To get the best picture of the Canadian wireless telecoms' target market, look at the latest cellphone offerings: A pre-programmed ring that calls during a specified time - a lame date, perhaps. Or, a music-notification service that finds the name and artist of a song playing on the radio; and inter-carrier text messaging, which is poised to replace the note passing so common in yesterday's classrooms.

Youth have always been in the crosshairs of Canadian wireless carriers, but only recently has there been a concerted push to lure kids (and their parents' money) with innovative marketing strategies and applications. After all, according to a 2004 study by online consumer and business research company Trendscan, 52 per cent of all Canadian youths own cellphones.

How to reach this growing market? Coupled with edgy ads are cellphone features that older users will likely not appreciate, let alone understand. It makes sense: Cool can be defined as something parents are too square to adopt.

Virgin Mobile Canada, which launched less than two months ago, took that concept to heart with its latest cellphone applications. Most unusual is Rescue Ring, a program that allows users to set the phone to ring at a certain time - bad date, dinner with the parents, any situation that requires an immediate bailout. It is advertised to a teen or post-teen demographic who would use this feature to escape socially awkward situations.

Photo courtesy of Rogers Wireless
Cellphone companies target youth with features too cool for parents.

"We're unashamedly youth- oriented," says Nathan Rosenberg, chief marketing officer for Virgin Mobile Canada (although his publicized title is Main Marketing Man, an attempt to coolify his position). "We want to give Canadian youth another choice."

Even before Virgin's official launch in early March, its website called the current Canadian carriers "boring old guys" and claimed Virgin Mobile Canada would be a fresh alternative for frustrated users.

Rosenberg says not only have carriers ignored the pre-paid wireless market (an exaggeration, in fact), but they have also failed to produce any entertaining ads. Virgin Mobile Canada launched its campaign on the shoulders of a widespread motto that asked "Do you have The Catch?" in a marketing message that was part sex-ed mockumentary and part attack on the post-paid contracts known as the staple for the major telecoms.

Pre-paid minutes is Virgin Mobile's main offering and it claims the pre-paid option is more attractive to youth who want freedom from three-year contracts. Rosenberg says youth are inevitably the main adopters of pre-paid minutes, which also appeals to parents who want their children to learn the importance of budget control.

Targeting the 16- to 34-year-old market, as Virgin Mobile Canada claims it does, will spur marketing managers to seek fresh ways to reach a cynical youth market. Other carriers are also vying for a piece of that lucrative pie. Their strategies tend to focus on the cellphone add-ons they hope will attract customers.

Marketing execs realize how integral music can be for a teen, and they are pooling their resources to offer gadgetry beyond the usual ringtone. Pound DJ service is Fido's latest push to reach youth "hungry for the latest and greatest," according to Karim Salabi, director of marketing for Fido.

By holding a Fido phone up to a radio speaker blaring a song unfamiliar to the user, a text message appears with the song's title and artist. With more than two million tracks in the database, and 25,000 added every month, DJ Pound gives a tween looking to name that 50 Cent song some peace of mind. The service costs $1 per successful song recognition, and for an extra $2 the song can be downloaded as a ringtone.

Word-of-mouth publicity helped spread the service to a young demographic, but Fido also aired ads on the radio, a medium the company almost exclusively ignores. Salabi says radio advertising fit in this situation, since Pound DJ is ideal for ardent radio junkies.

"People are excited to use this service because music is such an important part of their lives," Salabi says.

It's such an integral part that Rogers Wireless teamed up with MuchMusic to offer the MuchPhone, which also has a music-recognition service called Tunetracker. Another youth-oriented feature is MuchMix Factory, which can create unique ringtones using pre-recorded loops and melodies.

The MuchPhone allowed young Canadians to "stay connected to the excitement of MuchMusic culture and content," says Suzanne McMeans, manager of communications for Rogers Wireless.

The partnership is a sign that carriers could soon be teaming up with other media giants to carry the brand past billboard ads and TV spots. That follows the Rogers Wireless modus operandi, which targets youth via their recreational hobbies.

They recently hosted the Rogers PWR PLAY Gaming championships, a cross-company initiative that pooled gamers for a multi-platform competition. Participants mashed buttons while listening to the live stage show from popular punk band Billy Talent, a recent Juno winner and kiddie favourite. Combining gaming and live music is part of Rogers' commitment to providing "a complete and highly relevant offering to the youth market," McMeans says.

These strategies come as no surprise to Marc Choma, communications director for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association in Ottawa. "Youth are the early adopters, and then it works upwards," says Choma.

He cites text messaging as an example. What started as a nascent alternative to e-mail has evolved into a "discreet way to connect to each other," says Choma, noting that more than 3.4 million text messages are sent daily in Canada.

Not only is text messaging quicker and safer than the usual note passing or broken-telephone gossip route, but it also has one key advantage over e-mail: No spam.

Whether marketing text messaging or fancy ringtones, Salabi advises carriers to consider the diversity of their target market. "People talk of youth as a homogenous bunch, but they're not," he says. "One chunk of youth doesn't always like a slick brand."

While none of the carrier reps interviewed mentioned targeting the pre-teen market, data from the United States show an incoming trend.

Cellphone ownership among American youth age 12 to 14 increased to 40 per cent in December 2004 from 13 per cent in February 2002, according to a tracking study from NOP World Technology.

That means another youth segment will need to be considered in future marketing tactics, if the carriers truly want to stay competitive in an already battle-scarred industry.

(David Silverberg can be reached at silverberg@businessedge.ca)