Just when you were ready to believe that television advertising was a thing of the past evidence to the contrary gets in the way.  Certainly, television spending leaves took a tremendous dive as a result of this lousy recession, but its effectiveness apparently hasn’t.

Advertising Age recently reported that a new seven figure ethnographic study conduced by the Neilsen Co.  found that “TV remains the dominant medium even for reaching youth, despite the inroads of digital and social media.”

The article goes on to say that Media Marketing Assessment (MMA) a unit of Aegis Group’s Synovate has not seen a trend toward the erosion of effectiveness of TV.  In fact a third of search queries for brands studied are driven by offline advertising, particularly TV.  Higher than what’s driven from online.

Leonard Lodish, a marketing professor at Wharton and author of “Why Advertising Works,” says that TV advertising’s effectiveness has actually increased since 1995.

So, in the face of the clamor from “new age media” gurus, what do you do?  Our suggestion is to not buy the hype, but listen.  We are big believers in the power of the web, but we’re also big believers in the power of traditional media when combined with the web.

No one goes searching for a product that they don’t know or care about.  I still haven’t received an answer to the question of “Can you name one consumable brand built entirely on the web?”  Traditional media, while changing, is not dead.  It’s a good thing too.  I’d hate to miss the next episode of the Simpsons.

Teens are expert at social networking online with sites like Facebook and Myspace.  At last count there were 250,000 social networking sites. By the time most adults find out about the newest site, rigor mortis has usually set in.  Hanging out now means hanging out on line and the venue is where ever there’s an Internet connection.  Teens in effect take their friends with them where ever they go.

In its essence, the tendency of teens to socialize is the same as it’s always been with some exceptions.  Now being a friend isn’t a big commitment, you just click on accept.  This allows even the shyest teen to assemble a group of friends that would make the most popular cheerleader jealous.  They become part of a group and feel included.  They can be in constant contact with their friends through instant messaging, texting or just hanging out on Myspace.

Some teens “geek out” and concentrate on a particular interest.  A study performed by the MacArthur Foundation points out that geeking out is a highly social and engaged activity…contrary to popular opinion.  While adults participate, teens do not automatically give their elders the credibility of expertise.  “Because I said so” doesn’t fly.

The study goes on to suggest that teens are more likely to respect another teen’s authority and be more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.

If you think about it, the value of “networking” with people of like interests and condition is something adults do everyday.  If you own a business, you want to talk to other people who own a business.  If you are a marketer, you want to learn from other marketers.  In the process, we make friends.

So, if you are a marketer interested in communicating with teens via social networking, making friends is what it’s all about.  The more you do to facilitate the friend-making process, the better your efforts will be accepted.