The Youth of Today. How Well Do You Actually Know The Youth?

End of last year, Daniel Groh and Gianluca Brisigotti did a review of 2018 Passion Points and Media Behaviours of the Youth. Thanks guys! ????

I learned a lot. Now, if you’re in marketing, here’s why it matters to you for Business and Brand Building.

We all remember the days when we wanted to first research about GenY aka Millennials... Google search, influential media publications, speakers at conferences, will think that they are lazy, idiots, selfish or sometimes impatient. This is BS.

At Konbini, the average age of employees is 25 years old (me out obviously...) and we don’t identify with these “truths”. We live and breathe Youth everyday and for us, in 2018, this generation was more about Entrepreneurship, Engagement, Connection and Culture.

They are just expressing themselves in a different way… it is OK if you don’t get it.

Let’s bust some myths and get up to speed on what they spent time on last year.

?? - KIDS DON’T READ?

Millennials read even more than the older generations.

80% read a book in the past year against 73% for the 30-49 years old. It might be the death of paperback but not reading. 81% of millennials prefer reading digital text to print. They just redefined what it means to read thanks to the rise of e-book, blogs and storytelling messaging app. Hooked, a top-grossing book app, was downloaded +40 Million times since 2015. This app is sending stories to read every day by text message. Written content is event more powerful and engaging than ever.

???? - ME, ME, ME?

Engagement is embedded in Youth’s daily life.

60% of millennials want to act and make the difference for a cause that matter to them. It is not only about tweets and social media for good, but it is about micro-actions for good. When Hugo Clement and Konbini News’ team went to Kasai to report the Famine situation, they not only reported. They supported and empowered through a fundraising of more than 500,000 € with Action Contre La Faim. If you empower them, the result is here.

Youth not only want to be engaged. They expect brands to make a difference.

61% of them expect brands to stand out for causes and authentic purposes only. The Nike - Just do it - campaign with Colin Kaepernick “Believe in something, even if it means scarifying everything” generated an uplift of +31% in sales.

Being engaged and assuming a purpose does not always work out in a brand’s favour if it isn’t authentic. They have a great BS radar, Pepsi campaign with Kendall Jenner is one of the victims.

?? - BURGERS, KEBAB, TACOS & COLA?

From good, to cool, to conscious and sustainable food.

With the rise of Instagram, it was all about #FoodPorn (80 Million), then #FoodConscious (70 Million) came out. Now, it is about good, healthy and sustainable food.

They are taking matters into their own hands by reducing meat intake, plastic packaging consumption and being more and more “Localvore” (eating only local food). 73% of them are willing to spend more sustainable products.

?? - J.O.M.O

Now it is all about the Joy Of Missing Out. 

You all know F.O.M.O, the Fear of Missing Out. The Youth is spending in average 4 hours on social media per day, but is that productive time? Content are invading feeds. To catch their attentions, they need to be simple, entertaining and inspiring. Brands and media need to provide utility and quality to be considered.

?? - BRAIN DEAD?

Gaming is making your kid a zombie?

This is wrong according to a study conducted by the Max Planck Institute for human development. They found that playing video games increase grey matter and the size of your brain to help refine learned and hardwired skills.

Some millennials are even including this skill on their CV to get ambitious job experiences. The Youth grew up with gaming, it is not anymore, a niche. Taking the example of Red Dead Redemption II, their opening weekend sales generated $750 Million in 3 days. As a comparison, The Avengers Infinity War generated $257 Million.

The potential of gaming has been underestimated, now global brands already started to catch the wave: DHL sponsoring E-sport league, Coca Cola sponsoring the League of Legends finals at Madison square Garden or even Drake, being co-owner of the 100 Thieves association. This is just the start.

???? - LET’S DANCE?

Dance is the new Pokemon, taking over playgrounds. 

Dance is a global craze that’s permeating through culture on all levels. The most recent moves are the running man, the Dab, The Nae Nae or even The shoot Dance. The game, Fortnite, is capitalizing on this trend with a total revenue last year equivalent to +1 Billion dollars. 10% of this revenue coming from “emotes”. In December, Konbini gave its audience a recap of the year hottest dances by producing tutorials every day of the month, called Dancember.

???♂? - SO WHAT NOW?

1. Don't dumb it down.
2. Youth is not a target, it is a mindset which needs to be embraced.
3. Take care of your Brand Love.

These were few trends selected among all the ones that this new generation is creating everyday, just to give a taste on how quickly GensY&Z are developing content around these. If brands want to be part of the conversations, they need to embrace these changes as quickly as they are created.

GenY takes over the world as the new biggest generation. GenZ will continue the change. And as Youth is aspirational, GenX is also influenced by them. Y = XYZ... and that's a pretty big crowd!

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Sources (2018): Pew Research Center, Edison Trends, Max Planck Institute, Euromonitor, Forbes, Quartz

Authors: Daniel Groh, Gianluca Brisigotti, Marguerite Courcoux, Raphaelle Post, Michael Chrisment