Mentoring Outfocuses a Focus Group

Selling to Kids, Sept 29, 1999

A program that brings kids into the offices of a public relations firm that works on kids accounts may look, feel and smell like a focus group, but it's not, says Angela Pennington, account executive and program coordinator at Porter Novelli International's (PNI) Los Angeles office. It's a mentoring program called KidsThinkLink that began in 1997 as a way "to get involved with the communities in which we do business," says Talya Bosch, international communications manager, and developer and director of the company-wide program. Volunteer mentors teach kids ages 10 to 15 Internet and journalism skills.

"I don't think we tried to make a direct connection for the sake of clients. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the benefit to all of our employees who got involved," says Bosch, who adds that it was "kind of cool to have kids pump all that young energy" into the office. What's more, she says some employees have joined PNI because they heard about the program.

As of February, the second year of the six- to eight-week program, 15 Porter Novelli offices were working with kids, and seven more were in the planning stages, including developing curricula and forming relationships with schools and youth organizations, says Bosch. So far, employees in the U.S., Europe and Latin America have worked one-on-one with at least 300 kids.

Lessons For the Teachers

Pennington and her fellow volunteer mentors learned a lot about kids during the process. "When we started out, they wouldn't pay attention. They sat there with blank faces. We knew we weren't connecting," says Pennington.

The breakthrough came when the mentors started listening, and showing they respected the kids' opinions. Having the sessions on Fridays when staffers could wear jeans and T-shirts, like the kids, and having mentors in their mid-20s may have also helped.

And "we learned we shouldn't stereotype kids, because they're varied in their opinions from each other, even from week to week. Also, interactive sessions work best. Instead of a staff member suggesting topics for articles, kids prefer to brainstorm. Staff members picked up L.A. street slang in use last year, such as "flipped the script" (acted fake), "raw" or "ill" (someone who's acting really cool) and "I'm all over that" (I like it).

More advice: "Don't target at [kids], do it with them. Build Web sites with them, talk with them," says Pennington. "We sit around all day and try to come up with what kids want. What do I know about what they want?" You've got to ask them.

Despite all those lessons, Pennington insists "it was not our intention to learn anything from the kids. I was just in there having a break. I don't want to blur the lines between philanthropy and a focus group. If we want to do a focus group, we'll bring in kids who know that's what they're there for."

Impact on Kids

Teachers said it was like pulling teeth to get kids to write anything, says Bosch, until the program got participants excited about writing. LeDeric Johnson, 12, wrote two stories at last year's PNI sessions, one about Challenger's Boys and Girls Club he attends and one about a navy blue Lexus, his dream car. When we spoke last week, he remained loyal to the car but the color changed. Now he wants it black. And kids came into the program wanting to be Michael Jordan. The sessions caused some to think about being in public relations.

Johnson, who says he has wanted to be a lawyer since he was in the second or third grade, called the PNI experience "a lot of fun" and hopes to return this year. "They told me how to work on the Net. We got to, like, play videogames on the Internet." Favorite game? "Mortal Combat 4." The sessions "reminded me of school. It's half and half like school," which he likes because "I could, like, hang around with my friends and stuff." The most fun he had at PNI was "when we would go outside and take pictures of people that I work with."

Impressions on Media

"Ironically [for a PR firm], we've done very little publicity among adults" about the program, says Bosch, but the company did send out press releases and the program attracted coverage, including CBS radio, CNN Interactive, Boston's Channel 7 News, Newsweek and some foreign newspapers. And more than 4,000 readers visit the Web site every week, she says.

The costs were mostly limited to transportation, snacks, reporters' notebooks, dictionaries and disposable cameras for the kids.

(Porter Novelli: Talya Bosch, 212/601-8137, Angela Pennington, 310/444-7068; LeDeric Johnson)

Market Research, Too

PNI is celebrating the start of the program's third year next month by expanding its webzine and surveying kids about the Internet (so although the mentoring program may not be a focus group, the site is). A survey already on the Web site (www.kidsthinklink.com) got almost 1,000 responses to 25 pulse-taking questions such as:

* Are your parents too strict?

(58% yes, 42% no)

* Do you ever tease kids so you can fit in?

(52% yes, 48% no)

* Are "in" and "out" groups a problem in your school?