A presentation I recently gave at AIMIA (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) on "EXPERIMENTATION BEING THE NEW ENGAGEMENT". It's all about how brands these days need to experiment with youth, create brand games, play with consumers, bounce off popular culture and explore cultural tensions.
11. SOCIAL SLIPSTREAMING TO STAY IN THE KNOW Who is with who? Who is/isnât invited? Whatâs she wearing in that pic? Whatâs going on this weekend ? Whatâs on next?
20. â We donât do advertising, we do cool stuff ⊠âŠwe no longer need awarenessâŠwe need to become part of peopleâs livesâŠdigital allows us to do thatâ Simon Penstridge, Nike UK
Hi there, today Iâm going to talk about EXPERIMENTATION being the new form of engagement for Gen Y In such a fast paced and dynamic media environment, BRAND RELEVANCE IS DETERMINED IN THE MOMENT - fame spikes, even for the famous.. So constant EXPERIMENTATION is a pre-requisite for brands trying to create TRIBAL IDEAS â ideas that spark a rapid mobilisation of youth
In such a fast paced and dynamic media environment, BRAND RELEVANCE IS DETERMINED IN THE MOMENT - fame spikes, even for the famous..
B eing agile and adaptive is critical as the brand story has to change to what the community wants..they want to put their own spin on it
As we all know the era of One way messages is long gone they no longer CONSUME ideas, they actively want to PARTICIPATE To be successful with Gen Y, brands must let youth PLAY WITH THEIR BRANDS by continually experimenting with them and collaborating Ask yourself how are you PLAYING with youth? Itâs less about your brand story and more about what your brands game ? They want to share their contribution to the game
As we all know the era of One way messages is long gone they no longer CONSUME ideas, they actively want to PARTICIPATE To be successful with Gen Y, brands must let youth PLAY WITH THEIR BRANDS by continually experimenting with them and collaborating Ask yourself how are you PLAYING with youth? Itâs less about your brand story and more about what your brands game ? They want to share their contribution to the game
SPARK A RAPID MOBILISATION OF YOUTH VIA SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS. They inspire members of youth tribes to connect with each other and PARTICIPATE in a brands story, helping craft the outcome
So lets talk a bit about Gen Y This generation more than any other need to BELONG TO A COMMUNITY , itâs a primal need hardwired from birthâŠ. HAPPINESS for youth has and always will be a direct function of belonging and expressing themselves within the tribe. This CONSTANT connectivity helps define their self identities Web 2.0 has TURBO CHARGED THESE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS Itâs about friending , updating, tagging ,gifting, texting, MMSing..... Goal of modern marketing is to get Gen Y CONNECTING with each other around interesting ideas, cultural objects, causes, movements
Social media platforms has enabled SWARM BEHAVIOURâŠ. Just like a swarm of bees, they Gen Y MOBILISE IN MINUTES AND SWARM TOWARDS NEW AND INTERESTING OBJECTS Gen Y tribes MOVE AS ONE, THEY DONâT FOLLOW A LEADER, THEYâRE ACTIVE, SHARE INTELIGENCE, AND ABOVE ALL THEYâRE FAST This massive peer influence on the social web has made DECISION MAKING A TEAM SPORT So today, marketing is about the âWEâ not âMeâ..talking to the community not the individual
Social media has helped create the CHAMELEON They have EXPERIMENTAL PERSONAS, changing their personality and belonging to many different tribes ALL AT O NCE At any one time they could be part of the indie tribe,festival rat, free spirit, surfie, PC gamer, skater, muso tribe They MOVE FLUIDLY through these tribes and HATE to be seen as ONE DIMENSIONAL The exciting thing is that the tribes are constantly EVOLVING.. So brands have to be amazingly AGILE AND ADAPTIVE
Facebook has brought out their COMPETITIVE side, making them MORE EXTROVERTED than ever. there is a COMPETITIVE PRESSURE to constantly be in the know They call it âSNOOPINGâ âŠand they spend hours crafting their online personas YOUTH ARE NOW SOCIAL SLIPSTREAMING TO STAY IN THE KNOW, important to have enough experts in your tribe
The social web has facilitated CONSTANT CONVERSATIONS , Thereâs NO hello or goodbye, itâs a constant stream of dialogue.. W hether itâs youtube, facebook, twitter or SMSâs They are having over 150 CONVERSATIONS about brands per week, 2x as many as older people Taking in 38HRS OF CONTENT A DAY, living in a state of CONTINUOUS PARTIAL ATTENTION
In a world full of structure, university timetables, commitments youth want to be SPONTANEOUS in how they live their lives brands to be more AGILE and ADAPTIVE Give them the power to CHANGE THE MOMENT and create new stories to share with the tribe.
Gen y are the CHANGE GENERATION Every young person with access to the web or smartphone has a VOICE Theyâre now EMPOWERED to make the world a better place and change the status quo The tribe search for things to REBEL AGAINST, its in the nature. Mobile phones play a powerful role in sparking this TRIBAL BEHAVIOUR Iranian youth to STARTED A MOVEMENT against the government as they marched across facebook, skype and twitter BRANDING EVERYTHING GREEN to show their upset with the results of the election.
Itâs about experimenting with popular culture and keeping the tribe guessing Allows you to create a diverse stream of content to ride HYPER CURRENT cultural trends.
Marketing with gen Y is about BOUNCING off broader conversations that are happening in culture Exploting cultural conflicts that exist to create new and interesting conversations Picking potentially things that donât go together, but create interesting cultural tensions Whopper sacrifice
RED BULL ARE THE KINGS OF creating mythology around their brand Sean W h ite Secret Halfpipe Was it real, not real?
RED BULL ARE THE KINGS OF creating mythology around their brand Sean W h ite Secret Halfpipe Was it real, not real?
In the digital world, everything is TRANSPARENT AND ON SHOW YOUâVE GOT TO BE AUTHENTIC AND TRUE TO YOURSELF AT ALL COSTS OR the tribe will DESERT you Gen y have the most finely tuned bullshit detectors going round, so if you try too hard or donât try at all they sniff you out in a second and you pay for it in the bloggosphere. US skate/action sports brand DC SHOES is a great example of an AUTHENTIC BRAND that understands social media They have cult rallying sensation Ken Block as their CHIEF BRAND OFFICER .responsible for the brands imagery..gives the brand cred. The GYMKHANA youtube videos featuring Ken doing crazy stunts get over 20million views within days of Ken releasing themâŠ
SPARK A RAPID MOBILISATION OF YOUTH VIA SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS. They inspire members of youth tribes to connect with each other and PARTICIPATE in a brands story, helping craft the outcome
Requires a commitment to always be in beta mode, Create continuous conversations NOT campaigns ⊠real time adaptive branding where youâre AGILE and open source, inviting gen y to play Embrace a fail forward approach