How young people communicate has been turned upside down. Mobile phones, high-speed Internet access, online gaming and instant messaging truly make it a brave new world.

For T3 and its clients, this change poses the million-dollar question: How do you best market to young people? Think unconventional.

Young people today
Young people tend to be cynical and jaded because they've grown up being marketed to. They're also savvy beyond their years. Therein lies the challenge. How do you reach them in a palatable way that doesn't feel like you're forcing something on them or trying too hard? It's often a very thin line.

"It's quite challenging to reach young people because they've seen every marketing trick in the book. They're not easily fooled," says Chad Currie, T3 interactive creative director. "They've grown up in the digital world, so you're on their home turf, and they can smell a fake every time."

T3's recent MTV work has done just that - reach young people where and how they want to be reached.

Busting moves
T3 busted out a few new moves to capture MTV followers, while being mindful of the tenets for reaching Gen X/Y - Speak their language. Be bold. Be authentic. And entertain them.

To promote MTV's Video Music Awards show, T3 created colorful banners with alluring imagery and slick Flash animation to communicate the show's details and highlight the entertainment. Viewers also got a little twist: the ability to quickly submit their mobile phone number and get a text message reminder on the day of the show.

For MTV's red-hot Laguna Beach Season 1 DVD release and Season 2 premiere, T3 turned playful to reach an audience of mostly teenage girls. One ad featured the new DVD set washing up on shore to the sound of crashing waves and "Paradise found" messaging etched in the sand.

Another Laguna Beach concept used a clever visual countdown approach to remind viewers to tune in to the premiere and buy the DVD set.

A personality quiz with a viral component ratcheted up interaction rates by engaging teenage girls to instantly discover which Laguna Beach cast member they were most like, then share the quiz with friends via e-mail.

"Viral marketing really resonates with young people because it gives them a chance to share cool stuff with friends and be in the know," says Leslie North, T3 media director.

MTV's Beavis & Butt-head DVD release effort was another classic instance of reaching young adults in a way that resonates with them. T3 developed ad units with video clips; page takeovers with contextual hijinks; in-game ads; and expandable units that function like a microsite within a banner and include a Beavis & Butt-head smackdown game, AIM icons and a soundboard.

Engage and entertain
In the Beavis & Butt-head units, selling the DVD set was secondary to entertaining and engaging the audience. This indirect approach is what young people expect, says Currie. "Young people know you're trying to market to them, and they're cool with it if you make the effort to engage and entertain them in return for their attention."

Clearly, you have to be smart when marketing to Gen X/Y. You also have to think a little different because you're communicating with a generation that's totally at ease with technology. "To young people, it's not innovative to watch a video clip online, or play a game within an ad unit or share something with a friend online," says Tommy Klumker, T3 senior technical designer. "To them, the digital world is a way of life, not just another medium."

An October 2005 Emarketer report, "Kids and Teens: Blurring the Line Between Online and Offline," notes that teens consider the Internet "like electricity" and that the best marketing finds ways to let them have a sense of ownership and control. "The Internet is all about choice, and teens, perhaps more than the rest of us, see it as a way to express their i