Those pesky kids

After years and years of so many changing tides in marketing and so many agencies going after the same briefs perhaps we have to have a serious think about what the industry is doing and whom are they appealing to?

Sectors, industries and communities (of all ages) all need brands to build a meaningful relationship with them. Trouble is that to do that you need to really get under their skin. Just because you’ve done a project for a builder’s merchant it doesn’t make you an expert. Just because you have BT (like everyone else) on your client list doesn’t mean that you are a telecoms expert.

 Catch my drift?

 The Youth market is largely misunderstood, and the reason why is because very few people know how to talk to them. What do they want? How do they want it? What do they notice?

 My 14-year-old Ed is a constant source of feedback for me about how blind that generation is to convention. Their idea of convention is wildfire messaging through Snapchat and other platforms, not some turgid ad telling them what spot cream to use.

 I asked him recently what advertising he could last remember noticing and he simply said that he doesn’t ever really see any advertising. It’s there but he’s not noticing it because it says nothing to him.

 Ok, so you may say it doesn’t matter because we’ll get to Mum or Dad but I’m afraid they aren’t making the purchasing decisions anymore. The current youth market has the strongest voice of any generation we have ever seen because they are fundamentally technologists from the outset. They make carefully carved out decisions about which brands they like, trust or want to engage with but they see through the advert and in the DNA of why the brand exists, far beyond its product.

 Who cares right?

 Well, Mr. Insurance, Mr. Bank, Mr. Cosmetics and Mr. Mortgage you should, as these are your future customers and they don’t give a shit about you. Not one bit.

 The answer is feedback (thanks Jeremy Brown) and the answer is to listen (thanks Kevin Tewis-Allen) and ultimately the answer is probably to let them run an agency…