Youths are increasingly connected and brand savvy
Brands need to engage youths' to earn their respect and trust and overcome their brand scepticism.
- (1888PressRelease) April 16, 2011 - SINGAPORE - Youth are digital natives demanding real-time access to information because they are always connected. Unswayed by pure advertising, they take all sales pitches with a pinch of salt, especially with the world wide web levelling the information playing field. Brands wanting to carve a niche in an increasingly crowded youth brand market need to be intriguing enough to engage youth in ideas that create mutual value.
Progressively, brands realise that they cannot merely treat youth as the end destination for their messages. Engaging them as partners in the co-creation process gives them an important role to play, garnering their respect and trust. Youth then embrace the brand and its values, become influencers to advocate the brand to their peers.
Gregory Birge, Founder & CEO of F5 Digital Consulting, sums it all up, "Youth are becoming shopping "experts"; as they get older, they get even better at recognizing inauthentic attempts to market products to their group. Youth (will) provide honest feedback into the ideas that are worth spreading. Rather than survey people about worthless numbers, ask youth about their values - they are far more likely to connect with your brand if you identify a synergy of values".
The advent of smart phones is another sweeping development that, together with the internet, has resulted in youth being exacting about the immediacy and relevancy of knowledge. According to Arun Poojari, Senior Manager of Online Sales and Marketing, Southeast Asia of Nokia, "Across our region we are seeing this evolution that's presenting opportunities and challenges on how we can connect and engage with consumers. Youth is at the forefront of defining the mobile-social web and in the process redefining the marketing paradigm."
However brands should not commit the mistake of grouping youths into a single general category. Each category of youth has specific needs, and should be targeted differently. This digital generation goes through fads and trends very quickly, thus making a stoic generalization passé before long. Angie Chan, Senior Research Manager, Greater China of Starcom MediaVest, says, "As they are, youth are fast-moving and ever-changing. Now, with the speed of the digital world, the changes are occurring in a lightening fast way. Keeping an ongoing pulse-check on them can help further your understanding and anticipate future movement so you can stay alongside (or as close to) these dynamic creatures as much possible!"
To address these issues and more, a 2-day conference on "Marketing to Youths" will be held in Singapore on 23-24 May and Hong Kong on 26-27 May this year. Key conference highlights include youth branding through influencers, digital story telling and engagement, co-creation using the youthsourcing process, experiential marketing and event and sponsorship marketing.
In it's 7th year running, this year's conference takes insights from youth brands such as Kelloggs, Unilever, adidas, Virgin Mobile, Topshop, Starhub, Norton, P&G, Kraft, HSBC, Kotex, Nokia, Health Promotion Board (HPB), MTV, Intel and more. Experts sharing include Siddharth Banerjee, Regional Marketing Director of Unilever, Dan Gibson and Sonal Narain, Managing Director and Planning Director of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Singapore respectively as well as Charles Clapshaw, President, Asia Pacific of Tequila\Digital.
Conference Details:
Title: Marketing to Youths Conference
Date & Venue: 23 - 24 May 2011, Orchard Hotel, Singapore
26 - 27 May 2011, Regal Hongkong Hotel, Hong Kong
Organiser: Pacific Conferences
Full programme can also be found at: http://www.conferences.com.sg/s1381-my7-21f-P.pdf
About Pacific Conferences
Pacific Conferences (www.conferences.com.sg) specialises in organising business conferences aimed at providing interactive, insightful information and analysis about issues facing businesses in Asia Pacific. Catered to middle and upper level executives, its events are usually case studies-driven with emphasis on providing in-depth and unbiased practical knowledge.
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