1. ARE WE OUT OF TOUCH?
#EDGEBIRMINGHAM JULY 2014
By James Perrin @Koozai_James
2. DID YOU
KNOW?
Students account for
half the UK youth
population
They contribute an
estimated £20 billion
to the UK economy
every year
(Source: Guardian)
4. “Marketing to Britain’s youth is notoriously
fraught.”
“No-one wants to be the 'dad dancing' brand!”
“Understanding the latest trends in terms of
content and channels is crucial for a brand to
carve-out a sustainable business model”
Matt Burgess
Brand Building Director, Personal Care,
Unilever
5. WHAT YOU’LL
LEARN TODAY
Who Are Young
People?
Youth Trends &
Consumer
Behaviours
New Trends & The
Future
How Do We Reach
The Market?
What To Do Vs
What Not To Do
10 Rules To Stay
In Touch
44. NEED HELP WITH YOUR DIGITAL
MARKETING?
@Koozai_James
james.perrin@koozai.com
0845 485 1262
koozai.com
Download the slides:
http://kooz.ai/EdgeBrum14
Young people are key to numerous markets, from mobile, fashion and technology to alcohol, snack foods and entertainment, and much much more.
This audience spends money.
Students alone account for around half the UK youth population, they contribute an estimated £20 billion to the UK economy every year.
But
Now this is a quote from…
Here’s what we’ll learn today
‘Youth marketing’ doesn’t actually exist
Typical age range: 13 to 35
Teen marketing: 13 – 19
College marketing: 18 – 24
Young adult / young professional: 21 - 35
Traditional Youth marketing strategies commonly include:
Television advertising, magazine advertising, product placement.
Today young people expect to be able to learn, interact and be entertained with brands or services targeting them online.
You can see this reflected in this timeline of marketing channels – Yes you have your TV, Print and Radio – but as soon as we turn to the end of 20th Century and the start of the 21st – a whole host of online channels appear:
Search Engines, Social Media /bookmarking, YouTube and video marketing, Content Marketing, Apps and Video Games
Highlighting the critical role that technology plays in the everyday lives of today's youth generation
So we know that technology plays a crucial role. And we know it’s not this tech: It’s this tech
Mobile phones have been proven to be the accessory of note for the global youth market. Youth markets in Europe and the US fall between 83% and 87% of mobile ownership.
Technology and user behaviour – the path to purchase is different now
There are some really disturbing stats out there, when doing my research I discovered that:
62% of youth sleep with their mobile phones
Almost essential to their functionality, so much so that some experience anxiety if they can't access it.
67% access Facebook from their smart phone – leads us nicely onto the second biggest emergence for youth culture
Some more amazing stats I found:
40% visit Facebook more than 10 times per day.
76% spend over an hour on Facebook every day.
Brands need to learn the importance of transparency, relevance and shared conversation versus traditional push approaches.
We know young people are big users of social media. A survey from the Guardian showed that 97% use Facebook and 45% are on Twitter.
But importantly for brands
Young fans aren't 2 or 3 times more influential than your average customer, but up to 100 x
Whether we’re talking about young people today, or 50 years ago, there is a similarity:
There is a desperate need to belong and fit into one's peer group
This innate belonging filters unknowingly into the youth markets consumer behaviour as well as their behaviour online.
Unlike 50 years ago however, young people are surrounded by multimedia. As such they have become very savvy trendsetters, making them a very lucrative market to target.
If a brand no longer provides them with up-to-date digital entertainment, information or news, they will move onto a brand that will. This is the challenge faced by marketers.
So let’s take a look at how brands have used the most popular social media and content channels to-date and see what to do vs what not to do. After this, we’ll take a look at emerging platforms – and how brands are taking advantage of these.
Be Authentic
Sony’s fake Blog (or flog) did not resonate well with its audience.
It featured two ‘enthusiasts’ trying to convince family members to get one of them a PSP for Christmas. But it was a weak attempt at online marketing. They got caught out.
Once this news broke, it only took a matter of hours for the word to spread and the rapid fire comments and responses began.
You could compare this to a number of genuine blogs created for youth, but I wanted to show you how you can create something that is fake (or fictional rather) and it still be well received amongst its intended audience.
The BBC programme Sherlock was praised for its digital integration and innovation – and Dr. John Watson’s blog is a great example. For each investigation featured within the programme, the BBC created pseudo-posts from John Watson. It even featured comments from all well-liked characters.
Cue McDonalds and JP Morgan
#McDStories
A Twitter campaign by McDonald’s aimed at spreading good news about the firm has backfired spectacularly – with people using the #McDStories to highlight their worst experiences of the fast food chain.
#AskJPM
JP Morgan decided to host a Twitter chat where studentswere encouraged to tweet questions for Vice Chairman Jimmy Lee on career advice and leadership. Many any made fun of the attempt to use social media, insulting executives and reminding readers of the bank's recent legal problems.
However Coke show us how it’s done.
What I love about this campaign is that they didn’t try and push the hashtag – it evolved naturally.
Coca-Cola has seen its Facebook community grow by 3.5% in the UK and globally by 6.8%.
The hashtag has also been used 29,000 times on Twitter
Whilst its target was 18 - 25 years olds it took advantage from mass market penetration
O2’s Be more Dog Campaign has been hugely successful, thanks – in part – to the personality of the campaign, which is consistent across all platforms.
Tesco Mobile have penetrated the market – appealing well to young people.
This Rap battle didn’t do either of them harm – it strengthened their position in their markets as young, fresh, entertaining brands.
Mark Jeffries did the following in interviews and across social media.
Being the CEO he should have known better – whether it was a PR stunt or not – it backfired.
Now this Is what I love about Social Media. Greg Karber, an LA writer was annoyed about the comments. He went on Facebook to complain and set up a campaign. Donate you a&F clothes to your local homeless shelter, and then tweet about it using the hashtag #FitchTheHomeless.
The stunt has come under criticism itself – which is fair enough as it could be exploitive of homeless people – but either way amongst young people there is a wave of discontent for A&F thanks to campaigns like this. So don’t alientate.
Lack of communication led to Bad PR for Blackberry, when phone owners experienced a sudden outage in service, early on a Monday Morning.
Many turned to Twitter to vent their frustrations or to seek help from the device’s manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM).
But the customer support Twitter account had no idea that there was an issue unfolding – posting tweets as normal.
And the UK account, here, didn’t make this statement until later that evening.
From a Customer service POV – see how Argos do it:
There’s a serious storm heading for the East Coast, but let’s make light of it and promote free shipping!
In the wake of the horrifying Boston Marathon bombing, Epicurious had the nerve to tweet out a recipe suggestions for those in Boston and New England.
Adding literal insult to literal injury, Epicurious’ first response was to tweet “apologies,” saying that it was sorry if the Boston tweets “seemed” insensitive. Epicurious then deleted those tweets and finally tweeted an actual apology, admitting that the tweets were, “frankly, insensitive.”
One of the most buzz-worthy ads of the Super Bowl on Sunday wasn't even a commercial — it was a mere tweet from Oreo.
During the match, the power went out, and during the blackout Oreo seized on the opportunity, and tweeted this during the thirty-four minute hiatus
15k ReTweets
Young People Are the Trend Setters
What Other Social Networks and latest software Apps are they on, and how can businesses take advantage?
New technology uptake, channel adoption, behavioural changes, disposition to brands – the youth audience are the first and most comfortable in adopting new trends. Keeping up with trends is not enough – keeping up with the audience that set the trends is what is necessary. Teenagers, students, first jobbers, early-twenties – it is this generation that will define and (re)design youth marketing.
It’s argued that Facebook, Twitter etc are becoming less reliable as a way to reach young people. As soon as something becomes too big, young people move away and find the next thing – the future is therefore to think more niche and targeted.
Introducing Jelly, WhatsApp and SnapChat
Jelly, a question-and-answer-based social network by Twitter co-founder. Help users find answers to their questions in real time by crowdsourcing opinions from their social networks — sort of a cross between Quora and Snapchat. Users snap a photo, ask a question, and get answers from connections in their social networks.
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smartphones that uses the internet for communication. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video, and audio media messages as well as their location using integrated mapping features
Snapchat is a photo messaging application. Users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of recipients. These sent photographs and videos are known as "Snaps". Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps (the range is from 1 to 10 seconds) after which they will be hidden from the recipient's device and deleted from Snapchat's servers. As of last month the app's users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day, while Snapchat Stories content was being viewed 500 million times per day.
Jelly
Brands including Ben& Jerry’s, Carphone Warehouse, Nando’s have already begun to experiment with using Jelly,
Carphone Warehouse immediately began garnering opinions on new phones, but also answering mobile-related questions that have appeared on the app.
Nando’s has also been using Jelly mostly to push out content - such as questions about its restaurants, topical questions and asking people to choose their favourite celebrities from a famous pairing.
SHARED CONVERSATIONS
Absolut Vodka and South American advertising agency Woonky built a campaign to celebrate the launch of their Limited Edition Absolut Unique collection, produce 4 million Absolut Vodka bottles that were each uniquely designed.
For the Argentinean launch they decided to host a very exclusive party. Only 2 invites that were available to the general public. The goal of this campaign was to build awareness and establish a closer line of communication with the brand. However for a brand that historically doesn’t “speak”, they created a fake bouncer named Sven on Facebook. Anyone wanting to win these tickets had to attempt to convince him using Whatsapp…but he wasn’t an easy sell.
With over 600 contacts and over 1000 unique images, videos, and audio messages created to convince Sven, this marketing campaign effectively engaged and built buzz in the community.
SnapChat
Some of the more agile brands are already using Snapchat for promotional campaigns.
The Co-operative Travel
The first UK retailer to use it for targeting students through a brand awareness campaign. Students using Snapchat are sent a discount code with a £30 reduction off their laptops, which ‘self destructs’ in 5-10 seconds. They have to opt-in by friending the Co-operative Electrical. It’s also promoted with a microsite to encourage Snapchat sign up.
MTV - Show Teasers
MTV used Snapchat to promote its show Geordie Shore. Fans who had friended the show’s Snapchat account started receiving exclusive videos and photographs leading up to the UK reality show’s sixth season premiere. This campaign worked well because MTV marketing executives tapped into their target audience’s unique platform, allowing them to tease storylines in a new way and bring promotional material right to their phones.
A whole host of other examples from fashion brands to films
So looking back at what we’ve learned today – let’s wrap up with 10 rules to stay in touch
Know your audience – what type of young person are they? Think back to the different age groups.
Be authentic – the worst thing is to fake and get caught – like Sony. Be real, be transparent.
Entertain, educate or inform – whether you’re creating content or social media campaigns - do one of these things
Don’t alienate others just because your marketing to a specific group – look at Coke – mass market penetration
Customer service – hugely important – always respond to comments whether good or bad – if bad comments escelate – ask for the user to DM, PM or email – take it offline.
Engage – shared conversations – most good examples show us that push approach doesn’t work – it’s all about engagement
Real Time – Know when to piggyback on an event or a hashtag – Make sure you get the tone right – and don’t do it on negative events where humans are at risk
Embrace new tech – from the latest hardware to the newest app – always think about trends and behaviours – snapchat, jelly and whatsapp are just examples
Focus on earned media – young people act as brand ambassadors. Find your influencers and engage with them. A lot of the examples used are as a result of industry-wide coverage – earned media is a goldmine – and a lot cheaper than paid or owned
Finally, be relevant – this ties in all of the tips mentioned but always start with knowing your audience – craete buyer personas and work form there.
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