Just about every other morning, I navigate my way to Carol Phillips’ always-relevant blog, Millennial Marketing, to get her unique take on Gen-Y. Recently, she featured the work of Sidney Eve Matrix, Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media at Queen’s University, who has written on the challenges and opportunities that come with Gen-Y in the classroom. This presentation may have been created with teachers in mind, but it contains a lot of useful takeaways for youth marketers as well — in 38 slides, this deck walks through just about every social networking / web 2.0 tool worth-mentioning. From Blogger, to WikiSpaces to Ning, this presentation covers it all. So, if you need a refresher on the interactive possibilities that the social web offers, spend a little time with this deck.
In fairness, the provocative title of this post might be a bit of an exaggeration. There can only be one global social media hegemon after all, and Facebook has that market cornered. But it’s also true that the media, the marketing world, and even the blogsphere devotes the vast majority of its coverage of social media to “The Big Three”: Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Within youth marketing circles, MyYearbook is discussed, but never with the same enthusiasm devoted to the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
Whether it’s getting attention or not, however, there is a whole universe of teen-focused social media that is thriving as we speak. Today, the indomitable YPulse featured an interview with the brains behind one of those unheralded social networks. Mindspark oversees a very popular collection of teen-focused sites, including Zwinky and GirlSense. While those two might not be household names, your 14-year-old daughter probably knows what they are. Over the past year, Zwinky has logged millions of visits, making Mindspark the most popular teen-focused social-media network on the web.
My prediction: we’re going to see a flight of Gen-Y-ers towards niche sites like these. They’ll keep their Facebook accounts, of course, but they won’t be wall-posting and picture-tagging with quite the same enthusiasm when they’re grandparents start showing up on Facebook.
The YPulse interview is certainly worth checking out — if only to get a better picture of one Gen-Y focused corner of the social media universe that’s not being talked about enough.
There are a few things that I’ve noticed just about everyone likes: sunshine, golden retriever puppies, ice cream — and HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, spend a long weekend immersing yourself in the deadpan comedy/musical that chronicles the life of two New Zealand-ers as they attempt to succeed as folk musicians in New York City. It’s about as good a distillation of that unique Gen-Y sense of humor as anything on the air.
But, more importantly, HBO’s Flight of the Conchords has triumphed in large part thanks to their progressive approach to marketing. Given the untraditional premise of the show — it’s a comedy-musical that features literally 5 or 10 minutes of singing each episode — the marketers recognized that they were going to be more of a cult show at the onset. The mission was to aggregate their community of fans, provide them with worthwhile perks (like sneak previews), and give them the digital tools to evangelize about the show. It’s really an example of social media — and digital marketing more generally — done right.
The following presentation was originally published by the immortal Dave Knox of Hard Knox Life, a blog that I come back to day after day.
Roughly three weeks ago, I wrote a few paragraphs about the rebranding put forward by Miracle Whip, this nation’s favorite low-cost mayonnaise alternative. As I reported then, Miracle Whip unveiled a series of commercials where viewers were encouraged to “stop being so mayo.” Amid jump cuts, an indie-rock soundtrack and lots of background footage of faintly bearded hipsters, the commercials also make it clear that “we [meaning the Miracle Whip enthusiasts of the world] will not tone it down” despite repeated noise complaints from mayonnaise.
In my post, I left the judgments up to you, the keen youth marketing minds of the internet. In just the past week, we’ve had quite a few well-reasoned comments, and I thought it was worth alerting you all to the conversation that’s been taking place. So navigate your mayonnaise-loving web browser here, and weigh in on the debate.
And just for good measure, here’s the commercial (thanks to the fine folks at YouTube):
Before I sat down to work this morning, I had an opportunity to pour over an excellent article entitled “Digital Darwinism,” written by Booz & Co’s Christopher Vollmer, which argues that digital marketing is in the process of fundamentally re-making the traditional marketing ecosystem — with all the thoroughness and brutality of natural selection. I was pointed in the direction of this (long but entirely worth-reading) analysis by the ever-sage Dave Knox, who features a Cliff Notes version on his blog. The analysis isn’t targeted towards youth marketers alone — but the conclusions are certainly applicable. (As an aside, I heartily recommend taking a close look at Booz & Co.’s Strategy + Business publication, which features more than a few worthwhile insights.) Vollmer highlights HP, the computer manufacturer, as a company that’s doing it right:
The company has dedicated 50 percent their marketing budget to digital media — compared with an average among national advertisers of 5 to 10 percent.
HP has turned the brand over to consumers, such as a 2007 online contest to design the skin of HP’s new special-edition entertainment laptop. In that contest alone, HP received more than 8,500 entries from 112 countries in just over a month. The contest site got more than 5 million hits, prompting HP to re-forecast sales to five times its original estimate.
In the end, says Vollmer, companies that aim to survive the digital transition need accomplish five things:
Turn consumers into “prosumers”: Brand evangelists, equipped with the right tools and motivation to extol brands to family, friends, and casual acquaintances, can be core elements in a campaign. Marketers have extensive experience observing consumers at the retail shelf, but they are still trying to identify the equivalent “moment of truth” on the Internet.
Build bilateral brand experiences: Brands today must go beyond simply broadcasting their message; they must beckon the consumer into a conversation. When consumers use digital media to search, shop, blog, socialize, or seek entertainment, their actions create opportunities for marketers not only to gain insight but also to gather ideas to improve their brands, marketing messages, and media mix choices.
Place context on par with content: The distribution of marketing messages—their timing, context, and relevance — is becoming as important as their creative execution in today’s ecosystem.
Master the new calculus of communication: The lack of reliable and standard metrics is the principal impediment to the entire ecosystem’s transition to a new marketing and media model. More standard metrics would give marketers and their partners permission to move beyond experimental spending and toward lasting innovation and change.
Collaboration is king: Marketers, ad agencies, and media companies need to partner in conceiving, executing, and monitoring winning marketing strategies.
We at YMC couldn’t agree more. I would just note that this doesn’t apply to digital marketing alone. Engaging with consumers is something that needs to happen across all platforms — from digital to physical and back. The brands that succeed are those that have figured out how to communicate authentically in a holistic fashion.
A decade and a half of youth marketing experience has taught me one iron-clad, truly immutable law: young people — more so than any other age group — defy stereotyping. Over the years, as the stereotypes pinned to young people have come and gone with the seasons, this one simple rule has remained true: just as soon as popular culture (and the media’s many pseudo experts) have settled on picture of the prototypical teen, hard data emerges to prove them mostly (or totally and completely) wrong. It happens all the time — you can practically set your watch to it.
We at Youth Marketing Connection have written previously about how essential it is to set aside the oft-repeated tropes about this generation, and approach Gen-Y-ers as real, idiosyncratic, breathing and bleeding human beings. We have always preached the importance of stripping back the artifice and hype, and engaging with young people in a way that transcends buzzwords. Now, I’m sure you’ll agree, understanding your target audience is good advice for marketing to any age group. But, as we’ve said before, this is doubly true for Generation Y. If I’ll be allowed a brief stereotype of my own, this generation has an eagle eye for the fake and contrived, and marketing based on lazy characterizations is going to fail that litmus test every time. You’ve surely heard me say it before, and I’ll say it again: authentic and engaging brand experiences are what works. And making an experience “engaging” and “authentic” requires a nuanced understanding of your subject. It requires a degree of nuance that stereotypes simply make impossible.
This is all a long-winded way of introducing a story reported by our friends at YPulse. Apparently, for the first time ever, according to Advertising Age, more college students would prefer to read Time Magazine than Cosmopolitan. This seems to have come to some as a shock — people can’t seem to get their head around the notion that this text-obsessed generation is also a highly-literate, news-savy one. This news addresses one of the most widespread and, frankly, frustruating myths that persists about this geration: that they are incurious and shallow or senslessly materialistic and dull. That’s an assessment that I couldn’t disagree with more. This is a sophisticated and worldy bunch — and, perhaps, thanks to wild 2008 campaign season — one of the most poltically engaged in recent memory.
What’s the take-away here? I would argue, above all else, don’t underestimate this generation — over, just as importantly, oversimplify them. They’re a diverse and discerning group; they require marketing that understands that.
In fairness, I should say that my title is a little misleading — there is still far more art than science in “viral” video. But the folks at AdAge and Visible Measures are beginning to take a more empirical approach to tracking and discecting web video. I think I’ve linked to AdAge’s viral video chart before, but it’s worth mentioning again. The idea is simple: with data analytics firm Visible Measure’s help, AdAge ranks the most viewed videos on YouTube each week. It’s the 21st cetury’s Billboard chart. And it’s always fascinating to see which 2-minute clip is capturing the world’s attention at any given time. At the moment, this gem from Air New Zealand is king of the mountain:
Recently, AdAge released a 10-minute interview with Visible Measures’ VP Matt Cutler, who walks through some of the trends they’ve observed in viral video across the last year. This is a must-see interview for any brand that has an interest in connecting with Gen-Y — which should be basically all of you. I’m drawn to viral video not only because it has the potential to be such a great return on investment — produce a video for a few thousand dollars, upload on YouTube for free, reach 10 million viewers across the world, generate impossible-to-purchase buzz — but because of the tone and style most often employed. Matt Cutler mentions in his interview that the one identifiable theme that is seen throughout the majority of videos is an “identifiable sense of whimsy.” This is exactly the kind of content that connects and builds credibility with Gen-Y.
Curiously, for a video that discects viral video, it’s not that shareable. You can watch the video in its entirety here, but I can’t embed it on YMC’s blog. Well, you can’t win ‘em all.
According to the fine folks at AdWeek, Domino’s Pizza has just launched a guerrilla-style marketing campaign in Los Angeles that’s worth mentioning. If you’ve ever visited LA, you’re well aware that many of its sidewalks are dirty enough to put 1980’s-era New York to shame. Thanks to the 14 gazillion cars that clog LA’s super highways, there is a fine layer of filth that clings to just about everything. With that unfortunate truth in mind, Domino’s contracted with a “green graffiti” firm, to etch their logo into the sidewalks of LA. But they didn’t use spray paint or a chisel — they simply employed a high-power hose to wash away the grime in a way that reveals their unmistakable domino.
Although I haven’t been able to find a decent photo of the end result, here’s a YouTube video that shows how a little high-pressure water can turn a grimy patch of concrete into a fantastic urban canvas. Check it out:
The new guerrila campaign is designed to generate buzz for Dominos’ new “American Legends” line of pizzas, which attempt to capture the essence of the pizza of famous American cities. Domino’s is creating a contest out of the dirt-defying logos, as well. The first 250 people to discover the 200 etched logos scattered throughout LA, and email a photo of themselves to Domino’s, receive a $15 gift certificate. This strikes me as a very, very cheap way to build some (modest) buzz, simply by taking a (modest) risk, and going guerrila. And, of course, the scavenger-hunt style contest is always a winning formula.
Have any of our West-coast readers seen one of the etchings?
The always-worth-reading YPulse recently posted about Microsoft’s latest advertising campaign — another attempt to stem the tide of those fleeing the world of PCs. While Windows-based PCs still claim the lionshare of the market, the last eight years have seen Mac make some serious inroads. As of December 2000, Apple sold roughly 600,000 computers per quarter. In March of 2008, they sold more than 2.2 million. And a healthy percentage of those gains have come at Microsoft’s expense.
Now, if you look at the numbers, Microsoft is still unquestionably dominating the PC market. According to NetApps, Windows-based computers made up 90.7 percent of internet traffic in the US. Apple, they estimate, has just over 8 percent of the market.
But what unnerves Microsoft is Apple’s presence on campus — and the unwaveringly loyalty that many in Gen-Y feel for their Apple products. According to market researcher SurveyU, Apple is quickly approaching 25 percent of market share on college campuses. And, despite their higher price point, an even larger number of students report planning to make their next computer an Apple. The fact that almost every college student has an iPod — and lusts after an iPhone — certainly plays a factor here.
Microsoft responded to Apple’s enormously popular “I’m a Mac” TV commercials (starring the comically nerdy John Hodgman as the PC) with their own “I’m a PC” series. The commercials were raw, filled with the likes of hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams, and aimed at getting some cool cred back.
Microsoft’s latest campaign is aimed at the wallet — they want to remind Gen-Y that Apple may make beautiful computers, but they’re still pretty pricey. The ads follow a Gen-Y shopper as she attempts to buy a new laptop for under $1,000. Predictably, that’s a hard to do at the Apple store. She ends up walking away with a 17″ PC for under $800. Now, the fine folks at YPulse suggests a few reasons why price alone is not going to halt the flow of Gen-Y-ers away from PC. And we at YM certainly have a few thoughts on the issue. But we’re curious — what do you think? How much is Apple’s brand worth to the Gen-Y set? How far do these commercials go to bride the divide between Microsoft and the next generation of computer buyers?
About one month ago, the fine folks at Kraft unveiled a dramatic re-boot of the Miracle Whip brand. The campaign, which is laser-targeted to appeal to the Gen-Y set, features a series of TV spots, a regularly updated Facebook fan page, and a downloadable, hand-built Firefox plug-in called Zingr.
The Firefox plug-in, coded by the interactive wizards at AKQA, is a powerful social networking tool with some practical, real-world applications. Zingr, which is downloadable at miraclewhip.com, is like a virtual sticky note for the web. Once the plug-in is installed, Zingr allows users to attach comments to any web page, and share their comments with a selection of friends. But instead of being relegated to the comment section of a web page, Zingr’s comments appear “on top” of the web page, like sticky notes. And they can be positioned anywhere throughout the site — on top of photos, next to a particularly brilliant line of a YMC blog post, alongside a map for clarifying directions. Of course, visitors to the site that don’t have Zingr installed won’t be able to see these floating comments, which is precisely the point: Zingr is designed to be a way to share another layer of commentary with a circle of friends, not the web at large.
As is always the case with social networking plays, the so-called “networking effect” is a huge factor: the more people that use it, the more valuable it becomes. If none of your friend are using Zingr, the fact that you can share pixelated sticky notes lacks most of its appeal. The fact that the plug-in is built exclusively for Firefox also means that the millions upon millions of Internet Explorer users will have to switch browsers before they can take Zingr for a test drive. But, with all of that said, the idea behind Zingr is a very powerful one — and one which I think has some real resonance with Gen-Y-ers.
Some writers, however, have argued that the success of the commercials is debatable. While they’ve received plenty of love from some corners of the internet, other writers have questioned the premise of a “hip” Gen-Y-targeted sandwich spread. If you haven’t seen it already, take a look at the commercial for yourself:
Now, this is certainly a bold re-envisioning. The hand-lettered type, the flickering camera work, the color-shifted photography, and the urban-fashionista cast certainly don’t recall the Miracle Whip that we all grew up with:
From a design perspective, I would argue that there are a lot of positive things happening here — the new packaging looks crisp, modern, and yet attractively retro. (For a very thorough look at the refreshing of the packaging and product design, check out Brand New’s assessment here.)
But I’d like to hear your thoughts on the success of the messaging. As I’ve said many times before, authentic messaging is the most important factor when engaging with Gen-Y. Trying too hard to be “cool” is never a recipe for success. In your opinion, does the Miracle Whip campaign pass the authenticity bar?
