Experimentation is the new Engagement

This is the short presentation I gave at AIMIA (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) ‘Getting Inside Gen Y’ conference last week. My presentation was titled ‘Experimentation is the new Engagement’ and it was all about how brands today need to continually experiment, play with youth if you will. It’s about creating an interesting brand game, far less about your brands story. It’s about social ideas which spark a rapid mobilisation of youth, and some recent examples of brands that are experimenting with culture – from Red Bull’s Project X (Shaun White secret halfpipe) to Coke’s Expedition 206 to VW Swedens ‘Fun Theory’ social experiments. Enjoy.

Getting Inside Gen Y – speaking at AIMIA October 22

I’ve just been asked to be a speaker and panelist at the annual AIMIA Conference (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) October 22nd  on the topic of ‘Getting Inside Gen Y‘. I’m going to be presenting on 10 key principals brands need to think about when wanting to engage in conversations WITH this audience in the digital space.  This conference will have the who’s who of the social media world in Australia including experts like Julian Cole from The Population and Jy Smith from Switched On Media  so I’m in good company. Will post my presentation after I present/write it

The 3 Symbols of Youth – Star, Circle and Pirate

UK semiotics expert Dr Alex Gordon has just completed research with Sydney agency Heartbeat on the key symbols used by 15-20yr olds to express their values, identity and tribal connections. The three symbols which came out as most popular were the ‘STAR’, ‘CIRCLE’ and ‘PIRATE’ motif.

The PIRATE motif is apparently a sign Gen Y male

The Circle motif is a key symbol for Gen Y representing their obessions with social networking and belonging

s are looking for examples of transgression, maverick adventure and risk taking, they also need to feel empowered again. I unfortunately don’t see any new insight here, young men have been using skate culture and extreme culture to live maverick adventure for the last 40 years.

The CIRCLE motif signifies Gen Y’s obesession with social networking, their need to belong to tribes and that results on marketers needing to talk to the collective rather than just the individual. I’ve been talking about this a fair bit in my Gen C’ Connected Collective  profiles…so i agree with them on this one.

The third symbol is the STAR motif…the star tattoo is super popular with Aussie youth, apart from the fact they’re all copying Rhiannon, Sienna Miller and Nicole Ritchie, it’s all about their desire to be ‘famous’.

So that’s the research in a nutshell, no massive revelations on youth here..yes young men are always going to be adventurous and buck against the status quo, today it manifests in an adoration of ‘dark culture’….yes, social networking and belonging is like oxygen to Gen Y, they can’t live without it. The ‘make me famous’ ambition of todays youth has been around since for the past 5 years, so unfortunately Heart Beat havent cracked anything new here…but good on em, for researching symbols…interesting approach.

The Green Teen?

Are Aussie teens as altruistic and environmentally concerned as their global counterparts? The Worldwide Lab at Alcatel Lucent has just completed a global study on teens interaction with all things ‘green’. In a nutshell, ‘Green Teens’ from western cultures ARE more likely to support products which are ‘green’ in some way than Gen Yers and Gen Xers. While more than 66% of the teens on the panel have participated in earth-friendly activities, just over 50% of them call themselves “environmentalists.” Most of their participation in green activities focused on school or civic activities that were compulsory or highly related to their relationships. Teens are sceptical and reveal they don’t know who to trust or what information is truthful when it comes to bands trying to communicate their green creds. They want PROOF and demonstrated business practices showing eco commitment. They want action, not words.
Some key stats on the ‘Green Teen’:

> More than 80% of the panel consider green when making a purchase.
> 40% of Lab Members bought something because it was green.
> 77% said they would pay more for a green product.
> There are gender differences: 91% females consider green versus 71% of males.

Not many brands in Australia have seriously tapped into the ‘Green Teen’ mindset, definitely fertile ground..excuse the pun.

Almost 30…still a Kiddult

I’m turning 30 in a few weeks and I’m freaking out. Although everyone’s constantly talking about youth being a mindset and all that stuff, the fact that my Mother is constantly telling me how I need to settle down, buy a house, marry a nice girl is draining me. Don’t get me wrong, I want all those things, and I’m lucky to have a great girlfriend who puts up with me. I hate the idea of ’settling down’, I want to still explore the world, work in different countries, live the dream so they say. But what Boomer parents still don’t get is that we don’t necessarily operate on the same time frame as they did. My parents, like most Boomers married quite young and bought properties quite young. The last 5 years or so we’ve seen marriage rates drop substantially, the average age a person is moving out in Australia is now 27. So, we’ve got all these “kiddults’ running around living off their parents wealth, soaking up their inheritance. The Parent/Child dynamic is changing and I think we’ll see parents rebelling against their kids as they plead with them to finally move out. It will be interesting to see how the recession hits Gen Y behaviour. This Generation has always been the ‘I want’ generation..I want a better job, I want more money, I want that pair of jeans, I want that holiday to Paris..and i want it NOW!!! How will people in their 20’s deal with the fact that they can’t choose their jobs as much (cos there aren’t any!!) will they just hike up their ridiculous personal debts even more??? All I know is that I’m turning 30 and I still want to do that ski season on Whistler or Lech that I never did in my early 20s…damn

Connecting with Youth – 10 quick tips

I wrote this deck earlier this  year as a bit of an intro into Generation C and some tips into how marketers can successfully engage with youth. It’s all about brand participation, allowing youth to get involved with and play with ideas…that’s what drives cultural capital and the stickiness of your brand.

 

‘Subversive’ vs ‘Do Good’ Youth Marketing

There seems to be two schools of thought for how brands engage with youth in the social media space. On the one hand you’ve got the ‘Subversive’ movement, on the other the ‘Do Good’ marketing movement. Both can be effective for different youth brands. ‘Subversive’ communications are typically used for niche brands (like Zoo York, BAPE etc) and are aimed at specific youth subcultures (skaters), they are all about disrupting the status quo and rebelling against the systems around them. It’s classic ‘outlaw’ archetype behaviour. ZY ‘Spread the word’ was a good example as was Air Force One stunt. On the other hand you’ve got the ‘DO Good/Feel Good ‘ marketing which is far more mainstream and taps into more mainstream behaviour through entertainment. The Fiat Eco drive tool is a great example of this, it’s all about talking to Gen Y and giving them something of utility and making them feel good about their contribution to culture. At the end of the day, I reckon effective youth communications is about creating ‘cultural capital’ – stuff for them to talk about, so if you’re creating talk value within a interesting brand framework…you’re on track

Generation C- The Connected Collective

Hi everyone…my name is Dan Pankraz and I’m a Strategic Planner based in Sydney with a keen interest in the youth space. Here is a recent presentation I put together on Generation C- the connected collective. It’s all about how social media has given rise to a new type of consumer and the implications for marketers trying to connect with this crowd. Check it out