The kids are turbo charged! Are you?

Yesterday I had a revelation. My 6-year-old son knew how to cast YouTube from the mobile phone onto the TV. Also, before going to bed, he wanted Mathematics posters up on the wall. His submission - I love math. I challenged him to a simple game - if a=1 and b=2, what is a+b. His answer was perfect, and then he said this: "you could also have said - a=1, b=2, and a+b=c; so what's 'c'? I was stunned. Not only had this kid figured out a logical quadratic expression, he was able to represent his thought in the most cohesive manner possible.

Another time we were watching the highlights of the Man United-vs-Southampton game. His observation was - why isn't FC Barcelona playing (he is learning how to play football at a training club run by FC Barcelona). He read the screen, figured out who was playing, didn't ask - just knew that it wasn't his team. Remember that TV screens are riddled with crazy information & communication during a match. Within that, a 6-year-old kid could figure out who are the ones playing, and that it isn't his team.

He knows how to navigate Netflix, has a list of things he likes to watch. He whatsapps' me every day asking what I am doing, and when I will come home (using my wife's phone). A lot of that is acquired through interactions with us, grandparents, extended family, and friends. However, there is a substantial portion (good & bad) picked up from the million screens and printed material hitting him all the time.

Here is why I am alarmed. I don't know how to second guess kids. I do not know what they are thinking, how they will react to things, what should my reaction be when they react - and most importantly, how will I ever know what they want.

I also know that the control that parents would imagine having on this age-group is getting less pronounced. They are growing up, and super fast. They have an extremely sharp mind, are opinionated and learn things around them quicker than we ever did. They are the future consumers and as marketing, communication, and advertising people, we are probably totally clueless about what the next few years will throw at us.

I am scared that as a marketer, we might have neglected to keep a watchful eye on a generation that is consuming content rampantly and shall be very difficult to persuade, with the same principles of communication and marketing as are prevalent right now. It is time to prepare ourselves well and hope that when the time comes, we are equipped with the basic tools to capture the attention and time of this gen.

They are also the ones who are growing up in a far more polarised and politicized world. No matter which side of the narrative they lie, their views on equality, homogeneity, tolerance, unity and embracing diversity will form a new world in the next few years. Question is - are we ready to embrace and nurture it.

Here are the top 4 things that one can / should do to be future ready according to me. You are free to add to this list in the comments section.

Know your machines

Seriously, I don't even need to elaborate on this. As a marketer, if you don't know the different virtual and physical machines that the kids are interacting with - starting from a mobile phone, wearable, snap, glass, VR, AR or be it the neural language - you are already on the losing side. Get snappy on this one, else you will be lost in the coming storm. I regularly tweet about AI, ML and Neural Networks, so you can see the stream here - https://twitter.com/samriddhd // Another way of ensuring that you are learning regularly is to get an app like Flipboard and subscribe to the vast universe of information already available. Whatever your method - just ensure that you are learning this fast enough to keep up. The kids are already using these things somewhere.

Build for Instant Consumption

Doesn't matter if you are an app developer or a storyteller - if you are not building for instant consumption, then you are building wrong. If your app takes time to download, is heavy, bloated, layered - then you are dead. It's instant app time and there are many advances happening in this area - Read this article to get an idea of where things are moving. Are you a filmmaker, musician, graphic designer, infographic maker or website developer - keep figuring out the bits and atoms to load your content faster, making it VR friendly, interactive and shareable across devices without form or maturity changes. Things are multi-platform and omnipresent. Live Video is live, and yet available for later consumption. It's all happening real time, and if you are not in it - then you are not. See this nice little video to see future trends.

Pass on the Control

Do not for a second think that you are in control of the outcome of what you do. What you are in control of, is the ability to lose control, improvise and adapt. You don't have the control anymore - the consumer does. They orchestrate exactly what happens. What you need is to be agile and respond as a human. Personalise your interactions. Learn from the user base. Talk to them as often as possible, without harassment. Most importantly, keep it real - cause you are soon going to be dealing with young adults who have seen it all, know bull from brain, and don't like to take things sitting down. If you want to witness the power of a 16-year-old - just read this - Meet the 16-year-old Canadian girl who took down Milo Yiannopoulos - Do you think she will fall for fancy marketing gimmicks?

Find the heart

This is the core of everything. If you don't find the insight, warmth, emotion and honesty in your narrative - then nothing else matters. When these kids grow up, they will need to see you as a Brand that stands for something. A higher order value. Something that makes people believe that they are associating with you for the greater good. You really have to find the heart of why you exist - let people know how they can be a part of your journey and then embrace them with open arms. One campaign that I keep going back to is #LikeAGirl - Here, Always not only found a narrative that they believed in - what they did most importantly is spread the unifying message of empowerment and strength. They found this calling deep in their heart.

It's time to turbocharge yourself to keep up with the kids.

Connect with me on twitter (https://twitter.com/samriddhd) or email me at [email protected]