My notes from the MTV Youth Marketing Forum held in Mumbai. 28th April 2012.

1. A Scattershot Marketing Blog Presentation
THE POWER OF ONE
MTV Youth Marketing Forum
28th April 2012
Mumbai
By Scattershot
@iamscattershot
An exclusive online presentation
Cover Image Courtesy: Israel Houghton
All trademarks and brands are the property of their
respective owners.

2. INTRODUCTION
28th April 2012: MTV organized a Youth The study reflects these young people's
Marketing Forum in Mumbai which saw perspective of life, technology, causes and
participants from various firms, media streams, values. The various topics discussed at the forum
bloggers etc which wanted to feel the pulse of were power of social media, youth power in
today’s youth. Interesting topics and insights action, interactive workshop on case studies of
were discussed at the MTV Youth Marketing brands across the globe on how they have co-
Forum 2012. This year the 'Power of One' was created with youth and translated campaigns into
discussed at the forum along with various trend movements, perspective on marketing and
experts and esteemed panel of speakers creating music for the younger audience,
initiatives that has the potential to become a
The research methodology included a mix of
revolution. The day also included prominent
quantitative questionnaires, qualitative group
brand bosses from Tata Docomo, Nike India,
discussion, ethnography analyses, peer group
Viacom18 Motion Pictures and more who
discussions conducted amongst 5000+ youth
discussed how brands need to engage in a
between the age group of 15 to 24 years across
dialogue with the audience in this world where
31 cities in India and represents the attitude of
one is the majority.
trendsetting young generation.
Website: http://www.mtvplay.in/powerofone/index.php

3. SPEAKER LINEUP
1
Aditya Swamy – MTV
2
Andy Ridley – Earth Hour
3
Henri Holm – Rovio
4
Chetan Bhagat - Author
5
Simon Smith - Interbrand
6
Angela Barkan – Sony Music
7
Panel Discussion

4. ADITYA SWAMY
EVP & Business Head - MTV India
•Power to change the world:
Aditya Swamy opened up the forum with key
A whopping 98% of the youth
highlights from the survey. He emphasized that
MTV spoke to, believed that
the youth today are different from what we
they have the power or the
envision them to be. Here are five key pointers
ability to bring about change in
from his talk.
the world around them.
•Homogenous: Being
connected 24X7, the youth •Power from Social Media: Almost a half of
sub-consciously belongs to them vociferously complain online if they don’t
one homogeneous universe get a good service from brands. They feel
that transcends nationality, empowered as the media and brands shower
community differences. The homogeneity is
religion, special attention to them through campaigns
fuelled by social and digital equality in the and communication. And, more than 50% of
young world. They love to friend one and all. them claim that they derive their power from the
The homogeneity is a result of equal availability social media network.
of opportunities on the internet and uniform
exposure levels across classes through the
digital revolution.

5. ADITYA SWAMY
EVP & Business Head - MTV India
•Power to Participate: MTV’s research •Role Models? : Gone are the days when
concludes that the youth has a heart and they popular icons or celebrities help them in rapture.
care for social and environmental issues that Today’s youth is independent in thought and
affect them directly. Nearly 42% of the youth identity. 45% of them state they look up to their
insist that they will actively participate in a parents as role models. And, 25% blatantly
cause/movement that affects them. There is a answers they don’t have a role model. The youth
heightened enthusiasm amongst youth < 21 today do not have a singular icon name. They
years and women. follow many public figures, but, emulate none. A
mere 10% look up to public figures as a role
model.

6. ANDY RIDLEY
Executive Director and Co-Founder – Earth Hour
The Idea: In 2004, inspired by the idea of a •Celebrity Endorsements:
campaign to engage everyday people and Complete integration across
businesses in the climate change, Andy initiated facebook and twitter for Miranda
a think tank between Leo Burnett and Fairfax Kerr and other celebs in different
Media, forming a partnership to deliver a 'lights parts of the world. (
out' campaign, which would later become known Yoga Classes by Miranda Kerr)
as Earth Hour.
How did they do it?
The Result: World’s Biggest Voluntary Action:
• Exploring New Social Media: Using new social By 27 March 2010 the open-source nature of the
networks such as Yammer. Yammer is used for Earth Hour message had swept the globe, with
private communication within organizations or hundreds of millions of people in over 4,500
between organizational members and pre- cities' and towns across 128 countries and
designated groups. Making it easy for Earth territories on every continent contributing to the
Hour to reach their target group which was the world's greatest ever voluntary action.
corporate offices.
Malaysia's landmark the Petronas
Twin Towers in downtown Kuala Google Canada’s
Lumpur, Malaysia, having their lights page going dark for
turned off (from top to lower ground) Earth Hour, 2008
to mark Earth Hour

7. HENRI HOLM
SVP- Rovio Entertainment
Angry Birds: Dubbed as the largest mobile app •Crowdsourcing: Rovio lends an open ear to
success the world has seen so far, curating and feedback from its audience. Out of the
nurturing Angry Birds is no play. numerous fan mails they received, an Angry
Birds Level was designed by a 5 year old Ethan.
Moral: Listen to your consumers.
The Success Secret
•Distribution Channels: Angry birds has carefully
chosen its distribution channels. Apart from the
iOS and Android platforms Angry birds was
launched for the desktops via a Chrome app
version in 2011. As time passes by Angry Birds
•Innovation: Even after 3 years of its release it
wants to be available on any screen the
still continues to be the most popular game for
consumer is exposed to. Smartphones, Tablets,
smartphones. The reason: Innovation. Updates
Computers, Consoles, Theaters and SmartTV
and new editions are released after careful
•O>O>O: Rovio believes that the consumer research. The recent version – Space was
experience for the game is complete only when released after many months of research with
it moves from Online to offline and then back to NASA.
Online.
•Brand Partnerships: Three star criteria for tying
up with brands. Reduces clutter in tie-ups.
Fan Value + Mutual Partner Benefit + Angry Birds brand fit

8. CHETAN BHAGAT
Bestselling Author
The New York Times called Bhagat "the biggest Bhagat’s take on Youth and their opinions
selling English language novelist in India's
history". In 2010 TIME named him one of the 1. Make stuff relevant
100 most influential people in the world. 2. Most youth want to be seen as ‘cool’
People have opinions 3. Want to converse in ‘English’
•Power in the hands of the consumer: Ira 4. Want to have a ‘girlfriend’
Pandey seems to be Bhagats biggest critic. She
has uploaded many a youtube videos and 5. Want to be known
tweeted critiquing him. Bhagat stated that the 6. Desire to be rich
choice to like/dislike anything was already
present but social media had lent more ‘voice’ to 7. Desire to make it ‘big’ in life
people. When used effectively it’s a excellent
conduit for the spread of ideas.

9. SIMON SMITH
Digital Director, Interbrand
Simon Smith shared some insights into why •How far would you go?: The Milgram
people behave in a certain fashion when pushed experiment which measured the willingness of
into peer pressure. He talked about how study participants to obey an authority figure
individuality is lost when a person is thrown into who instructed them to perform acts that
a crowd. conflicted with their personal conscience. Latest
study shows that individuals are more ready to
Power of
go the distance when forced as of today than
•Love: Love is a powerful motivator. It empowers they were 40 years back.
individuals to sometime do what they want and The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the
sometimes do what they don’t want. subject of the experiment, to give what the latter
believes are painful electric shocks to a learner
•Acceptance: Individuals can do stupid things (L), who is actually an actor and confederate.
The subject believes that for each wrong
just to confirm and be a part of a larger group. answer, the learner was receiving actual electric
He demonstrated Asch Conformity Experiments shocks, though in reality there were no such
punishments. Being separated from the subject,
where individuals caved into wrong answers the confederate set up a tape recorder
and sometimes even doubted their own integrated with the electro-shock generator,
which played pre-recorded sounds for each
judgement to be a part of the group. shock level.
•Swarm Mentality: Successful people wear suits.
Why? Because all across the world that’s whats
the norm. When a minority opinion becomes a
majority opinion, individuals feel forced to
succumb to it. Eg. ME Riots in 2011, London
Riots

10. ANGELA BARKAN
Senior Director of Marketing and Publicity at Sony Music
Entertainment
Angela is a music industry veteran and spoke •Converse Rubber Tracks -
about youth and their choices in music. She Rubber Tracks serves as a
outlined the major trends in music and how catalyst for originality by giving
audience consumes it. new and emerging bands the
opportunity to record their
•Audience: Music audience is primarily songs in a high-quality studio
‘Millenials’ (12-30 years old) across the globe. setting– for free.
Majority music consumption is driven by these
•Use ‘Fresh’ Avenues: Millenials get bored very
young adults.These are on-the-go audience and
easily. Hence it is important to engage them via new
have strong likes and dislikes. Very active on
and exciting avenues.
social media – 86% will ‘like’ or tweet about a
brand*. 2.Cull. Tv
•Why will they buy your brand: Millenials would 3.Turntable.fm
be attracted to a brand only if it aligns to their
4.Talenthouse
interests. For eg.
•Patagonia – Buy a song benefit the 1.How to make your brand Popular?
environment
Make your fans part of the act
Give Reason to ‘share’
Make it easy to access anywhere
* Research based on US data

11. PANEL DISCUSSION
Avinash Pant Sumeet Pahwa Bejoy Nambiar Ayushmann Nikhil Chinappa Vikram Malhotra
Marketing Director, GM Marketing, Director, Actor, RJ/VJ, Actor, RJ/VJ, COO, Viacom 18
Nike India Anchor, Anchor, India
TATA Docomo Shaitan
Key Discussion Points •Word of Mouth: The audience these days is pretty
vocal about their likes and dislikes. If you have a
•How brands/products can stay connected to the
good product and if the audience likes it, they
youth? Be relevant. The young audience doesn’t
most likely will recommend it to their peers.
want clutter and being relevant is the only choice
brands have. That’s what explains the success of •New Trends:Themes on movies/ advertisements
Shaitan, Vicky Donor which though arent which are aired today would have been ‘shocking’
mainstream movies did well at the B.O. few years back. Youth is becoming more
acceptable to change.
•Youth is not an animal: The young audience is
not an animal which needs to be reined in. It’s a
homogenous set of people who retain their
individuality inspite of being in a crowd. There is a
need for a change in outlook towards looking at
the youth.

12. ABOUT
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