In Label Networks’ Sponsorship and Advertising Effectiveness Profile Report 2008, we asked a series of psychodemographic questions to gain a sense of what young people in North America think of when they describe themselves. The results are also intended to assist with wording and concepts for sponsorship, marketing, and advertising strategies based on the perception of the marketplace. In this story, we reveal top results to the question, “Describe yourself in 1 word.” The results are based on an open-ended question which allowed respondents to use any type of self-description or adjective, so it’s important to read through not only the top results, but also expressions of description used further down the list and about targeted demographics as well.

Overall the #1 word used to describe themselves among 13-25-year-olds in North America is Outgoing at 8.7%, followed by Fun at 6.7%, Funny at 6%, Creative at 5.6%, Energetic at 2.9%, Crazy at 2.2%, Music-oriented at 1.9% tied with Loud, then Musical at 1.8%, Friendly at 1.7%, tied with Spontaneous and Smart. Therefore, sponsorship and advertising campaigns that capture aspects of these self-described traits are what resonate most. However it’s very interesting to look at the self-description by gender and age groups.

By gender, for example, its interesting to note that Outgoing is the #1 response among females at 9.2% whereas Fun is the #1 description among males at 7.9%. Other top percentages among females include Fun at 6.4%, Creative at 6.2%, and Funny at 5.8%. Other top descriptions among males include Outgoing at 7.1%, Funny at 6.5%, Creative at 3.8%, and Music at 2.7%. If you look further down the list some other interesting descriptions by gender come to the surface, for example, a higher percentage of females describe themselves as Loud, Crazy, Energetic, and Friendly; and a higher percentage of males describe themselves as Musical, Smart, Honest, and Artist. Much can therefore be learned by self-descriptions based on gender and should be noted for targeted campaigns.



By age groups, even
more is revealing. For example, Outgoing is high across the board, by
peaks among 15-17-year-olds, and is not #1 among 13-14-year-olds. Among
13-14-year-olds the #1 self-description is Fun at 7.8%, followed by
Funny at 7.6%. Also, among 21-25-year-olds the top description is
Creative at 8.2%, then Outgoing at 7.6%. Basically, the older the
demographic, the higher the percentages that describe themselves as
Creative. Just these top differences alone tell much about each
specific target market and could be used for more effective
sponsorship, advertising, and marketing campaigns.