As the story goes, when the automotive company Chevrolet looked to market its line of Chevy Nova vehicles in Latin America, it was a disaster … because “No va” in Spanish literally means “doesn’t go.”

Oops.

The tale is an urban legend, but it underscores the most important dynamic of effective brand marketing: Know your audience. 

At Metro, we call our audience “Metropolitans.” Our biggest aim is not to be their best friend — it’s to know them so well, we are the experts.

Knowing this young, active urbanite not only supports our brand perception — “you are who you reach” — but it also allows us to precisely target our campaigns and refine our content for readers’ tastes. 

But as Metropolitans are a fast-changing breed, claiming to know them from what you learned 10 years, five years, even two years ago, would be plain wrong. The profile that brands identify as their target is evolving at a much faster pace than they’d expect.

To be experts in Metropolitans, we are constantly updating our insights. And, in the true sprit of Metro, this year we fully embraced the ethos of one of the pillars of Metro: to always be where Metropolitans are. 

Of course we meet them everyday on the subway, on the bus, in their offices, on their phones, and at their desks with Metro.

But with the most recent edition of the “Metropolitan Report,” for the first time ever, we also were there when they logged onto Facebook, commented on a blog post, or Tweeted out to their followers — when they are most “themselves,” openly expressing their likes and dislikes, flops and victories, guilty pleasures and best characteristics.

In short, we revolutionised our data collection to reflect the best place to capture the most accurate depiction of tastes, habits, proclivities, and preferences.

More than 300 million conversations in 29 countries were monitored online — in social media, on blogs, and forums by Whispr Group. (In addition, we conducted 5,000 interviews in London, São Paulo, Moscow, Hong Kong, and New York.)

Shh … can you hear a Metropolitan tweet? It’s happening now!

We were listening, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., when Metropolitans use social media the most.

We were listening when 86% of them told the world they love their boss.

We listened on Mondays, when most Metropolitans talk about working out … and we heard from them on Tuesday, when they actually went to the gym.

When 30% of Metropolitans admitted they think it’s perfectly fine to fall in love with someone they've never met in person, we heard that, too.

Here are some of the key statistics, divided per theme:

Sex

• 47% have never been tested for a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
  
  
• 22% say they don’t see anything wrong with paying for sex.
  
  
• Of those supporting safe sex according to Whispr, 58% are female and 42% male.

Money/education/career

• Career goal: 44% say “get rich.”
  
  
• 17% would date someone just for the money.
  
  
• 86% say they love their boss in social media while 14% say they hate their boss.

Health/gym

• 31% work out three or more times per week (41% in New York City).
  
  
• Those in the 21- to 24-years-old age group dominate when it comes to needing to wear make-up to feel satisfied. Canada and the United States have the most people saying they need make-up for this.

• The nose and legs are the most disliked body parts in all markets.

Plastic surgery

• 70% of people say they would never consider plastic surgery, and 81% say they would never get Botox.
  
  
• In conversations on plastic surgery, 25% are talking about boob jobs (with 20% positive and only 9% negative), 20% liposuction, 12% nose job (13% negative and 7% positive) and 1.8% butt implants (11% negative and 5% positive). Lip injection discussions are 6% positive and 8% negative.
  
  
• 29% think someone in their group of friends/family needs plastic surgery.

Morals

• Intelligence is more important to women to find a partner attractive, compared to men.
  
  
• 37% of those speaking about gold diggers in social media have a positive sentiment.
  
  
• Of those positive towards drug liberalisation, most are between the ages of 25 and 34.

We listened in — and we heard what this elusive, fickle group has been trying to tell media and brands for years. Lucky for all of us, Metro has compiled these findings in our third edition of the Metropolitan Report — a powerful tool for brands and advertisers, which you can download here.

Know your audience. Listen to them and hear what they say — Metro does. 

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