AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute MarketerWhat Is It With These Kids Today?

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What Is It With These Kids Today?

“Kids today.” There are so many media options today it is hard to know what kids are doing and what they are not doing. A report from eMarketer, called “US Kids and Digital: Gauging How Digital These Digital Natives Really Are,” tries to understand these young digital consumers.listen to music

Child internet users (that is almost scary to say) have their own preferences about TV, video and the internet. Nielsen says that 2-11-year-old’s average 19 hours and 15 minutes per week of live TV and time-shifted TV. eMarketer estimates that kids ages 0-11 will spend some time on the internet during the month.

The reality is that children are consuming media in various forms every day.

Here are some fun facts to know and tell about monthly media reach of 12-17-year-old’s:

  • 95% say they listed to AM/FM radio
  • 92% watched live or time-shifted TV
  • 36% watched a DVD
  • 51% used a game console
  • 21% watched a video on a laptop/desktop

What’s with kids today? Well, they are listening to the radio, watching TV, searching the internet, playing games and watching DVDs. Instead of shunning one media or another, kids are using a wide range of media options.

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Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.

After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.

He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”

Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”

One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.

Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.

Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.