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With 2012 on the horizon, we're pleased to present our annual Youth Macro Trends, Predictions & Insights report for the coming year as well as revisit a handful of trends and predictions from last year's report to see how they have played out over the course of this year. Rather than providing an exhaustive list of rather meaningless trends, our main objective is to provide a select number of actionable views that have multiple implications across various industries and product categories.

As the mega important holiday shopping season begins in earnest, we're noting a rather subtle yet consistent sense of confidence among college students. Hopefully, this sense of confidence and optimism isn't short lived. Black Friday, which at this point, might as well be considered a one-day holiday, was another huge draw for students this year. Nearly seven in ten panelists (68%) surveyed in this month's Insights Immersion reported hitting the malls and stores on Black Friday compared to about 64% last year. This equates to approximately 5.5 million college students nationally.

Thought Halloween was just a holiday for younger children and tweens? Think again. In relatively short order, Halloween has fast become one of the events of the year for the college crowd complete with costume parties and socials, contests, and even fundraising drives. Ultimately, it’s a well-timed mid-semester break for students to step out of their respective shells and test the boundaries of acceptable attire.

The annual Youth Trends Fall Television Preview and Outlook report provides an initial glimpse of what to expect as our panelists' rate their likelihood of watching a new TV show on a regular basis after watching a trailer and reading a brief synopsis of a show's plot line. After watching the trailers and reading the synopses, panelists then rated their planned viewing using a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 meant they were extremely interested in watching the show on a regular basis and 1 meant they had no interest at all in watching the new show.

If we had to use just one word to describe the climate surrounding this year's back to school shopping season, we would use the word restraint. This is not to say that all of the air is out of the balloon, but it wouldn't hurt if it was propped up a bit. It's restraint, mainly in the form of moderation that's the big story for back to school this year. This year, students and their parents plan to spend an average of $608 on back to school-related purchases, representative of a 10% decrease compared to last year.

Continuing on with our thematic guide for energized youth activation and engagement, this month we tackle a question that has been popping up repeatedly over the past few months centering on the value of a Facebook fan. Seemingly one would think the question would be received with a simple and rather straightforward response, but unfortunately it's not that easy. The reality is that the notion of "value" can mean lots of things. With that said, we've outlined some of the key variables that make up a model we're calling the Facebook Fan value equation.

Energized Activation & Engagement

2011 Macro Trends & Predictions

Introduction

The College Top Ten List report is the popular culture "pulse" of the college-aged market segment. The report is conducted four times a year. Findings for the Q1 2011 wave were based on online interviews completed during the week of February 14, 2011. A total of 1,021 respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 participated. The respondent base was demographically representative by age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, year in school, school type and size.

Spring Break Overview: Well, it's that time of the year again. As students wrap up their mid-term exams, the dream of warmer weather and non-stop partying will soon become a reality for many. Forget the Uggs and knit caps, but be sure to pack the Havaianas along with the new swimsuit. The annual rite of passage for college students known as Spring Break is as popular as it's ever been with nearly half of all students traveling next month.