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Dude, Where's My Brand?

An NMK event organised to look into some of the issues involved in marketing to youth. Read the report here...

On 26 October 2004 NMK held an afternoon conference where an expert panel discussed and explored the many issues surrounding digital marketing to youth.

Ewan MacLeod introduced the event by giving an overview of the schedule and the main themes.

Tom Savigar from Sense Worldwide began by sharing his ideas about how to try and understand teenagers’ marketing needs. He stressed the importance of research - the only way to understand teens is by listening to them. Teens aspire to be more mature than they are, but their mindsets are very different from those of adults. SMS, chat rooms and blogs have opened up a whole new means of communication, and what is almost a new language for teens. So new media is crucial in any attempt to communicate brand values to youth.

Teens’ tribal identities are typically ‘pick and mix’ composites taken from various sources, making them very difficult to track and evaluate. Understanding teens is a challenge that marketers must get to grips with: they are incredibly media savvy, and will not react well if they feel they are being talked down to. Brands need to take a holistic approach; they must look at everything about teen life. Nike is a good example of a brand that has remained consistently popular with teens - they understand the market, and change as it changes. Other brands must emulate this success - only by adapting their message to ever-changing teen cultures can they hope to succeed.

Mark Cridge gave some examples of work that Glue has done which can be described as ‘extreme’. While not always aimed explicitly at youth, extreme ad campaigns can be a good way to appeal to that market. Extreme can mean extremely funny or shocking (which he admitted aren’t appropriate for every brand), extremely topical or extremely relevant. His first example was a website for Pot Noodle. Building on the advertising campaign that shows enjoying a Pot Noodle as a slightly illicit, solitary experience, Glue built a website that resembles a porn site. He demonstrated a Car Park Ker-Noodling game, which refers on the notion of ‘dogging’, a current tabloid obsession, as players go to solitary cars and offer pot noodles to the occupants, with a variety of entertaining consequences.

He also showed a very direct and honest ad campaign for the Royal Marines, which played on the difficulty of actually getting into the Marines, with the tagline ‘99.99% needn’t apply’. Finally he showed a site for Revlon’s Charlie perfume, in which a female cartoon character created to represent the perfume has various adventures. The contents of her handbag act as links to various other content areas and websites.

Greg Hirst from Forbidden Technologies discussed the technological problems of running viral campaigns using mobile phones. There are about 50m mobile devices in the UK at moment, one third of which are owned by under 26’s. While SMS is hugely popular, and MMS use is growing, anything more fancy, such as video, is used by very few people. This makes it extremely difficult to create innovative and worthwhile viral campaigns for mobile users.

Technology is holding viral back. Rich content needs better handsets. What’s needed are open handsets that can install and run applications, with Bluetooth and Internet access, and the ability to play MP3s and video at high quality. Smart phones are currently too pricey for the young, and this is unlikely to change for a couple of years; it’s likely that only about a million European users under 26 have smartphones. Is this an attractive enough audience for brands to aim at? Greg discussed a downloadable trailer for the movie L4yercake, created for mobile users, which has achieved some success. But, while encouraging, this is only a small step in the right direction. Ultimately, until much better handsets are available, viral isn’t really viable for mobile users.

Caroline Teunisson of Attic Media discussed using video games for advertising purposes. Advertising in games has lucrative potential, but has the disadvantage of not being measurable. But with systems like Sky Plus now making it possible to watch TV programs and skip the ads, a radical re-think of traditional marketing methods is needed.

Advertising in games could be one way forward. Studies suggest that 30% of players remember game ads immediately after playing, and 15% still remember them after 5 months. Adverts in games are more unobtrusive than on TV or the web, and gamers don’t dislike them, as they are seen as making the games more realistic. It won’t be too long before the effectiveness of adverts in games can be tracked (various technologies are currently being developed). Brand recall will be higher, brands will interact more directly with the audience, and more ad investment should lead to better games. Virtual worlds are a form of online gaming that is becoming more and more popular. Placing branded items in virtual worlds will potentially be a very effective means of advertising (Coke and McDonalds already have items in the popular Simsonline game).

The second session consisted of three case studies of effective marketing aimed at youth. Hugh Burrows discussed Que Pasa's work with Virgin Mobile. Other mobile platforms go for content aggregation - Vodafone, for instance, has 600 content partners. Users are swamped by masses of untargeted information, and the networks’ offerings are too similar. Virgin Mobile, the fastest growing network in Britain, is different. Unlike its competitors, it allows only the Virgin brand to appear on handsets, and instead of a scattershot approach to content, it offers targeted content that will appeal to its audience.

The audience in question has been identified as 16-34 years old, urban, cash-rich and time-poor. They see their mobiles as an essential part of their identity, and music and entertainment are important to them. Que Pasa created the Virgin Mobile Bites content service, which has the strapline 'Bite-sized Boredom Busters'. The phone offers content (free until february 2005 to encourage trial) that is short, snappy, edgy and irreverent. The analogy is to magazine content, and the navigation and design are simple and intuitive. The phone service is supported by a website and a free monthly magazine available for free in Virgin music stores. Both raise awareness of the phone services, with frequent calls-to-action.

Hetty Browne of Neo One talked about their Impulse service, which allows nightclub goers to post (moderated) messages on big screens in the club via SMS and MMS. This offers a common platform for clubbers to communicate with each other, with the DJ, with the management, and vice versa. This has proved to be hugely popular, generating up to 500 messages a night - everything from song requests to rampant flirting. The screens can also be used for advertising.

Various problems had to be overcome before the service could really take off, but it is now used in a variety of innovative and successful ways in clubs. ‘Sexiest boy/girl’ competitions, for instance, where photos are posted onto the screens via MMS, clubbers then voting for their favourites using their phones. The club can also use SMS to pull customers in - users receive text messages from the club telling them about coming events. In this way the customer begins to regard the club as a friend, rather than as a business. If they send a reply to the club, and the club in turn replies, it creates a rapport, and so the original text is not seen as spam.

Helene Venge from Levi’s ® and Su Sareen from Lateral.net then talked about a campaign to raise brand awareness among 15-24 year old girls. The Levi’s ® brand has typically been seen as appealing to males. In the 1990s, there was a big shift in young women’s fashions, as prominent role models like Britney Spears were becoming more feminine in the way they dressed. To meet this challenge, Levi’s ® launched a pan-European campaign in 2003 to target 15-24 year old girls, including a ‘Girls Only’ section of their website. The site’s purpose was to balance offline awareness by giving depth through creating compelling content, thereby encouraging registration and repeat visits. An email newsletter was used as a secondary medium.

The core target audience were thoroughly researched. It was found that they are information seekers, not time wasters, so site usability was crucial. They have a ‘passion for fashion’ (they buy print magazines about fashion), and a real interest in the brand. Regular updating would be necessary, and the audience would be eager to interact, be creative, be listened to. The campaign has succeeded in its goal, with many girls signing up to the site and newsletter, and a general perception among young females that Levi’s ® is a cool brand.  

To close the afternoon, Ewan asked the speakers what they thought the next five years held for youth marketing. Hugh said that what works now will still work in the future, but a deep understanding of the target audience is obviously needed. The danger for new media is that technology can be allowed to drive the content; instead, content needs to be desirable for well-targeted users. Hetty regarded adaptability and keeping up to date with the market as the most crucial future issues. Helene first stressed that brands should not try to please everyone, and shouldn’t try to chase or control their customers. She also said that too many brands rely on too little information, again stressing the importance of research. Su said that youth marketing isn’t so different to mainstream adult marketing. In a world of increasingly fragmented media, with lots of different voices talking all at once, it will be important to be consistent. Caroline said that the key will be getting the right content to the right audience, when they want it.

About the Speakers

Ewan MacLeod - CEO, Neo One Ewan is CEO of Neo One, a world leader in the provision of consumer-driven managed services, including two-way SMS texting, Internet chat and forum moderation, live event production and email response management. Ewan was - and to a large part, still is - an Internet communities geek, with widespread experience implementing, managing and developing chat, forum and supporting community services for numerous Internet and media companies. Ewan is keen to encourage the adoption of safer interactive services for children.

Tom Savigar - Director, Sense
Tom has had a passion for and worked in trend research for many years. His involvement with Sense Worldwide since its inception has meant Tom has enjoyed working within a variety of industries. Within technology, Tom has conducted forecasting, strategic and marketing projects which enable clients to move forward at a corporate and tactical level. Within industrial design, the work he has done has been used to inspire the industrial design process for companies like Vodafone, Eli Lilly and Proctor & Gamble. And with regards to the teen market, Tom has presented trend insights about this target audience to among others MTV, Nokia, Viewpoint Magazine and Gillette. Tom has written a book, ‘Born Clicking’, that looks at kids and technology.

Mark Cridge - Glue
Mark has worked in interactive since 1994 when he left the world of Architecture realising that it just wasn’t his cup of tea. Previously a Senior Creative at Modem Media in London, in 1999 he left to establish glue London to inject some much needed creativity into the UK’s digital advertising scene. Glue has grown quickly to nearly 50 people and their hard work over the past five years has really paid off as they have been named Campaign’s New Media Agency of the Year in 2002, Marketing’s Agency of the Year at the end of 2003 and New Media Age’s Most Respected Agency in 2004. In the past couple of years Mark has been cited by Campaign Magazine as a ‘Face to Watch’, one of their ‘Hottest New Media Creative’s’ and has secured a place in their exclusive A-List annual. He also to his great embarrassment was recently voted as the Most Influential Person in New Media, by New Media Age, narrowly beating Sir Martin Sorrell. Through glue he is actively working with an enviable client list including; Virgin, McDonalds, Unilever, T-Mobile, BSkyB, the COI and Channel4.

Greg Hirst - Business Development Director, Forbidden Technologies
In his Business Development role at Forbidden, Greg is responsible for delivering the technology that powers email and mobile marketing campaigns for big brands and marketing agencies. Greg has held a number of senior positions in a 20-year career in the high tech industry. His recent experience has included four years with Cap Gemini where he was appointed as Business Development Director of Cap Gemini Finance, responsible for the sourcing and introduction of new products. From 1998 to 2001 he was a Director and Managing Director of Raft International, the business software company, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 2000.

Caroline Teunissen - Attic Media
After graduating from Edinburgh University with an MA in Fine Arts, Caroline joined Edelman Worldwide and worked in PR for clients such as BT and Commercial Union. After a six month sojourn travelling around India and the Far East, she came back to London and found a marketing job with Absolut Vodka organising their sponsorships and helping to build the brand. Leaving sbe set up youth sponsorship agency Flipside and quickly recruited clients such as the ISF (International Snowboarding Federation), Harvey Goldsmith festivals, The End, Centrepoint and many well known DJ’s and record labels. Asked by an ex-colleague to become the Global Sponsorship director of a new Swedish vodka brand, she sold her agency to Livewire and took on the challenge of launching a new spirit brand. Svensk is now the best selling vodka in Sweden overtaking Absolut in sales. Since then she has had various freelance roles, helping to launch new products or create online communities for clients such as Reuters. Caroline’s key skills are in devising innovative on and off line marketing campaigns that are strategically positioned to increase awareness promoting sales and long term brand positioning. She is fascinated by the internet and how branding and advertising is evolving in the virtual world.

Hugh Burrows - Commercial Director, QuePasa Communications
Hugh is a veteran of the music and media industries. Initially a business management trainee at IPC, Hugh then spent four years at IPC’s music group and was a member of the team which launched the hugely successful Loaded – which changed the global face of the men’s magazine market. He left IPC to become sales manager of groundbreaking music station The Box and then moved on to Emap. Here he spent six years, firstly as advertising manager of FHM, driving the market leading men’s title through its period of phenomenal commercial growth, then as Music Advertising Director across Mixmag, Sky, Select, Heat, The Face, Mojo and flagship title Q. Hugh has a keen understanding of the youth marketing landscape and at Que Pasa he drives the company’s trading relationships with media and marketing agencies and digital media specialists.

Hetty Browne - Managing Director, Neo One
Hetty Browne is co-founder and Managing Director of Neo One. Hetty is responsible for managing the day to day company operations and for executing the company's frontline product and service strategy. The last five years have seen Hetty running Neo One's high-risk / high availability services for the likes of BSkyB's Sky News and Sky One, SMS text chat for Teletext and Flextech and Neo One Impulse text-to-screen services across hundreds of nightclubs simultaneously. She has successfully led the development and implementation of these new interactive services as well as overseeing a 3-tier management team and over 70 moderators.

Helene Venge - Pan-European Head of Digital Marketing, Levi's ®
Helene started her career during her late teen years as DJ at the local radio station, followed by 4 years of organizing gigs at the university dormitory bar, and making national front page news when she, with a couple of friends, transformed an old incinerator into a youth culture venue. Somehow that led to grown-up jobs at the Danish Music Council, Sony Music and later at Levi's ® where she has held a number of different positions

Su Sareen - Director of Lateral.net
Prior to joining Lateral, Su was European Creative Director at Leo Burnett as well as having the role of Head of Interactive. Originally an Art Director, Su has been a senior creative in agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, FCB, McCann Ericksonn and Grey, and has worked across all major categories. She has also spent time as a commercials director and as a documentary maker at the BBC. Over a long career Sue has won a raft of awards including the prestigious D&AD Best TV campaign and many Golds and Silvers from BTA, Campaign Poster Awards, Creative Circle, and Clios to name but a few.

See the original event page