketed career services to students through job fairs and a magazine. (The New York Times profiled me and said I “think young.”) In the 1990s, I organized focus groups at tweenager slumber parties for Levi’s and online for AOL, oversaw a daily viewer [ ...continue reading ]]]> Welcome to The Sisterhood blog, a forum for teenage girls and marketing professionals to exchange insights about what girls want and how marketers can give it to them.

It feels like a homecoming for me, since I’ve been working with teenagers almost since I was one myself. In 1989, I became president of a company that marketed career services to students through job fairs and a magazine. (The New York Times profiled me and said I “think young.”) In the 1990s, I organized focus groups at tweenager slumber parties for Levi’s and online for AOL, oversaw a daily viewer feedback system for the in-school TV network Channel One and was a key consultant on Esprit’s “What Would You Do to Change the World?” campaign, which cast Gwyneth Paltrow, then a student at UC Santa Barbara, in her first ad. I created the National Teen Summit for Clearasil, co-authored the Greetings from High School and Kids Online book series and was a creative consultant on Pepsi’s “It’s Like This” campaign, which ran on MTV in the early ’90s.

More recently, I reconnected with the teen market through the youth committee I helped pull together for the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which assists wounded warriors. Last year I launched the social-media-based fundraiser Tweet to ReMind.

But enough about me. I’ll be posting from time to time, but the point of this blog is to be a community—or, well, a Sisterhood—in which everyone gets to have her say and everyone is heard. Our contributors are a mix of teenage girls and marketing pros. Some postings will be for marketers about teen news, others by teens about teen life. We hope you’ll let us know what you think about both.

Our first two teen girl posts will be from Evelyn D., a 17-year-old at a private high school in Westchester County, N.Y., who helped us create The Sisterhood and will be working on it in the Euro PR offices this spring for her senior-year project, and her 16-year-old sister, Isabelle. They consider themselves best friends, share many friends (and clothes) and are very style-conscious yet also serious about the environment and the suffering in Darfur and Sudan. Evelyn and Isabelle helped me understand the powerful, intimate bond that teenage girls share with their sisters and best friends, and they are now serving as two of our 12 national spokespeople.

Another is Christine V., a 14-year-old freshman at a public high school in Nassau County, N.Y., with a special emphasis on music and the arts. She has been dancing since age 2 and is currently involved in drama, show choir, tap, jazz and ballet. She performs in several dance and theater productions a year and is rarely seen without her iPod.

I’m thrilled to have them on board.

We want you on board, too. Everyone from girls between the ages of 13 and 18 to marketing executives can join in. If you’d like to blog for us, see our guidelines. Here are some questions to get you started:

Why is a sister so sacred?

What’s the deal with teens and cell phones? Why are they always on? How much is too much?

What stresses you out, and what calms you down?