In the past 15 years I have seen countless –variedly effective- attempt to reach the youth target-group, and meanwhile a strong belief evolved, as to what a tough and valuable task we chose for ourselves.
The reasons I think like this:
Tough, because the classic marketing solutions are completely ineffective in this rebelling age, if we do not succeed at making a precise messaging system and exactly matching it to their rapidly changing media usage- we lost, our campaign is worthless, and might also be contra productive.
Valuable, because at this age the forming identity and the autonomous costumer decisions/brand preferences are in the play- in this subtle moment if a brand steps in proactively, they get a long term, loyal costumer.
The marketing businesses ongoing paradigm shift, is mostly about the rise of the online marketing solutions (death of linear television watching, branded content, influencer marketing, etc.), and as the waves of revolutions first reach the younger generations, we could see how these new tools work as an effective way of preparing the first costumer decisions. I think, the motivations of the youth didn’t really change in the past few decades
- they still don’t like to believe the dumb adults
- more so their peer opinion-leaders AND their own eyes.
Let us look at some expansive examples:
- As our “TuddHogyÉrtsd”, country-wide sex-ed campaign started in 2015, where 600 schools got our educational program, as well as the products of our clients (Durex, Libresse, Lactacyd), we only fulfilled half the job, sith the 14-year-old- a person who just begins to know about the subject but will live with it the rest of their lives- youngsters could try the products and see if it fits their needs. This is the one thing the hailed online marketing cannot reproduce for a long time, until the large-scale teleporting.
- In 2016, we tried a different approach, so we took the educational matters out of the hands of the adults and gave them to 18-20 year old peers. The chosen YouTube influencers and young medical school students, wiped out the old, awkward and boring anatomy presentations, and with help of the a hundred-thousand branded content campaign they formed the first costumer decision.
Whit these completely different (sampling+peer influencers), yet aligned mechanisms, we prepared the first costumer decision, so that all three of our clients can count on a long-term brand commitment.
I think, that it is worth it sometimes back away from the popular marketing bullshit and believe in two things: friends and our own eyes.