From a nonprofit, advice on reaching millennials

Do Something, the national nonprofit organisation that encourages young Americans to become involved in causes and civic action, is doing something different: starting a unit devoted to helping marketers and other organizations better engage with young Americans.In keeping with an approach at Do Something to not take itself so seriously, the unit is being named TMI, as in "Too Much Information." A presentation that Do Something has prepared about the new unit offers this comment under the TMI logo, "Just kidding, there's never too much info!"

TMI will offer marketers and organizations services like those already used by Do Something in creating cause campaigns, which it promotes each year to its 1.7 million members and other Americans ages 13 to 25.

According to Do Something, more than 2.4 million people took action through the organization in response to 25 cause campaigns in 2012. Those services include research, strategy related to mobile devices and text messaging, social media and Web site production.

TMI will also offer marketers a chance to use its services to reach consumers who are older and outside the Do Something demographic sweet spot.

TMI is being led by Aria Finger, as president. She is also chief operating officer at Do Something in New York. Similarly, staff members of Do Something will also work on TMI assignments. Mobile Commons, a mobile technology and strategy company in Brooklyn that works with Do Something on its cause campaigns, will also work with TMI.

The formation of TMI is indicative of how much time and attention Madison Avenue continues to devote to figuring out the best methods of wooing the youth market, particularly the so-called millennials, who are teenagers through about age 30.

Another example occurred in February, when MRY - an agency in New York, formerly known as Mr. Youth, that specializes in youth marketing and social media - absorbed the North American operations of the giant digital agency LBi in a reorganization by the new LBi parent, the Publicis Groupe.

"The demand is there," Ms. Finger, 30, said in a telephone interview. "Over the years, our corporate and nonprofit partners have said, 'Can you come in and consult with us? Teach us about social? Teach us about mobile?' But we didn't have the bandwidth."

TMI will follow Do Something's lead in the types of clients it will accept. For instance, Ms. Finger said, "neither Do Something nor TMI would partner with a liquor company or a tobacco company."

Asked about other sorts of marketers that may be under scrutiny for the kinds of products they sell, she replied: "We'd have to weigh the pluses and minuses. You need to be pragmatic."

What about, for instance, a soft-drink maker? "I drink a Diet Coke every once in a while," Ms. Finger said, laughing.

She expressed a similar attitude when discussing what TMI means, describing it as "sort of tongue in cheek, 'We have too much information and we want to share it.' "

TMI's initial clients include Pearson, the education and media company, which will work with it on products that teach English as a second language and are sold in countries like Brazil, China, India and Indonesia.

"Do Something has done an amazing job communicating with an audience that is the most hard to keep engaged," said Bhav Singh, president for Pearson English and informal learning in London, particularly through its use of S.M.S., or text messages, to reach its young members.

"And the fact it's a not-for-profit organization, and do this with a shoestring budget, means they know how to do more with less, or very little," he added. "TMI will guide us on both parameters, helping us interact with youth in a manner that's cost effective as we build our mobile learning solutions, and that's a win-win."

Aéropostale, the retailer, is considering working with TMI after six years of collaborating with Do Something on a program, Teens for Jeans, that has donated 3.5 million pairs of jeans to homeless teenagers, said Scott Birnbaum, senior vice president for marketing and e-commerce at Aéropostale in New York.

"Do Something is so knowledgeable about teenagers and their desire for change, and this move to share that wealth of knowledge with more people is, I think, terrific," he added. "I can't imagine we're not going to be involved with TMI."

TMI, as a unit of Do Something, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, will also operate as a nonprofit group. Asked if that was an unfair advantage over profit-making agencies and companies that specialize in youth marketing, Ms. Finger replied, "Our true 'unfair advantage' comes from our access to young people."

"There is a possibility," she added, that TMI could be "spun out as a for-profit, as we grow."

© 2013, The New York Times News Service