How could other companies (like YOU) replicate the Forbes 30 Under 30? (P4)

So how can others replicate the 30 Under 30 for your own business? Here's a five-step framework we identified from our research (keep reading for a deeper explanation of each step below):

Build a target audience of ideal customer persona influencers.Attract these "influencers" with a prize they genuinely value.Your competition must have a viral growth engine built into it.Build a community around your awards that can be scaled.Tailor your content marketing strategy around exclusivity.

1. Build a target audience of ideal customer persona influencers.

First, build a target audience that is representative of your ideal customer persona, but who themselves also have clout with and influence over this customer persona. This could be the top 1% of the ideal customer persona, which we could call the ideal influencer persona.

Think about how the 30 Under 30 targets the most affluent, driven, and accomplished ~or~ up-and-coming members of the 18-34 demo across 20 different industries. These honorees either have influence over their peers because of their current level of success or want to appear successful and will therefore promote the prestige of the 30 under 30 to make themselves look more attractive for investment opportunities, business deals, or even dating.

If your honorees similarly have legitimate influence over their peers, you can market their involvement to advertisers who also want to tap into that influence. These ideal influencer personas could even be actual influencers, letting event sponsors gain access to their audiences indirectly. Like influencer marketing arbitrage!

2. Attract these "influencers" with a prize they genuinely value.

Think of what your company can provide to the top of your ideal customer persona's industry that would get them legitimately excited to get involved. Forbes used its name brand to market honorees on the front page of a business magazine that usually features billionaires and business leaders. You may not have an equivalent platform, but perhaps you could offer something else of value, such as access to new deal flow, investors, or customers. This would be equivalent to a conference or summit event where access is exclusive, and the networking flows like the free booze!

3. Your competition must have a viral growth engine built into it.

Winning the Under 30 or a Michelin star gives the perception of status, the opportunity to gain status encourages more people to submit, the more people submit, the more they promote it to others, and the more they promote Forbes.

4. Build a community around your awards that can be scaled.

Ken Herts, COO at?The Lenfest Institute , said that "for business publications looking to monetize a segment of their audience ( like Forbes did with young entrepreneurs) they have to make sure it is not "only an attractive enough community that will draw in the readership from an editorial perspective but will also appeal to advertisers in a way that will keep the franchise alive." (source )

Enough scale keeps advertisers and nominees coming back year after year — the 30 Under 30 produces hundreds of honorees per year instead of limiting it to 30 total as the name implies.

5. Tailor your content marketing strategy around exclusivity.

Both the 30 Under 30 and the Michelin guide are content marketing initiatives built around exclusivity. Instead of churning out content endlessly into a vacuum, think of your content marketing efforts like a limited sneaker drop. Focus on quality marketing efforts like the 30 Under 30 campaign to maximize for engagement. Supporting content should only support and build hype for the exclusive content, like the Under 30's video interview series and full-year digital campaign.

And there you have it. That's all you need to know about how the Forbes 30 Under 30 works. So you don't have to feel so bad about turning 30 without winning the 30 Under 30 after all. You can now use this framework to launch your own version! If that doesn't work, there's always the Fortune 40 Under 40. Thanks for reading.