Engaging, with a Y.

September 29, 2006

What is youth marketing? More importantly, how do you obtain the attentions of kids who, presumably, have no attention span? How do we connect with the Grand Theft Auto/MySpace generation, when they skip commercials and ignore traditional advertising media?

Really, the question should be: are we giving today’s youth enough credit?

Gen Y for dummies Clint! Runge, creator of Archrival, was in Sioux Falls on Thursday. He talked about youth marketing – a subject not new to the Internet, but new to many in attendance – and he laid it out simply, in a cozy package. What I came away with was the notion that we’re not giving today’s youth enough credit. We’re still trying to market to them like we were marketed to when we were younger. We’re preaching Generation X values to a Generation Y crowd. And the messages aren’t lining up.

To define the terms, we’ll say Generation X involves people aged 25-41. Generation Y spans a much younger audience (ages 5-24). The years might not mean much, the attitudes do.

Members of Generation X (myself included) came of age in a time of rebellion, of bucking trends and searching for individuality. It was about edgy products that your parents probably wouldn’t like. It was about Mountain Dew and Nirvana and Reality Bites. Pessimism and independence were the goals.

It’s different now. Gen X is a parental generation. We are raising our children in a way totally different than what our parents did for us. We’re raising them as optimistic, with feelings of empowerment and entitlement.

Because of this, there’s no need to be edgy. Instead, they want to be part of a team, embracing individuality in a group setting. The youth market today looks to their friends to help them make decisions, not to a brand or a company.

Instead of status, Generation Y values experiences. Their most cherished resource is time. They’ve grown up with and used technology for entertainment, not information. They have a great conscience, but they don’t want to put a lot of work into using it. They all have cell phones, and they all live incredibly connected lives.

What it adds up to is this: today’s youth wants a fully customizable, quick, entertaining message. Friendships are more important than brands, and so they look for peer responses to help them make choices. They want a smart humor. By valuing companies that support good causes, and by spending their money at those companies, they feel that they are participating in a real-life cause. Mountain Dew is out. Volkswagen is in.

Generation Y has a large purchasing power, and because of that they’re leading trends. As a business, you want their attention. And you want it now.

The hang up is that many companies – and many agencies, I’d guess – are filled with Generation X personalities. They write and create advertisements that are supposed to aim at today’s youth, but instead, they’re aiming them at themselves. At a rather small demographic. At the wrong demographic.

Gen Y kids – from kindergarteners to (more importantly) college students with money – want their content fast. Viral marketing through YouTube is working wonders. Adult Swim has taken this concept and ran with it — who has time for a 30 minute show when you can get a 10 minute, fractured, bite-sized cartoon filled with smart, subtle, intelligent humor?

Social networking sites are growing by leaps and bounds, and they’re allowing young people to customize their personal space. They can broadcast their image, they can create a message. We as advertisers aren’t doing a good enough job if we’re simply putting an ad out in front of them. We want the youth to be engaged.

As Runge said, Generation Y is creating its own brand through their blogs, MySpace accounts, and websites. They feel they have more of a political say through their purchases than their vote. Everything needs to be customizable, so they can show individuality while having the same group experience.

It seems so simple. How do you get the attention of today’s youth? You engage them, and you engage them quickly.

It can’t be tedious. It can’t be mind numbing. It needs to be original, funny, smart, engaging. Engaging.

To catch today’s youth market, you need something quick and fun that can be passed along to their friends. A website. A blog. A consumer-controlled aspect. A buzz. A way to become the pseudo-celebrity that they all expect to become through the Internet. You need to listen to them, and update your image accordingly – or better yet, let them update your image for you.

TV? Radio? No. Internet. Mobile Phones. MySpace. YouTube. Create your own media outlet, if you have to. You just need to get them talking. If you have a quality product, the youth market will do the rest for you.

Marketing to youth is less bludgeon, more finesse. You’re planting a seed that, if well planned and creatively done, will sprout into a brand awareness that becomes respected and wanted.

Generation Y expects to be entertained, but they don’t want to be treated like morons; like kids. You need to talk to the consumer like they expect to be talked to. Be funny. Be serious. But whatever you do, don’t underestimate them. If you dumb down your message, you’re going to get a dumbed down audience.

That worked with Generation X.

But this isn’t Generation X anymore.

Filed Under Advertising, Technology, Marketing, The Process

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