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Teen paradise: YOUtopia.com builds brand loyalty with young adults - Profile

JUST BECAUSE teenagers are devoted to trends doesn't mean they can't be loyal consumers.

That's the vision behind YOUtopia.com, a site working to provide teens a forum to generate awareness for brands.

"There is no all-e.compassing loyalty program out there for the Y generation," says Steve McDougall, general manager of New York-based YOUtopia. "They have grown up with the Internet, are active consumers and have a huge influence on the purchases made by their parents, but purchasing on the Internet is difficult because cash is not really an option. Because of these factors, we felt there was an opportunity to create a loyalty program that provided a mechanism to transact online."

YOUtopia.com, which went live in June 2000, targets teens and young adults ages 13 to 25 and has 750,000 members in the United States and Canada.

Most of the data collected from members.comes from sponsored games, which ask members questions about the sponsors or their products or services in a fun way, McDougall says. This information is then cross-tabulated against membership demographics collected at registration.

"This provides our sponsors with rich data that can be drilled down due to our large number of responses," he says.

For their participation in surveys, games and other areas of the site, members earn "YOUdollars" that are redeemable for gift certificates at partners such as Barnes & Noble, Cineplex Odeon Theaters, Sharper Image and HMV.

About twice a month, the site also.communicates with its members via an e-newsletter, sometimes sponsored by partners such as CDnow and BMG Entertainment. "The timing is dependent on when we have something of value to tell our members, such as a new feature or new ways to redeem YOUdollars," McDougall says.

The best promotion for the site has been viral, says McDougall. Since its inception, new members have been driven to YOUtopia.com through a program that enables members to earn YOUdollars for referring a friend who joins. About 25% of the membership was brought in this way.

YOUtopia has also been promoted through a strategic marketing relationship with BMG Entertainment. BMG provides content for the site in exchange for promotional opportunities.

"For example, last summer we had behind-the-scenes interviews with [musical groups] LFO and 0-Town, which we posted on our site," McDougall said. "We also provided this content to Yahoo! for its broadcast music channel in return for links back to Y0Utopia. Everybody won--the bands got some great exposure, we attracted new customers and Yahoo! had some unique content.

In January, YOUtopia made two big moves. It relocated from Ottawa, Ontario to Manhattan. And it was acquired by Nashville, TN-based 800America.com, parent to several business to-business and business-to-consumer e.commerce and technology.companies.