Connecting to the Next Generation

For the past eight years I have constantly tried to evolve the way that we build our audience at MX Vice and we have utilised many tools out there and continue to do so. Until our acquisition from Pierce AB our marketing budget each month was ￡500 and a majority of that went on Facebook strategies. 

What I have found interesting lately is that a lot of companies I study (I research a lot) are still very reliant on their paid search program and still not embracing new platforms or tech, especially in motocross and action sports as a whole.

We all know that the cost of Google Ads are rising and the competition is fierce, hence why the cost of acquisition is increasing, let alone building and growing your brand. Think about where the paid landscape was ten years ago? How much were you paying then for those same keywords? On top of that think about how promoted ads on Facebook continue to evolve and the constant algorithm changes we all have to keep up with, thats ends up with us spending more and more money. 

I believe we are in a really interesting place, if anything we are at a crossroads with new ways to engage vs the traditional safe ROI. My eighteen-year-old, like many other people that age, does not use Facebook. They don’t even watch television in the front room – they are not interested in mainstream TV. They are super savvy with how they search and find the information they require. This isn’t using Google. It’s using Twitter, Reddit, YouTube and Twitch to name a few. The way the next generation use and consume information is very different to my forty-three-year-old self, who when in his twenties was mocking people older than me for not embracing digital and tech. 

I'm interested to know if your brand or company has thought about the next generation and how they are going to find you, your services or your products? Questions going through my head currently when looking at this are:

• Are you creating video content or live streaming on YouTube to engage the next generation?
• Are you utilising Twitch already or will you be in the future?
• Will Facebook still be able to drive the current traffic numbers in 2 years time?
• Will there be a new Instagram, or will we see these platforms become like MySpace and Bebo? 
• Is your content budget at an equal level to your paid search?

Those thirteen-year-old kids who were on their iPads and Facebook seven years ago and wanted their motocross information instantly are now twenty years old, out to work and MX Vice has been their go to place for the past 7 years. That was our goal when taking on these huge media companies that were not agile enough to see opportunities and visualise the future and ask the questions above. 

Whilst I always appreciate paid search and what it has achieved for me and the companies I have founded and worked for, what is it's future? I’ll keep using content to connect, engage and talk to people on every level, but more importantly I will continue to monitor and understand the next generation and what they use to communicate and consume information.