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Ramblings of Immersive Marketing Geniuses
Youth marketing agency insights and commentary helping brands effectively understand and engage young consumers.
Plus what we had for lunch ;)
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We're inspired by Mary Meeker, a former Morgan Stanley internet analyst and now partner at venture-capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, she recently delivered her annual internet trends report at this year’s Code conference in California. Here are her slides:
Some highlights from the presentation:
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There are now about 3 billion global internet users, but user growth is stalling at about 9% year-on-year.
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But internet use in India is skyrocketing—it’s now the second-largest market behind China, passing the US, with over 277 million users.
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The rising Snapchat generation: Millennials communicate with text, but Generation Z prefers to communicate with images.
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The average Snapchat user plays with sponsored lenses for 20 seconds.
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Generation Y is the first generation to prefer chatting over the web or social media to talk to businesses, rather than over the phone.
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Smartphone sales are slowing, as is the yearly growth in the number of smartphone users, down to 21% from 31% last year.
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Internet advertising in the US has grown by about 20% since last year, reaching $60 billion—two-thirds of that growth has come from an increase in spending on mobile ads.
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Facebook’s yearly advertising revenue (up 59%) grew much more than Google’s (18%) last year.
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Online video ads are ineffective: 81% of people surveyed mute video ads, 62% are annoyed by pre-roll ads, and 92% have considered using ad-blocking software.
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Internet sales have increased from less than 2% of all retail sales in the US in 2000 to about 10% in 2015.
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But there’s still some room to grow in real life too: Online glasses store Warby Parker now makes more money per square foot in its US retail stores than Tiffany’s or Michael Kors.
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The time it takes retailers to get to $100 million in online sales is shrinking. It took Nike 14 years from the time its retail site launched, compared to nine years for Lululemon, and eight year for Under Armour.
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Brand power in Facebook Live: When “Chewbacca mom” mentioned retailer Kohl’s twice in her viral video, the store’s app shot to the top of the downloads chart on the US iOS App Store.
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There are now over 3 billion images shared daily between Snapchat, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp—all but one of which are owned by Facebook.
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55% of Pinterest users use the site to find products they want to buy.
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Messaging apps are moving from simple text tools to communicate with friends to platforms for commerce.
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There are 10 million business accounts on WeChat, and about 80% of all users follow one.
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Computer recognition of speech has gone from about 70% to 90% accuracy in the last five years.
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65% of US smartphone owners now use a voice assistant.
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By 2020, at least 50% of all searches online will be through voice or image search, according to Baidu’s chief scientist Andrew Ng.
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Only about 5% of US Amazon customers own an Amazon Echo—fewer than those that own a Fire TV streaming device.
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It’s time for self-driving cars: The average urban US worker spends about 42 hours a year sitting in delays on their commute, and the average person’s car is only in use about 4% of the time.
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Millennials don’t drive like their parents did: Only 77% of 16-44 year-olds have their licenses in the US today, compared with 92% in 1982.
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71% of the time spent on mobile in China is divided between properties owned by three companies: Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu.
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31% of Chinese WeChat users purchase something from retailers though the chat app.
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About 70% of the roughly 6.3 billion on-demand rides requested around the world in the first quarter of 2016 were requested in China.
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There’s been a 263% increase in the last three years of non-technology companies acquiring and investing in tech companies, such as GM buying Cruise Automation, and Fox Sports investing in DraftKings
For customized research and youth engagement explore Youthvine
Immersive's national online community connecting brands with tween, teen and young adult consumers to gather strategic insights, crowdsource innovative ideas, and the creation/distribution of promotional social content.
While we pride ourselves in having top-notch professional youth engagement facilitators, moderators, and researchers, we have found that there certain instances where having youth peer-to-peer moderation is highly effective. Allowing one of our promising Youthvine experts co-create a list of questions with us and kick-off the online research or ideation discussion affords us the opportunity to discover insights around youth by reducing the "adult factor" throughout our engagements.
How It Works
Step 1: Select Your Youth Representative
Having a young person that can appropriately communicate the needs of the project, have patience in listening to their peers’ responses, and be mature while maintaining a factor of authenticity is no easy task. However, knowing how bright and insightful many of today’s youth are, we've seen from direct experience with Youthvine that many are able to deliver/introduce the research stimulus material very effectively via online discussion with their peers. Having someone who is energetic, collected, and willing to listen are the most important characteristics. The easiest method here, is to incorporate the young person as lead spokesperson in a video where you are introducing the project and research stiumulus.
Step 2: Brief Your Youth Representative About The Project
Ensuring that your youth representative knows the company, the project, and what they are attempting to get out of the questioning process is key. Be sure to provide all documents to the youth representative ahead of time for them to read over, then follow-up with an -in-depth verbal orientation. For Youthvine engagements, we use an application process using mobile video so we can vet our young particiapnts before the articulation interviews. Be prepared to answer any questions about the company/project they may have and to ask the key questions to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Step 3: Co-Create Your Questions & Discussion Guide
Now that everyone is on the same page, talk to your youth representative about what questions they think you should ask and compare them to your professional research teams guide. Having young people frame questions in their language will already provide you with an authentic insights framework. Even more than this, allowing them free reign with their language for part of the study will make their peers feel comfortable in answering honestly and candidly in their own language.
Step 4: Watch And Learn From The Session
Let your youth representative go with the flow after they have been selected and oriented. Record the session with online audio and video capturing, the key is to trust your representatives and let them be in the proverbial driver seat.
Step 5: De-Brief With All Youth Participants
Ask all of them about their experience (representative and peers alike). Gather feedback about the session outside of the questions being asked for the brand/project at hand. Doing this will allow you to determine if there were any biases during the session and whether or not they will directly affect the results of the insights. These should be taken with grains of salt on both the sides of the adults and the youth.
Benefits:
- Unique research group/interview insights for product innovation, marketing strategies, and UI/UX/Iterative Design
- Less adult/professional biases
- Subtleties and intimacy of answers because of the reduced adult barriers
Output:
- Targeted research, ideation and interview findings driven by, for, and because of youth engagement.
You may also like: Over 100 Eye-Opening Facts About Generation Z
A few weeks ago, our Chief Engagement Officer, Gregg Witt delivered an inspirational talk on “finding your passion and putting it into action" for teenagers interested in content marketing careers at Youth Campaigns Headquarters. Afterwards he sat around the table with 13 teenagers to hear their unfiltered perspectives on social media, and the apps they prefer to use for sharing content.
Insightful Quotes
"I LOVE Snapchat the most cuz pictures delete fast and there is not pressure to be perfect"
"Twitter -- Twitter is LIFE"
"Snapchat is the best. Basically bc it's easy, handy, quick, and fun"
"Instagram is where my friends and I get artsy, Snapchat is where we tell our real stories"
Enjoy Video Part 1
About Youthvine and Youth Campaigns
Youth Campaigns is an Immersive Youthvine community partner and is a San Diego based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that creates programs for low income, minority and disadvantaged youth, that introduces life skills and training to ultimately help improve their quality of life.
More Insights into Generation Z:
Over 100 Eye-Opening Facts About Gen Z
Generation Z has long been the focus of our attention, we stay immersed in their world through our proprietary Youthvine research studies, innovation projects and social marketing campaigns. Our team helps guide brands marketing to young people -- and their is so much more to learn, and inspiration to be gained from this new breed of consumers.
Each quarter, we publish customized Youthvine studies that keep our client partners tapped into the emerging trends, shopping behaviors, and popular lifestyle segments that influence tweens, teens and young adults. Now, we’re bringing you this curated presentation with youth market insights from industry experts and researchers from across the wonderful wide web. As binge-youth researchers ourselves, we know first hand how long it takes to search and filter through all the Generation Z insights online.
We hope you will find this curated presentation helpful, wherever your research and youth marketing endeavors may take you.
Presentation Highlights:
PEW
According to the most recent U.S. Census estimates, GenZ is about 20 million strong and projected to hit 23 million by 2020. In addition, other demographic research estimates that this is one of the most diverse groups in United States history.
YOUTHVINE
We asked 300 Youthvine tweens what device they use as their primary connection to the Internet, 77% reported using both websites and mobile apps, 19% reported using only mobile apps, and (4%) reported using desktop computers as their primary connection.
FORBES
A 2015 Forbes study estimated Generation Z made up about 25% of the U.S. population.
MTV
82% agree “when I’m stressed or overwhelmed, I like to stop and just do one thing at a time."
57% like to take a break from technology to make things with their hands.
54% of 14 - 17 year old girls say baking makes them feel less anxious.
Can you think of more Generation Z facts?
Please add them in the comments below, or message us directly and we will share your contributions and promote you in our posts.
3 Insights Consumer Brands Can Learn From Delevingne
Aside from being a stunning model-turned-actress, Cara Delevingne (age 23) is a true social media character that connects with Generation Z worldwide. she is a powerful celebrity influencer (to say the least), with more than 24 million followers across her social media accounts. This girl knows how to market herself and keep connected with her fans. Below are three key observations we hope inspire your next tween or teen focused initiative.
Insight #1
She is not afraid to boldly speak her mind and associates with topics that matter to Gen Z. From empowering women, and reinforcing LGBT diversity, she sticks to her beliefs and DGAF about what others think.
Pro Tip
Successful youth brands have opinions and express them. It could be anything from social causes that relate to your company, to a position on a relevant issue, or sharing your creative spin on a lifestyle that is true to your brand’s DNA. Generation Z is more inclined to support brands that are unique, have some meaning behind them, and are not afraid to speak in a voice with some character.
Insight #2
She taps many genres of tween and teen entertainment. Some of her finest include: lip-syncing in J-Lo’s music video alongside emoji’s, starring in the Call of Duty trailer and playing COD like a badass, along with acting roles as Margo in John Green’s, Paper Town and Suicide Squad releasing in August.
Pro Tip
If your business goal is to capture the mass market, be authentic with each target audience segment and how you weave it all together. It's easier said than done.
Insight #3
She embraces her awkwardness, and isn’t afraid to look stupid. Many celebrities are caught up in looking perfect, but Cara is fine with smudged lipstick and smashing her face in sushi.
Pro Tip
Humanize your brand and develop content and campaigns that embrace realities (sometimes that means strategically showcasing your imperfections). Generation Z detects and rejects a brand that is trying to hard and always looks perfect. That's just not reality to Gen Z.
Other generation z articles you might like:
7 Generation Z Trends Impacting brands In 2016
5 Valuable Tween Marketing Lessons From YouNow
Youth and digital marketing trend predictions intended to inform and inspire
The youth market segment is amongst the most dynamic sectors in the marketing industry, and we’ve chosen a few youth-relevant trends that go beyond the “year of smartphone revenue”, customer experience, and agility. We hope you enjoy these 7 insightful trends selected from our Q4 study.
A big thanks goes to our Youthvine participants, a trend-savvy intern (Yvonne Kwan), Disney Inventor Award recipient (Derek Baird), and a former professional skateboarder turned agency exec (Gregg Witt, yeah thats me) who led the project and co-authored this Slideshare.
In this slideshow, 7 Generation Z Trends Impacting Consumer Brands In 2016, you will find predictions related to effective influencer marketing, a major shift toward quality content, the emergence of consumer VR,interesting developments in tween and teen fashion, livestreaming establishing itself as the direct-to-consumer channel, the emergence of the social voice app category and co-creation (youth collaboration) in research, product innovation and marketing to harness voice of the customer.
Through Youthvine, we access an influential community of over 1,000 young consumers (ages 9-18) nationwide in an open dialogue, asking the right questions and engaging them with innovative co-creation projects. Over the years, our process continues to reveal the unspoken truths and moments of inspiration that help brands cultivate relevance with young people.
Interested in hearing more Generation Z trends and insights ? Give us a shout!
Other articles you might like:
Youth Marketing Lie #1: Influencer Marketing Is A Quick Fix
Youth Marketing Lie #2: Believing Rented Social Media Channels Triumph Owned Digital Property
Let's get right to the point:
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Take down the corporate veil, humanize your brand, and start socializing in ways that are peer-to-peer.
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Celebrate and show appreciation for young people who support your brand whenever possible.
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Spend more time building an authentic fan base within each social channel, and set realistic expectations for engagement.
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Partner with influential, brand-appropriate young people who are most “relatable” to your target audience segments. Influencers who express genuine interest in your content are the only ones you want to work with.
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Ease off the controls a little, and experiment with in-the-moment content and social apps that are most relevant to your brand.
Just in case you haven’t heard, tweens are steadily migrating to the live streaming social network, YouNow. In addition to Instagram and Snapchat, YouNow is becoming the place where tweens hang out, broadcast their daily routines and interact through video chat with thousands of young people from around the world. The platform now has over 100 million monthly users and is becoming a top entertainment choice for Generation Z. Its real-time features, category hashtags, ease-of-use, and growing user base—make it a golden opportunity for authentic brand engagement.
YouNow allows members to broadcast just about anything—from musicians to dancers, to comedians, and yes, even the #sleepingsquad! It’s a growing community that epitomizes Generation Z with a convergence of diverse interests, and a much lower “adult factor” than other popular live streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat.
Video Chat Broadcasting
Within moments of experiencing YouNow, tweens can quickly capture the attention of audiences with similar interests ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands. Creative young tweens are broadcasting their own music, humoring audiences, conducting Q&A sessions, and hosting their own dance-offs and singing competitions. Fans frequently make requests of the broadcaster and do what tweens do best—socialize. These experiences are what tweens love about YouNow: the engaging content, relatable conversations, and an amazing sense of community.
“I don’t have to worry about looking perfect on YouNow. Viewers give me the thumbs up me for just being me.” –Mariane, Age 13
Online Currency: Tipping to Show Appreciation
YouNow generates revenue with in app-purchases, similar to mobile games, but uniquely executed as fan-based tips. Fans can purchase YouNow bars, which range from $2.99 for a stack of bars, they get a truckload for $9.99, and it goes up to $49.99 for a Rocket (the highest amount). Tweens LOVE the tipping feature, for example: one fan tipped a truckload of bars to watch an amateur musician perform a cover of Shawn Mendes’s “Stitches.” Another popular broadcaster does fan shout outs for 2,000 bars, and on one occasion a musician received 10,000 bars by surprise from an appreciative fan! YouNow’s business model is successful because it eliminates ads and creates a three-way win for fans, broadcasters and the company. It works because broadcasters want to become popular, fans want recognition from the host, and are willing to pay.
“I saved up my allowance to buy new shoes, but I ended up spending it on YouNow. So then I asked my sister to borrow her allowance, but she spent it on YouNow too.
–Zach, Age 15
Gamified Collaboration
YouNow gamifies live streaming, and allows the viewers to determine which tween broadcaster becomes a celebrity. This experience provides tweens an opportunity to interact and chat with their favorite broadcasters, and broadcasters can develop a closer relationship with fans through collaboration. For example, one fan tipped an artist 500 bars and was invited to be part of their video. YouNow’s currency system allows broadcasters to ascend the popularity chain resulting in a larger audience, while enabling fans to show their admiration in a more interactive manner. At the heart of YouNow is a nurturing community for all users, regardless of their status, to collaborate together and create content that resonates with their generation.
“I try to connect with my audience and include them in all my broadcasts. Something as simple as giving fans a shout-out will make them smile. Seeing my fans happy, that is the best part of it. –Brianna, Age 15
Influencers Who Keep It Real (Time)
Some YouTube stars and Viners have been quick to jump on this live streaming app, yet the true sign of it’s growing stability and influence is the rise of young people who are not as famous on other platforms and are making names for themselves as broadcasters.
“I purchased a $1,000 keyboard and a new camera just so I can broadcast with better quality.” –Chris, Age 16
Notable Influencers on YouNow:
1. BruhItsZach, 17k viewers per video, 456k fans
2. 99goonsquad, 6k viewers per video, 69.9k fans
3. Hunterrowland22, 9k viewers per video, 132k fans
4. Rudanc, 20k viewers per video, 334k fans
5. Ayexmadeline, 4k viewers per video, 82.5k fans
The Secret of YouNow
It’s not about the number of fans a broadcaster has during one broadcast, but rather the depth of real-time engagement with fans over the days, weeks, and months broadcasters can place on the “Trending Now” list. That’s the ultimate goal for broadcasters, knowing they’ve kept fans interested.
How can your brand apply these lessons to your youth insights and marketing initiatives?
You may also be interested in:
The Tween Commandments of Youth Marketing
As one of the key speakers at the AMA’s (American Marketing Association) Art of Marketing Conference. Our Chief Engagement Officer, Gregg Witt, was stopped for an impromptu interview with AMA CEO Russ Klein. This interview highlights how brands and marketers are successful with reaching Generation Z peer to peer marketing. For the full interview, watch the video below.
Excerpts from interview:
"Don't market to me, bro!" That's what consumers 19 and under are saying to traditional brand marketers, according to Gregg Witt, chief engagement officer of Immersive Youth Marketing, a San Diego-based marketing agency.
Gen Z consumers have been raised on social media and community, and instantly distrust any brand voice that's not perceived to be authentic, Witt says. Co-creation is key to connecting with this age group: "The primary way to connect to Gen Z is peer to peer, really involving them in your brand, your product development and marketing. Making them feel part of."
According to Witt, brands should think in terms of building relationships, but that means letting go of control, which is a difficult concept for traditional brands to adopt. "Relatability is the authenticity of today," Witt says.
Athleisure is in and Ivivva is taking the Lead. Created by Lululemon, Ivivva has found their place at the forefront of the tween-athleisure market. Tween girls now say that athletic wear has become the new casual wear, and casual wear is now reserved for special occasions. For those outside of the yoga world and youth fashion, Athleisure is the athletic clothing that people wear even if they’re not working out. Brands like Nike, Under Armor, Lululemon, and Victoria Secret have championed these athletic wear markets. Now brands like Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Abercrombie, and many more are vying for market share in the coveted athleisure product category.
“My ideal clothing store would include brands like Lululemon and Ivivva clothing for all my different sports and activities that require stretchy, comfortable, and movable clothing.”
-Annika Vrklan, Age 13
Within tween markets the appeal of athleisure lies in it’s versatility, tween girls are constantly on the move. Consider the many activities an average tween girl engages on a daily basis; class, gym, and all the extracurriculars. Now imagine having to change outfits for all these activities.. Athleisure offers the adaptability and comfort of wardrobe for their busy and active lifestyles. Within the saturated market of athletic clothing brands, Ivivva has championed the tween-athleisure market by staying relevant with customers through the co-creation of their brand and products.
“Low economic growth and high unemployment have led companies to look for ways to remain competitive and find new growth opportunities. Co-creating products or services together with social entrepreneurs could allow them to detect market failures quicker and find creative ways to address them, placing themselves ahead of the curve.” Forbes
How Ivivva Leverages Co-Creation
1. They Invest to Form a Deeper Relationships with Customers.
Ivivva’s blog “The Movement” highlights the personal stories of active tweens that inspire their brand and product. With the motto “create, play, inspire” Ivivva demonstrates an investment to consistently hear and understand their customers beyond the customer-company transaction of money. By sharing the stories of active girls they show more than tell how they genuinely care about their customers. Ivivva isn’t launching an insights finding project just when problems arise. They invest in relationship building and customer insights to consistently inspire their work. As a result companies learn a deeper understanding of the people they are working with and can better predict market failures, adapt effective strategies, create products that customers actually care about, and feel better about themselves for doing meaningful work. Dig deeper to understand their customers on a personal level they build a more human engagement with customers that inspires authenticity and creates brands and products that people love.
2. They Ask Customers Directly to “Help Us Design”
The voice of the customer is powerful and at Ivivva the tween voice matters. Giving customers the opportunity to engage and be heard removes the guess work of figuring out what customers want. Ivivva’s “Help Us Design” page recognizes that the customers are the real MVPs.
“You are our best inspiration when it comes to creating new product and fun features because you are the one who is sweating in, or watching our ivivva clothes in action. We want to find out what works, what doesn’t, and what you’d love to see Ivivva create.”
3. They Drive Tweens Directly to Their Site with Instagram.
A key aspect of co-creation is by building a strong online community. The most effective way Ivviva connects with Gen Z is via Instagram. Ivivva builds thier online community by allowing individuals to post and share instagram pictures directly to the Ivivva site. Driving customer interactions directly on the site provides greater opportunities to influence purchasing decisions.
References:
Youth Marketing Lie #2: Believing Rented Social Media Triumphs Branded Digital Property
Why Co-Creation Is the Future for All of Us
Building the Co-Creative Enterprise
Inspiring Innovation: Lacorda Laces
Skateboarders didn’t expect or intend for shoelace belts to make a fashion statement. But apparel and accessory brand, Lacorda, identified the functionality of shoelace belts by hanging out with influential groups of skateboarders who were fed up with regular belts digging into their sides when bending down to ollie. Through close immersion within their target market, Lacorda caught a micro-trend early on and turned it into a product that sells so fast, it's hard to keep in stock!
Immersive Insights
Put your ethnographer’s hat on. Go live alongside youth. Immerse yourself in the contexts consumers use the products and services you intend to create. For example, we have learned a lot by shopping with young consumers to understand how they decide where to go and what to buy, how they plan for it and how they coordinate their other life activities. Factoring in context yields crucial insights about youth and their needs-- even in unmet needs. Through a well-designed immersion, you might just be the first in your industry to understand how patterns of life are changing, and anticipate what they will be like in the future.
Observing the right groups within youth culture is
key to insights discovery.
Identify young people of different positions on the trend adoption curve (ranging from category trend leaders to those who follow them)
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Examples of these individuals include: athletes, entrepreneurs, designers,YouTubers, artists, students, writers, musicians, tech geeks, and more
Determine different roles in the eco-system of youth relevance:
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Advocates whose personal stories are highly aspired and widely spread in their communities.
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Storytellers who hunt for what new and tell the stories in various creative forms (videos, photos, art etc).
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Distributors who have the power of media – spreading stories.
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Organizers offering the story to a wider range of young people
1. Think Like a Young Person.
A crucial aspect of immersing oneself in the youth perspective requires you to consider the multi-varied factors that build their unique perspective. Consider their location, background, peer and adult influences that shape their perspective.
2. Speak Organically.
Appropriately frame your questions to effectively engage your audience and extract significant perspectives that drive actionable insights for your project needs and purposes. Plan in advance the many directions your conversation can take.
3. Be Flexible.
Guide conversations with simple open ended questions. Don’t assume you know your audience. Be careful not to prime specific responses from your participants. A authentic conversation with your participants will allow you to pull new insights from the youth perspective.
4. Involve Experts.
Identify and involve cultural insiders to bridge youth perspectives and business interests.
Created in 2012 VSCO is a photography app, that is revolutionizing the way Gen Z are taking pictures. The app gives the youth a chance to take professional quality photographs all from their smart phone. Named by Apple, “Best App of 2013” with over a million downloads its first week of being live. VSCO gives more options for filters than Instagram. With some of the filters are free and others are vary in price. Available for both Android and Apple smart phones.With built in filters for Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture, gives young photographers even more options to edit their photos.
To show how this app is affecting Gen Z, here is an opinion on the brand in the words of a teenager.
The Gen Z Voice: Natalie Says Tweens are Bored With Instagram.
Natalie Reyes, Age 14
“It’s almost like Tumblr and Instagram had a low-key baby. VSCO is many things- it’s a place to get different, better filters, it’s a place to share your own photography, and it’s a place to make yourself look 10 times better. However, the social media aspect of VSCO is gaining popularity as some people may be getting a bit bored with Instagram. The one benefit of it is the fact that it doesn’t force you to crop your photos, however, it’s not so much as a social media as Insta is. Of course, you still have your followers and whatnot, but likes and comments are nonexistent. Like I said before, it’s much more low-key. It’s what you put in your Instagram bio as if to say, “Yeah, I have an Instagram. But look at the other pictures I take, aren’t I special?” - Natalie Reyes
Immersive Take-Aways
When it comes to understanding Generation Z here are a few heuristics to abide by.
1. Make Me Look Good. “Aren’t I special?”.
Social Media in large has become a way in which individuals tell their personal brand to the world. Our meticulous posts, hours spent picking the right filter come down to one simple heuristic - Make Me Look Good. We want to look good in front of our friends and family. With VSCO, Gen Z has access to photoshop measurable results without the large cost of photo editing softwares.
2. Make it Easy. Make it Interesting.
VSCO has proven to be revolutionary by creating a product that has become easily integrated into the thriving photo sharing market with apps like Instagram. Essentially VSCO has a filter for every camera effect you could imagine and makes those effects easily accessible. VSCO makes it easy for Gen Z to express themselves more authentically and creatively by giving them a variety of tools to showcase their originality. Where there are fewer restrictions to what a user can create, this allows the user more flexibility and creativity.
“Thanks to a hashtag (#vscocam is added automatically when photos are taken or manipulated in its app), amateur photographers are also uploading their postage stamp-sized oeuvres at an astounding rate. Instagram alone boasts over 4 million VSCO-tagged images.” - fastcompany.com
Because it is easy to use, it’s features are especially appealing to the needs of GenZ through the integration of Instagram.
Immersive Youthvine Trend Feed
Immersive’s Youthvine Trend Feed showcases talented Gen Z community members who share their experiences and perspectives on technology, fashion, consumer products, the ever-changing social behaviors of their generation, emerging consumer trends, and the brands that are capturing the attention (and expendable income) of their peers.
What are your thoughts on VSCO?
A common belief among marketers is, printed media has become extinct among technology-dependent youth audiences. This prevalent belief undermines the influence of many relevant and functional uses of print media among today’s youth. Although digital media sources remain powerful channels for youth outreach in 2015 it is important to consider when print media could offer a better option for your marketing purposes.
3 Reasons Why Print Media Still Matters for Engaging Youth:
1. Tangible Artifacts Engage Multi-Sensory Experiences
Consider the tangible ways a teenager might interact with your ad in a magazine. Circling highlighting, collaging, and posting things they like on their wall. The impact of print-media holds a key advantage of being physically tangible beyond the screen of a phone. Without several other tabs on computer screen, while viewing your page in their favorite magazine you have their undivided attention as they interact with your printed media source. Although many digital technologies seek to imitate “page swiping” motion and high resolution displays, there is nothing quite like having a printed magazine in your hands. The smell of ink, the sound of the page turning, and the feel of the paper in between your fingers. Engaging the user on multiple sensory modes increases the user's experience with your print-media.
2. Longer Shelf-Life Opens Doors to New Markets
Magazines, newspapers and zines can be kept much longer than social content or online ads that eventually get lost in the digital abyss. The overload of information available on the web make it increasingly difficult for your media to be viewed and processed by individuals. You hope (Sally) the teenage girl will notice your ad on her favorite site, but with music playing, multiple tabs open, and a developed avoidance for all things ad related on her computer the likelihood that she reads your post or views your ad decreases dramatically. Online media however does not carry the same stigma as there is something artistic and lasting about print media that makes it more worthwhile to view.
3. Be Different. Reinvent the Function of Print-Media.
Fewer brands are advertising in the print world, therefore there is an opportunity to be different. Old print-media ways may be outdated, but with the ability to impact individuals in a tangible way, perhaps the questions we should be asking is how might we reinvent the ways in which we use print-media to engage users. Digital media is a necessary component to your marketing campaign, however consider ways in which print-media can make you stand out.
What is your stance on the relevance of print-media? Share your thoughts!
More from Immersive Youth:
Youth Marketing Lie #1: Influencer Marketing Is A Quick Fix
Youth Marketing Lie #2: Believing Rented Social Media Triumphs Branded Digital Property
Cultural safaris are well-planned guided tours in which you (the researcher) journey with individuals in their world to gain an authentic insights on users. Engaging in real-world activities gives brands a complete understanding of their market’s relevant behaviors live and direct. This activity is a direct means that builds empathy with tweens, teens and young adults. Traditional surveys or focus groups work in a sterile environment where the coordinator’s questions dictate the conversation. Alternatively, immersive cultural safaris emphasize observations of the market and explore the social ecosystems in which individuals interact . Expert youth facilitators ask participants to talk about their specific activities, the products they use, and how they use them. Having a curious attitude while observing individuals facilitate an authentic discovery process for excavating user insights. Conversations are guided by simple open-ended questions such as “Can you tell me what you’re doing?” and “Can you explain more about why you did that?”. Cultural Safaris frequently reveal non obvious or surprising behaviors and insights about unmet consumer needs. This technique of market research brings a creative approach to collecting data on user behaviors that translate into the discovery of meaningful insights. When embarking on your cultural safari, embrace the ambiguous and dive into the discovery process in which new insights can be found.
Step 1: Plan and Develop a Guide
All Immersive Cultural Safaris begin with a field guide that entails a detailed plan of the day’s activities such as:
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Who they will observe and interact with.
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How long they will observe and interact with the participants.
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What they plan to uncover by conversations and open ended questions.
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Assign certain team members to take notes, who will guide the conversation, and who will be responsible for capturing all of the video, audio, and photo content.
Step 2: Assemble a Field Kit
The required tools are assembled into a cultural field kit which may contain:
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Notebooks
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Cameras
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Sketchbooks
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Audio recorders
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Bags, or containers for artifacts taken back from the field.
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Prepared documents like consent forms.
Step 3: Embark on the Cultural Safari
When you arrive to a site, establish relationships and begin to build trust with the people there. There is no need to act like a poser, just be open and honest explaining you are there to observe and learn. Prior to engaging in the research, have participants sign any necessary consent forms, have one person explain the process, and let participants ask questions about it. It is essential to have real conversations not formal interviews, and to let the questions lead to discussion as much as possible. Remember to ask, “Can you show me?”, to repeat back what you are hearing, and confirm that your observations are valid. Always be respectful of people’s time, and, when appropriate, provide compensation.
Step 4: Capture Observations
When arriving at a site, establish relationships with the market so trust can be gained quickly. There is no need to sound like a poser, just be open and honest to the participants. Explain to them that you are there to observe and learn. Prior to engaging in the research, have participants sign any necessary consent forms. One person should explain this process, and allow them to ask any questions they have. It is essential to have a real conversations with the participants and not feel like an interview. Let the questions lead to discussion as much as possible. Remember to ask, “Can you show me?” Remember to repeat back what you are hearing, and confirm that your observations are valid. Always be respectful of people’s time, and when appropriate provide compensation.
Step 5: Debrief With the Team
As soon as possible after the outing, compare notes, review what was learned, what information important, and what additional insights are needed.
Benefits:
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Reveals evidence
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Zero in on details
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Focused on customer experience
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Promotes contextual learning
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Team building
Cultural Safaris is a great practice for brands to get a better understanding on Gen Z. This method of market research showcases the feelings and actions of a brand's market on the spot. Whereas a controlled focus group setting, doesn’t allow the brand to find out the initial reaction of their markets emotions and behaviors.
More from Immersive Youth:
Revealing Youth Insights: 5 Keys to Engaging Online Advisory Groups
In youth marketing, authenticity is a necessity. Rather than let our team of marketing professionals and brand experts profess what tween, teen and young adults want from brands, we share insights directly from the source–Youthvine, our proprietary resource, led by expert youth facilitators that help brands engage young people for applicable insights, innovation, and youth-powered marketing.
Immersive’s Youthvine Trend Feed showcases talented Gen Z community members who share their experiences and perspectives on technology, fashion, consumer products, the ever-changing social behaviors of their generation, emerging consumer trends, and the brands that are capturing the attention (and expendable income) of their peers.
By Natalie R. Age 14
At $18 apiece, Lokai Bracelets do seem a bit overpriced. So what’s the catch? The quality, of course. The bracelets are structured in a simple manner-- small, hollow beads connected together with no closure. However, each bracelet has two beads that differ from the others: one black and one white. The black contains mud from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth. The white holds water from Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. The company’s mantra is “Sometimes you’re on top, stay humble (represents the white bead). Sometimes you’ve hit a low, stay hopeful (represents the black bead).”
To prove their legitimacy, www.mylokai.com includes an authenticity tab on their website. Showing pictures of how the water’s collected at the source and the mud is taken right from the Dead Sea, their website is convincing. Not only is their message heartwarming, but the company also donates 10% of their net profits to charities such as WWF (World Wildlife Fund, for animal rights), Best Buddies International (to help kids with disabilities), and many others. This brand is pretty hard to resist. Especially because of its efforts to make the world a better place. Every so often they feature a bracelet of a different color (still with the water and mud), to help support some charities directly. For a limited time they’d offer a blue Lokai bracelet that donates $1 of your purchase to help World Water Day, making you want to check back on their website every so often to see what the bracelet is next to come.
Not to mention their Instagram account-- at 933k followers, @livelokai is a very popular page. The company tracks the hashtag #livelokai for a chance to be featured on their account, a feed with pictures of the bracelet plastered all over it. They’re extremely artsy and post well taken photos-- that the company didn’t even have to take themselves.
The bracelets themselves are trendy and unisex, so why can’t everyone have one? That’s why Lokai bracelets are doing it right-- they know how to please, they have a nice message, and they give back. It’s all we ask in a person, in a bracelet instead!
Inspired Takeaways
We’ve heard again and again about brands that emotionally connect with their users but Lokai bracelets show what that looks like. If you want real followers, users need to buy the message behind the brand.
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Make your Cause Known. Consumers want to be inspired by what your brand stands for. The first step in creating a large follower base is to align users with your mission statement.
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Be Authentic. Don’t be a Poser. It sounds simple but by being genuine and consistent with your brand make you likable.
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Do Some Good. Intentions and motivations matter. Show your followers how you’re giving back through tangible and observable methods. It’s not always what you’re selling but how and why you’re selling it.
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Connect people. Have followers interact with your brand by posting creative and artistic images of them using your product to connect with other followers and to inspire their peers. Connect followers on your site when possible rather than solely depending on social media channels. (Refer to Youth Marketing Lies #2: Believing Rented Social Media Triumphs Branded Digital Property).
Every great youth marketing campaign and content needs a hook to make the experience drive results. The hook needs to be memorable and capture the attention of young audiences. The best hooks with tweens and teens center around the "cool factor" of your product or content and what you are doing to make them look good amongst peers. Create experiences that are fresh and authentic to your brand. Shoot for NBD's (never-been-done) when possible, thoughtful parodies are timeless, and modern remakes of anything with nostalgic connection are in the here and now. Great hooks need to inspire brand engagement with little or no explanation and help create a deeper connection with your youth audience segments.
Pro Tip: remember when it comes to digital content, Gen Z read even less than their Millennial predecessors.
We hope you find inspiration in our second set of hook evaluation questions to consider when developing youth targeted content. Feel free to comment and add your own as well.
Can young people be featured and made to look good by engaging with your content?
Can the product or content be customized?
Does any aspect of the brand bring back fond memories or nostalgia for the target audience?
Are the product designs or graphics likely to be better than rival/competitive products?
Do you have clever plans to market the product or service across social and digital channels?
Does the target audience respect the founders, producers, or people behind the brand? Does the brand leverage a star celebrity or influencer?
More from Immersive Youth:
Content Hook Evaluation: Get Tweens And Teens To Bite (Part 1)
Red Bull's marketing success is not the classic brand-meets-consumer love story.
Indeed, it all begins with hate.
"We go out and we find the 'haters': the people who hate corporations being involved in their scene," Ian Trombetta Red Bull's head/brand marketing, told delegates at The Content Marketing Summit, an event held by NewsCred in New York during September 2014.
"And we talk to them. We sit down with them, and we find out ways we can actually build value with what they're doing. And, once we do that, we're able to build relevant content in those scenes, whether it be within music, action sports, mainstream sports, etc."
The iconic energy drink epitomises a generation of consumers that are constantly on the go and prefer seeing and doing to accumulating material possessions. In reflection of this fact, the firm sold 5.3 billion units of Red Bull in 2013, up 3.1% from 2012, at the same time as looking after a slate of assets including four soccer teams, Formula One racing cars and a music studio.
"We know that consumers live for experiences. So, knowing this, we've gone out and created playgrounds: playgrounds in music, and dance, and art, and action sports. In sports alone, we're involved in over 167 different sports," said Trombetta. "Our brand is really all about experiences. And with that, those experiences turn consumers into brand lovers. And those brand lovers engage."
In fostering this engagement, Red Bull has largely eschewed big-ticket affiliations like the Olympic Games or World Cup in favour of constructing properties such as the Red Bull BC One breakdancing competition, the Red Bull X-Fighters freestyle motorcross tour, the Red Bull Air Race flying contest, the Red Bull Soapbox Race and Red Bull Crashed Ice, a new form of downhill racing on ice skates.
Step away from the norm
Brands in certain verticals tend to cluster around similar content, often evoking similar sets of psychological responses. I'm sure we can all recall countless auto ads featuring cars driving quickly around tracks, or stunning Italian mountain roads (or perhaps not). While there is nothing necessarily wrong with this if done well (such ads can evoke intense exhilaration), it's hard to stand out from the crowd by sticking to the same tried-and-tested creative techniques.
Brands which evoke different psychological responses from their competitive set, those that have diverse and interesting content, are those that win big in social video. Stepping away from the norm of your vertical means that your ad is more likely to be memorable, and is more likely to gain cut-through among the 300 hours of video that are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
A great example of this is the Metro Trains 'Dumb Ways to Die' campaign. The Australian train company took a safety message that is normally communicated using hard-hitting, shocking imagery and turned it on its head, using cute characters and a catchy song to evoke feelings of warmth, happiness and inspiration. The video captured viewers' imaginations and has amassed 4.9m shares and 102m views.
Ensure valuable virality
Ezgi Akpinar (Assistant Professor of Marketing at VU University Amsterdam) and Jonah Berger (Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) conducted a study looking at the drivers of brand metrics in video campaigns. They found that the campaigns with the strongest uplift in brand metrics were those in which the brand was integral to the storyline of the video, such that if the brand were removed, the story would no longer work. So, it's not enough simply to create a shareable video and place your logo at the end of it.
Building on this work, we can identify the three pillars of valuable virality for brands.
Shareability of content is certainly one pillar, and it's the hardest to get right, but it's not the only thing brands have to do to create great social video. There are many examples of brands which have created shareable content, but announced their presence with a mere whisper, damaging brand recall and inhibiting purchase intent.
Branding is the second pillar. Research from Ehrenberg-Bass shows that there's no correlation between branding and shareability, so brands should not be afraid of announcing their brand loud and proud as part of their video. Use brand fonts and colours, feature a strong final branding sequence and ensure your brand is integral to the storyline of the video to drive brand recall and purchase intent. And remember, we're not in the business of making lovely video for the sake of it.
The final pillar of valuable virality involves making the ad relevant to the audience who see it. Relevance in this case is all about correct distribution of content, ensuring appropriate contextual placements and programmatic targeting to deliver the ad to viewers with whom it's most likely to resonate.
Brands that create shareable content with a strong brand message, and then distribute that content smartly, will achieve valuable virality.
Great examples of videos that have achieved valuable virality are Blendtec's 'Will it Blend?' series, in which the blender company blends a succession of ridiculous items, from footballs to phones. The videos combine a quirky humour with a strong brand message: the Blendtec blender is so powerful that it can blend anything.
Source: Warc, Ian Forrester
The target audience of Yum! Brand's Taco Bell largely consists of content-hungry millennials and members of Generation Z.
And to meet the sizeable digital appetites of these young consumers, the quick-service restaurant chain – which describes itself as 'Mexican-inspired' – has transformed its marketing menu across social media.
'Taco Bell, over the last three years, has been on a social journey to really understand who our customers are,' Tressie Lieberman, the organization's vp/innovation and on-demand – and previously its senior director/digital marketing platforms and social engagement – told delegates at Advertising Age's Digital Conference 2015 in New York.
Perhaps the 'most important' shift emerging from this process, she reported, is also among the most challenging for seasoned communications professionals. 'And that is to stop thinking like a corporation. To stop being a marketer. We threw out the '4Ps'' – a group of textbook principles incorporating product, price, promotion and place – 'and just started going back to basics.'
These 'basics' involved leveraging the values that define Taco Bell's brand – and which typically appeal to youthful demographics. Such characteristics include 'shaking up the ordinary', as well as being a 'little bit of a rebel' and an 'explorer.' Its revised social-media strategy, Lieberman reported, thus found a 'base in [this] heritage.'
'We didn't go out on social media and try and create a social persona,' she added. 'And I think that's the biggest piece of advice I could give – and it comes back to just being human and being true to yourself. You have to start with the brand and then lean in to the strengths that you have.'
Alongside this self-confidence, however, is the humility required to listen. 'Being focused on the consumer is what it's all about,' Lieberman said. 'At Taco Bell, we have access to 20 million [digital] conversations a year. So we can really listen to our customers through social media, be inspired by them, and connect with them to create real relationships.'
The use of emojis offers one example of tuning in to consumers' passions. These symbols, ranging from smiling faces to a pizza slice, are inserted into messages sent via mobile tools like WhatsApp and Kik, and have been used as marketing tools by players like 1-800-Flowers and MillerCoors. And the absence of a taco option was something Taco Bell's patrons were talking about 'all the time.'
In showing its solidarity with their cause, the company unveiled a campaign urging the Unicode Consortium, a non-profit group setting international software standards, to officially endorse a taco emoji. These efforts spanned special T-shirts, stickers and even a petition on Change.org. 'Just as a person would do, we wanted to take our cause to the right place,' said Lieberman.
This plea attracted almost 33,000 signatures in seven months, and secured approximately 350 million impressions for Taco Bell. Consequently, when the relevant emoji was approved in June 2015, the brand received significant credit – a result only achievable because, in Lieberman's words, it had located 'the intersection between what our fans care about and what we care about.'
Source: Warc, Stephen Whiteside
Elaborating on the topic, he cited Burger King's permanent reintroduction of Chicken Fries to its stores in early 2015. This offering was originally launched in 2005, axed in a 2012 menu overhaul, and then reappeared for a limited period in late 2014. And whenever the product was not on sale, it provoked anguish – especially among millennials and members of Generation Z.
"Conversation across social kind of exploded from the day we took it off," said Hirschhorn. This outpouring reached a peak during the first quarter of last year, when – according to monitoring by Code and Theory, the QSR's digital agency – every three mentions of "Burger King" on social media saw one reference to "Chicken Fries".
In feeding its youthful target's desire for both their favourite snack and sharable content, the firm unveiled a digital keyboard full of Chicken Fries-themed emojis to coincide with its long-term commitment to the product. Small symbols of this kind can be inserted in messages sent via apps like Kik and Tango, and have also attracted firms including 1-800-Flowers and MillerCoors.
"The people that were talking about it were 13-24-year-olds. And the way they talk about it is mostly through emojis, which is kind of crazy. And they didn't have an ability to use Chicken Fries emojis. So it was quite obvious to us that this was our campaign," said Hirschhorn.
"We basically just reinserted ourselves into a conversation that was already existing, that was relevant to our brands, about one of our products – and in relevant ways."
Employing emojis in this way fed into the second principle informing Burger King's usage of "storymaking" – namely, flipping the traditional bias towards creative and away from media on its head. "We actually think that the equation is inverted – and that all great ideas today need to be great media ideas," said Hirschhorn.
"Creativity is the business tool that we – collectively, as an industry – chose to use to drive whatever business we are involved in … So, all great ideas need to be rooted in a great media idea, where creativity is applied as an amplifier and a multiplier effect on top of that media idea. And then we use our various distribution channels to help us drive our business."
Source: Warc, Stephen Whiteside
Understanding the various elements that drive shareability of online video campaigns is fundamental to achieving 'valuable virality'. Here are five steps to success.
Find your brand's voice
While there are hundreds of factors that contribute to shareability of online video, the top two are psychological responses and social motivations to share. Finding your brand's voice involves selecting the psychological responses and social motivations that best communicate your brand's key messages and achieve your campaign goals.
A psychological response is, in the words of Daniel Kahneman, a System 1 response: it is automatic. Psychological responses can be split into four different types, each of which has a unique impact on shareability: emotional responses (amazement, exhilaration, happiness, hilarity, inspiration, pride, nostalgia, sadness and warmth); primal responses (anger, arousal and fear); cognitive responses (knowledge, shock and surprise); and non-empathetic negative responses (confusion, contempt and disgust).
Emotional responses have a very strong correlation with shareability. If a brand can evoke one, or a combination, of these responses among a large proportion of its audience, then it is highly likely to have a very shareable video. Intensity is key here: brands should seek to make their emotional responses as intense as possible to maximise their chance of success.
Primal responses have a strong impact on shareability, but commercial brands should use these with care. While it's possible to generate lots of sharing by, for example, angering viewers, such a response may not be brand-appropriate. Governments with public service messages and charities, on the other hand, can use these responses very effectively.
Cognitive responses have a mild impact on shareability. While they are not key drivers of sharing in themselves, they can amplify emotional responses that do drive shareability. So, for example, if viewers are intensely surprised by the central premise of an ad, then they are more likely to feel the intense emotional responses with which that surprise was combined (e.g. warmth, nostalgia, pride).
Non-empathetic negative responses are the enemy of sharing. If, for example, a viewer is confused by an ad, then they will be very unlikely to feel the intense emotional responses that the brand had intended them to feel. Contempt is even worse than confusion, as this indicates an active dislike of the video. Disgust is also to be avoided, as viewers are very unlikely to want to disgust a friend or family member by sharing a disgusting video with them.
Unlike psychological responses, social motivations are a System 2 response, requiring a thought process. They involve the viewer thinking 'I would share this video because…'.
While there tends to be consensus around psychological responses, social motivations tend to be more personal. So, the same video can work in different ways for different people. We can take an example of a video for a puppy rescue centre, featuring puppies waiting to be rehomed. Lots of viewers will see the puppies and feel intense warmth (thinking 'aah, they're so cute'), but different members of the audience will share for different, and more personal, reasons. One viewer may be a dog lover, and may wish to share with other people whom he knows to also love dogs (Shared Passion). Another may want to try to do a good thing and help the puppies get rehomed (Social Good). Yet another may want to ask his friends' opinions about why the puppies find themselves in this horrible situation (Opinion Seeking). The best social videos tend to offer up a 'menu' of social motivations from which viewers can choose, so the ads work in different ways for different members of the audience.
Finding your brand's voice requires you to select the correct psychological responses for your brand and your campaign. Think about the psychological responses that best convey your brand's message and personality, and then choose creative devices that evoke these responses as intensely as possible among your target audience. Additionally, offer up a menu of social motivations that are appropriate for your campaign. If you're targeting tech-savvy youth, then include Kudos: Authority. If your goal is to tell viewers about the great work you have done in developing countries, focus on Social Good. But if you're simply trying to sell more product, then be sure to include Social Utility.
A great example of a video that combines intense emotional responses with social motivations is from the Always 'Like A Girl' campaign. The young female target audience felt warmth towards the protagonists, proud to be girls, and inspired to rewrite the rules. They shared the video to inspire others (Social Good), to say that they believe the negative use of the 'like a girl' moniker is wrong (Self Expression), and to ask others' opinions about the thought-provoking central premise (Opinion Seeking).
Source: Warc, Ian Forrester
Target – an expert in understanding the purchasing habits of consumers – rapidly is changing the way it buys display advertising from the online publishers that compete fiercely for its dollars.
"If we take the core mobile display/desktop display world, today we're probably bumping up against 50% of that being purchased using a programmatic methodology," Patrick Reiter, the firm's group manager/digital, told delegates at MediaPost's OMMA Programmatic Display conference held during New York's Internet Week.
This quantitative metric represents one demonstration of programmatic progress. A potentially more important indicator on this measure, however, concerns how the Minneapolis-based organisation consistently secures high-quality inventory.
And it is here that the Bullseye Exchange – a private hub for acquiring digital display ads constructed by Reiter's team – enters into play.
Like most ad exchanges, this marketplace pulls together the available inventory from various sources, and lets buyers sort these possible placements by:
category (e.g. sports, fashion and baby care);
demographic (e.g. women, Hispanic consumers, and so on);
channel (e.g. desktop or mobile);
"impact" (which, for Target, incorporates a rating of several rich media formats).
But while independent exchanges often represent hundreds (if not thousands) of outlets, Target's bespoke platform houses approximately 70 hand-picked media brands. "It's really about a way to programmatically connect Target to publishers," said Reiter. "It brings all that together in a single place that we can manage."
Many companies might regard such streamlining as a sufficient payoff. But Target – which has been actively innovating in areas from consumer privacy to event sponsorship and TV production – has considerably larger ambitions for its service. "Our goal is to create an ecosystem that allows us to make better decisions," Reiter reported.
The Bullseye Exchange supports this objective, he proposed, in four main ways:
Consistency
Accountability
Transparency
Brand safety
Consistency
Fulfilling the first of these programmatic tasks involved injecting greater rigor into Target's display advertising by repeatedly working with the publishers inside the Bullseye Exchange.
"That provides consistency," said Reiter. "We came out of this campaign world where we did a hundred campaigns a year, and on some level there was an amnesia that takes place: a campaign starts and ends, and, on the whole, you pick up from scratch again where you left off. And we felt like there was a loss there.
"What we saw was the promise of having consistency through inventory: the campaigns come and go, but the relationships with the publisher, the inventory and the data that's contained therein is consistent – and we can improve this over time."
An equivalent degree of constancy has been essential when promoting the Bullseye Exchange within the company itself, he added. "As my team built products for the marketing team … we sold them this notion that products were consistent and can be well-defined. And we can improve products, and we don't have to be as concerned with improving campaigns – the agency plans the campaigns.
"Brand marketers today at Target understand what programmatic is. They make investment decisions – at a high level, but they make investment decisions – in programmatic. And even our merchandising group has an awareness of it. And it hasn't been by accident: there's been a concerted effort to spread the word."
Accountability
Establishing a preferred slate of publishers simultaneously boosted Target's attempts to address issues such as viewability (link ARF story) and the speed at which its ads are served.
"When you have a direct relationship with a publisher, you've got somebody you can call, and you can have a conversation about that. So there's this notion of accountability," Reiter told the Internet Week audience.
"And that goes both ways. I've got a person in my team who just builds the marketplace and handles the relationships. That's his day-to-day job. He gets calls about, 'Why did spending go down last month?' … And so there's this accountability that I think is beneficial there."
In formalising that agenda, Target also now delivers a programmatic "report card" to several of its media affiliates on a quarterly basis. "We're working to scale that, but I think that's really important, because, again, the goal is to incentivise both parties to increase performance over time. That's the core premise," said Reiter.
Transparency
A close relative of accountability is transparency – another two-way process, and one that depends on the two advertising partners lowering their business defences.
"I think a publisher, typically, is more willing to share things directly with a marketer than maybe they would share with somebody else – [and] certainly somebody who would be viewed as an intermediary," said Reiter. "Because we're an end user, we're their ultimate client, there's advantages in terms of transparency.
And the flipside of this arrangement for the media specialists? "A publisher has a look into what our priorities are: what's on our road map? What do we value? What do we not value? So, ultimately, it all snowballs into mutual accountability and an incentive to really improve the relationship overall," he continued.
Such relationships, however, cannot take shape without significant attention. "There's a very long torso and tail out there, and from just a human investment standpoint, it takes a lot to manage, upkeep and – hopefully – improve those relationships and the outcomes they produce over time," Reiter said.
Outcomes of this kind might include media owners supplying Target with proprietary data, giving the company first refusal on fresh programmatic opportunities or temporarily offering lower prices via the Bullseye Exchange. But, most valuably of all, it builds trust.
"The transparency has been fantastic. And, again, I think having that direct partnership and creating a safe zone for a publisher is really important, certainly, for transparency so they can feel secure that their data and the insight into their inventory is safe with us," said Reiter.
Brand safety
In the case of the Bullseye Exchange, safety means ensuring that Target's brand messages ultimately are not situated alongside inappropriate content or placed on unsuitable platforms. "We like to call it a 'safe neighbourhood'," said Reiter of its programmatic hub. "One of the primary rationale points was to build what we call a 'safe neighbourhood'."
The need for reassurance came with the growing knowledge that identifying exactly where its ads were served was almost impossible before the Bullseye Exchange. "We got sick of having those moments, and, quite honestly, the bar was raised on us as a team. And it was the point where, 'This is going to happen again: what are you going to do make sure it doesn't happen again?'"
If witnessing "zero discrepancies" between the brand's ideal and the pages hosting its messages is perhaps unrealistic, doubling down on this matter has substantially reduced the frequency of these incidents. "It has helped a ton," Reiter informed the OMMA audience.
The next big programmatic project for Target involves building a video-buying platform running on the same principles as the Bullseye Exchange. "Right now," Reiter told the OMMA assembly, "we're not focused on any more publishers in those existing media types. We're focused on building a premium video marketplace."
And Target's lessons from developing the Bullseye Exchange, he asserted, have proved invaluable here. "A lot of what we were doing was helping publishers along – so, explaining deal IDs, putting publishers in contact with a DSP, going over how we would measure it, communicating the value proposition, illustrating how it will work over time, a lot of selling and operational partnerships.
"I think that's where video is today … And so, really, that's where all of our efforts are today: it's building a premium marketplace and then better assigning and extracting value out of the existing marketplace."
Source: Warc, Stephen Whiteside
Storytelling enables marketers to construct compelling narratives which can start new conversations and reshape perceptions of their products.
But in the social-media age, when consumers are airing their views about goods and services on platforms like Facebook and Twitter around the clock, this process frequently fails to make a tangible impact, as shown by the huge number of brand hashtags that vanish without a trace.
In response, Burger King has actively embraced "storymaking" – an idea premised on contributing to discussions which have organically gained traction on these properties, rather than trying to lead the audience in alternative directions.
"We talk a lot about storymaking at Burger King," Eric Hirschhorn, the quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain's chief marketing officer, told delegates at Advertising Age's Digital Conference 2015. "It's actually hard to drive participation. And I think the idea of creating a hashtag and getting people to enter a contest: those are large challenges, at least for us.
"And that's why we take the approach that it is really, really important to listen; and really important to start participating in conversations that already exist and helping amplify them; and facilitating creative conversations around things that matter.
"I think that's our greatest filter: what matters? What are people talking about? What do people care about within our world? And I think deviating from our world too much is a losing proposition."
Drilling down into this perspective, Hirschhorn highlighted the "two key principles" underpinning the Miami-based enterprise's "storymaking" model. And while the first guideline, he conceded, may seem a "bit nerdy", it has brought considerable clarity to the organisation's endeavours in the social space.
"We love this idea that the science of storymaking is subject to the same laws of inertia that any other physical object is subject to in the real world," he said. "It takes great energy to create forward momentum and great counter-energy to stop something that's already moving. And I think that's really true for conversations across social, and wherever it might be."
Going against the social flow can, of course, yield major dividends for marketers. A more common outcome, though, is that these efforts meet with widespread indifference or – worse still – public embarrassment as brands become the topic of popular ridicule and derision. In the fast-food sector, where attitudes are often critical, such concerns generally prove difficult to ignore.
"The risk profile of starting a new conversation is actually really high for us as a brand. So we actually find it to be much more efficient, and less risky as a brand, to insert ourselves into a conversation that already exists, where [it is] relevant to our audience and to our guests at our restaurants. So that's one of the key things that we think about," said Hirschhorn.
Elaborating on the topic, he cited Burger King's permanent reintroduction of Chicken Fries to its stores in early 2015. This offering was originally launched in 2005, axed in a 2012 menu overhaul, and then reappeared for a limited period in late 2014. And whenever the product was not on sale, it provoked anguish – especially among millennials and members of Generation Z.
Source: Warc, Stephen Whiteside
About The Study
Millennials are tthe 'attention deficit generation'. They spend more time online, with more connected devices, skimming across the surface of the world's entertainment and information. They spend more time dual-screening or media multitasking, and are in constant communication with their friends through messaging services.
Constant web usage and its effect on concentration makes Millennials the 'attention deficit generation'. This presents a significant challenge to marketers. All of this presents a challenge to marketers trying to gain their attention. What should we do differently? Here are nine 'attention grabbers' to consider when planning and reviewing campaigns targeting Millennials.
Here is part two of the nine attention grabbers to consider when planning and reviewing campaigns that target millennials. Enjoy!
Respect new platforms and learn from those immersed in them
Young women's clothing retailer Wet Seal wanted to develop a presence on the Snapchat platform, as they had seen their audience gravitating towards it. Rather than striking out on their own, they initially handed over their account to a 16-year-old fashion blogger who was already using the platform, learning from her as she built their following over the first couple of weeks.
Make it personal
The Coca-Cola Company has run its Share a Coke activation across many global markets following its launch in Australia. To support the second outing for the activation in the UK recently, the brand partnered with 4oD, the catch-up service for broadcaster Channel 4. Because the majority of users are signed into the 4oD platform when they watch the service, the brand was able to personalise its message: a viewer called Kate would see a pre-roll TV ad with the message 'Share a Coke with Kate'.
Give them a chance to express themselves online
Millennial audiences are gravitating towards social media platforms that allow them to express their creativity – Instagram for example. Urban Outfitters has tapped into this trend with its #UOONYOU ('Urban Outfitters On You') campaign. Fans of the fashion retailer are encouraged to post a photo of themselves wearing clothes bought from Urban Outfitters, along with the campaign hashtag. The incentive is simply the chance to appear on the retailer's website – the best submissions are featured there. But their Millennial target audience are taking selfies and posting them online all the time, so will willingly participate in this campaign, which costs Urban Outfitters nothing in paid media spend, but creates consistent social media buzz and fresh content for their website.
Plan for the ringleaders
Every social group, be it a set of friends or online community, has a core group who are particularly important in driving the activities of that group. These are the ringleaders – the people who instigate the nights out, the people who post most often on social media platforms or on forums, the people who glue the group together. Influencing these ringleaders is important for advertisers who want to target Millennial groups, as the ringleaders are big influencers among their communities.
Electronic Arts launched its firstperson shooter video game 'Titanfall' with a campaign designed to influence the ringleaders in the online games community Gamer Network. The games publisher gave 2,000 of the most active participants in the forums the chance to play the game prior to release. As well as the natural word-ofmouth buzz this created, footage from their gameplay was captured, turned into content and distributed across the Gamer Network in video advertising formats, tapping into the huge demand for watching gameplay video content online. Hence, a small number of ringleaders helped to influence the broader audience.
One important thing links most of these campaigns: they worked because of the collaboration between those responsible for the different elements of the marketing mix. While the idea for the Sam Smith live concert ad break came from MediaCom, the execution required a collaboration between, among others, the singer and his management, the media agency, the concert promoter, the creative agency, Channel 4 and Google.
Millennial audiences are not hard to reach, but as we've seen, it can be hard to get their attention. The best way to counter this is to break down the silos, getting different agency types and client teams working together to create a coherent communication system, perhaps using the nine 'attention grabbers' outlined here as inspiration.
Source: Warc, Steve Gladdis
It takes more than faith, trust and pixie dust to create Disney Channel's next tween sensation.
Since 1997, the cable network has churned out nearly 100 original movies for kids and preteens, from early pacesetters Halloweentown and Johnny Tsunami to feature-length spinoffs of series such as The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Wizards of Waverly Place. But none have come close to the pop-culture ubiquity of 2006's High School Musical — lightning in a bottle the channel has tried replicating with musicals Camp Rock (starring the Jonas brothers and Demi Lovato),Teen Beach Movie and Lemonade Mouth.
Friday, Disney waves its wand again with the live-action Descendants (8 p.m. ET/PT), which follows the teenage offspring of classic Disney villains Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, Jafar and Snow White's Evil Queen. Set at an elite prep school attended by the heirs of Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and princesses Belle and Aurora, the fairy-tale musical has all the ingredients of a Disney Channel Original Movie hit: Splashy song-and-dance numbers, a fresh-faced cast and High School director Kenny Ortega in his channel return.
Matching the success of High School Musical is a tall order. That franchise, starring Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, set channel records with the premiere of its 2007 sequel (17.2 million viewers) and had one of the best-selling albums that year. It also spawned a big-screen conclusion in 2008, a concert tour, ice show and stage productions worldwide.
Then-unknowns Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens serenade each other in a scene from 2006's 'High School Musical.' (Photo: Disney)
But Descendants star Sofia Carson, 22, is in it for the long haul. After landing her first acting gig last year in a guest role on Disney Channel's Austin & Ally, she was cast as the Evil Queen's blue-haired daughter, Evie. (She will also star in the network's 100th original movie, Adventures in Babysitting, an adaptation of the 1987 Elisabeth Shue comedy premiering next year).
Starting out, "Disney is all that I've really known," Carson says. "I would love to do more with the channel." Now working on her debut album, she hopes to follow similar career trajectories to former Disney stars Selena Gomez and Lovato. "They both managed to have acting and music careers, which I'd love to do. Music was my first love, so I'm really thankful that acting opens doors to (that) world for me."
"We tend to cast talent from our current series, so that's an opportunity for us to broaden the familiarity and appeal of our current stars," Marsh says. Descendants, for example, stars Dove Cameron (Liv and Maddie) and Cameron Boyce (Disney XD's Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything), with Radio Disney's "Next Big Thing" artist Shawn Mendes featured on the soundtrack.
Although Disney Channel usually produces three to four movies a year, Descendants is the only one with a recognizable link to its parent company's existing characters, Marsh says, with plans for inevitable merchandise tie-ins. It also continues Disney's penchant for spinoffs from its animated catalog, with live-action theatrical remakes of Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book scheduled for release in the next two years, with many more in development. But could this built-in brand recognition help take Descendants to High School Musical-level heights?
"It's possible that it'll happen," says Gregg Witt, chief engagement officer at Immersive Youth Marketing, who calls it "an example of relentless experimentation. If Descendants is executed well, it's going to have huge potential, in the way that they're going to grab every age demographic and there's going to be interest in every one of these characters."
While the network certainly hopes Descendants has legs, building a movie franchise wasn't the goal. Instead, it was to put a fresh spin on the Disney classics, incorporating different musical styles, modern gadgets and social media.
"It doesn't really start with, 'If we have this, this and this, we can build a franchise.' It's a sure path to mediocrity if you start to reverse-engineer these things," Marsh says. "I tell the team, 'Make the best movie you can. If it works, the audience will tell us, and then we'll figure out how to turn it into something bigger for the good of the company.' "
Source: USA Today, Patrick Ryan
The best-practice messages from 21st-century marketers are a constant drumbeat, articulated as some variation on "Test and learn", "Iterate, iterate, iterate" or "Don't be afraid to fail."
Bart LaCount is a marketing director for Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo, where he is responsible for leading the Lay's brand – the largest snack brand in the world.
In that capacity, he is charged with oversight of the globally renowned "Do Us a Flavor" program that, in 2014, took home an IPA Effectiveness Award on one side of the Atlantic and snared a creativity/innovation REGGIE – top honors for the Brand Activation Association (BAA) – on the other.
How can Lay's surpass that success? The answer is a variant on the mandate of iteration: it is reimagining – a creative boost that has kept the campaign fresh since it launched in the UK in 2008.
"We've been running this program for three years now in the US," LaCount told the BAA's 2015 Brand Activation Annual Showcase (BAASH) assembly in Chicago. "And we're continuing to evolve it. The world we're operating in is rapidly changing – from a consumer standpoint, from a media standpoint – [but we are also] staying true to insights that it was grounded in."
And, LaCount told the BAA delegates, "We learned a lot from all the global success. So as we started to think about adapting it in the US market, we had a very sound program structure to start from.
"You ask consumers for their ideas for the next great flavor of Lay's. You then judge those submissions with an expert panel of culinary experts and chefs … You take a couple of finalist flavors, launch them into the market and let consumers decide which one is going to stay on store shelves. And, ultimately, you launch that [new flavor]."
Three lessons from the first "Do Us a Flavor" effort, in particular, would drive future programs.
Because "we were penetrating pop culture … earned media was just as important as paid. So you had to have people talking about the brand and about the flavors to really get that [full engagement].
"We needed to create an immersive consumer experience. This wasn't just about submitting a flavor for people. This was an idea that they wanted to get excited [about] and really rally behind."
In this context, "Do Me a Flavor" was more than just a simple contest: "It was a way [to] really immerse people in the experience."
The target: millennials. The problem: "They're a tough group to connect with. So our challenge was creating a meaningful experience," LaCount said. And when PepsiCo dug into its research, it heard: "Lay's is what my parents ate. Lay's isn't really relevant to my lifestyle."
Three millennial characteristics provided possible direction:
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Self-expression: "This is a group that really cares about individuality and they want to express that individuality in a big way."
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Authenticity: "Brands don't make brands. People make brands. And [millennials] are looking for brands that are going to open up … in a way that's credible and authentic. They're looking for endorsements from friends, not from experts."
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Recognition: the message PepsiCo heard from millennials: "I have a voice. I want to have that voice heard. I want to influence your brand."
Over and above those generational markers, LaCount allowed, "If we look more broadly with millennials, they are tuning out brands. They are tuning out advertising."
To connect with a group that eschewed traditional means of connection, "We had to meet them in their own world in a way that was relevant to them and not disruptive."
To meet millennials where they gathered, Lay's turned to digital and social media. And, when the "Flavor" program launched in the US in 2012, "We really decided to focus on Facebook [to give] us the scale we needed with our millennial target. That was where they were and spent the majority of their time. That was the relevant place for us to be."
The strategy worked: fully 3.8 million flavor submissions arrived over a 12-week period. Such a total represented "three times what our goal was and three times what every other country around the world had done … We had 1.2 billion impressions on Facebook News Feeds organically in year one.
"But it not only drove great engagement: it also drove the business, with an 8.5% increase in sales. On a business the size of Lay's, that is just massive growth."
LaCount admitted, "We had no intentions of running this program again when we started year one. But, obviously, the results spoke for themselves."
The Lay's marketing team did not have to look far for an example of successful reimagination: PepsiCo's "Crash the Super Bowl" series for Doritos had demonstrated year-on-year increases in audience engagement. "I was just kind of perplexed by those numbers," LaCount said. "But [Doritos] was really smart in the early years in how they built their programs: establish the formula and build equity in the formula before you start making too many tangents and twists."
For Lay's, he told the BAASH audience, "We wanted to stay rooted in the insights that we talked about, but we needed to up the ante." And, in a matter of months, the nature of audience engagement had changed. "The media consumption [habits] had completely flipped in a year's time. The Facebook app we had built didn't work on mobile devices.
"We really needed to evolve the program to make sure we were staying current [and] relevant with our target, but staying true to those insights that we talked about."
Ultimately, year two of "Flavor" in the US offered not just a competition for new tastes, but for Lay's wheat, wavy, and kettle-corn chips. And, to further build audience volume, "We partnered with Twitter … you could submit a flavor without having to leave your Twitter feed."
There were other new tools, too: submissions were offered through YouTube and through Facebook Connect. "We had ad units where you could submit a flavor idea … that would run on media partners like BuzzFeed. So we had relevant flavor content and we had an ad unit right next to it and you can submit a flavor without having to leave that page."
Other new tools enabled additional partnerships to fall into place. As LaCount told the BAASH delegates, "Millennials love Uber." And Lay's had some good luck: the car service was about to introduce UberRUSH – essentially, a delivery/courier service – in New York City.
And Lay's soon was a part of the program, with the new flavors arriving at various urban destinations as part of a free picnic program.
"The other thing that really changed in the macro environment was the emergence of a two-way dialogue," said LaCount.
And, to get the conversation moving, Lay's summoned a master of reimagination: Wayne Brady, a singer/comedian/improv performer who first captured the attention of American audiences on the first US run of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" between 1998 and 2007. He has since hosted his own Emmy Award-winning daytime talk show and served as a game-show host.
And Lay's brought Brady to YouTube for a real-time marketing adventure. Consumers shared their suggestions for new flavors – including one notable contribution for a "milk/steak" chip – and Brady improvised in response.
"We shot it like it was a sporting event," LaCount reported. "It was true improv, truly live. And we immediately output it into YouTube in 20 minutes" – the only delay was in processing the material. "We got 150,000 submissions that day and we actually eclipsed the first year's total of 3.8 million submissions in the first two weeks."
For the third year of "Do Us a Flavor", Frito-Lay will tap into another millennial touchpoint: authentic local flavors. Craft beers are all about being local. Farm-to-table restaurants are all about being local. So why not local Lay's chips?
Explained LaCount: "The US has such a great diversity of flavors. If you think about our millennial target, they love to discover those flavors as they travel around the country.
"We felt like it was a natural evolution that still builds up the strengths we had established the first two years." But the new reimagination involved the creation of "flavor towns" – places that actually had some kind of food in their name.
Lay's sent crews out to Orange County, California, Sugar Land, Texas, Hamburg, New York, Apple Valley, Minnesota, and Sandwich, Massachusetts to gather suggestions for new chip flavors.
"You talk about authenticity," said LaCount. "Those were real people from the town." The Lay's brand team was in place, but the truck drivers were the people who service Cape Cod. The customers were real. And so were their suggestions.
"We wanted to make sure that we did it that way because we felt like we owed it to the people of Sandwich. We extended this idea in an older medium: newspapers. When you think about local media, there's probably nothing more local than newspapers. So we had some fun creating all these custom ads that ran across the country in all these 'flavor towns' in 20 markets."
Which local flavor will grab not just the imagination of Americans but the Lay's marketers? LaCount didn't offer a clue to the BAASH audience. But here's one vote for a new lobster roll chip.
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