View the video on Blinx/BBC website

Technorati Tags: mobile life report, youth handwriting, youth writing, josh dhaliwal, bbc

Youth Marketing is all about something you do with not to youth.” Graham Brown (mobileYouth 2008 Report)

Following my earlier riff about trends in the marketing of Great Youth Brands (last time was Red Bull), I’d like to talk about one of my favourites.

This is the key question – how does a mass market “everything to everybody” brand build relevance with a specific segment – such as Youth?

Consider this challenge facing the largest and most profitable automotive manufacturer in the world – Toyota.

Toyota cannot roll out customized fat pipe blinged rims low riding coupes for the mass market because their core value of reliability is also one of a generic appeal – they will alienate your grandmother and the school teacher.

So this is how Toyota does it – meet Scion – the Toyota sub-brand that no one knows is actually Toyota (unless you study the marque a little harder).

Check the video – this is real ownership and consumer generated content in action, this is consumer ownership of the brand – creating rather than sponsoring events, local Scikotics, magazines etc.

That’s how ordinary brands deal with extraordinary issues – in average ways producing very average results.

However, I’d like to focus on how great youth brands are breaking the mold and doing something out of the ordinary.

Youth marketing is always redefining the parameters of what is acceptable. Bright individuals will always push the envelope however there will always be a marcomms department to keep them in check. That was one of the themes of my recent presentation to Vodafone on Youth, Loyalty and Trust and follows on from the Great Youth Brands Series on MobileYouth featuring Red Bull, Jones Soda and Toyota Scion.

Perhaps the best example of Uncommon Sense to date is how EA dealt with the apparent glitch in the latest release of Tiger Woods 08 that including the “Jesus Shot” – where Tiger could walk on water. Obvious mistake. Not just an obvious mistake, but a well known one – one youtube pundit (Levinator 25) made it public amassing over 600,000 views.

Embarrassment for EA? Yes, if it was handled using Common Sense.

However, check this out for sheer marketing brilliance

Tiger Woods 09 – Walk on Water

This is the result of individuals within an organization taking risky decisions to produce extaordinary results that substantially impact the brand in a positive way – that’s what I call Uncommon Sense. That’s the result of bypassing marcomms and challenging the notion of “that’s how it’s always been done”.

Ask yourself, would [#%0#2]youth[/#%0#2] react positively or negatively to this communication from EA then compare to what an average brand would do – ie a cover-up.

by Graham Brown

Some of the points I discussed in my presentation to Vodafone about the MobileYouth Report include:

* How to build trust through relevance by drawing down on the insight from how brands such as Toyota (through Scion) have already achieved this. Also how brands can use simple metrics such as net promoter score and customer lifetime value to measure progress.
* How to be a remarkable [#%0#2]youth[/#%0#2] brand (see Jones Soda)
* How to communicate directly with [#%0#3]youth[/#%0#3] through their own channels (eg using Youtube rather than mass media and press releases (in this example we look at EA and the recent Tiger Woods “Jesus Shot” fiasco – which is also very funny).

Presented by Graham Brown author mobileYouth.org

Mobile Youth Culture is often difficult to understand, especially when we spend so much of our time in the office and not the street. So, here’s a new post that may provide some insight by Graham Brown entitled Take your insights from the street not the lab: mobileYouth.org’s 7 laws of youth marketing covering the validity of using primary research such as focus groups in researching mobile [#%0#2]youth[/#%0#2] culture.

Consumer insights commissioning meaningless focus group primary research that confirms what they already know, e.g. “Would you pay £5 a month to download these ringtones?” Like Nike, Red Bull, Jones Soda, Jet Blue and the rest – get out on the street and start talking to your customers.

I thought about this for a while and was particularly prompted when I saw some new research out about the culture of gamers or other youth research insights from Motorola, which again like most research is heavy on the primary [#%1#2]research[/#%1#2]. Wouldn’t it be great to get out there and start videoing these people and getting some qualitative answers like mobileyouth’s own on-the-street videos or even participating in the universe of students such as our review of JuicyCampus earlier or insights such as those on Black Hipsters.

Technorati Tags: youth research, youth report, mobile youth, mobile youth culture survey, primary research, youth data, youth statistics

* What do youth want from and think of their operators?
* Youth loyalty & churn (leading to Net Promoter Score)
* Trust Measurement as impact on Profitability
* Next Generation Brands (Red Bull, Jones Soda, EA, Scion etc)

Here’s the download for my (Graham Brown) presentation to Telenor Djuice in Oslo, October 2008 at the Djuice brand summit.

Technorati Tags: telenor, djuice, youth, mobileyouth, mobile youth, mobile youth report, youth marketing, youth research, net promoter score, churn, youth loyalty, crm, red bull, jones soda, EA, scion, graham brown

Presentation

Regular Springwise readers no doubt remember Blyk, the Finnish free mobile operator that targets 16- to 24-year-olds with its ad-funded service. We covered Blyk's British rollout on several occasions over the past year or so, and now one of our spotters has come across a similar concept that recently launched in the Philippines.

ümobile is an invitation-only mobile service and community that targets 15- to 35-year-old Filipinos with what it says is the first ad-funded mobile network in Asia, offering a range of telephony services including calls, texts, MMS, internet surfing and downloads. Beginning in June, when the service was launched by Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise (CURE)—part of Philippine telco Smart—potential users were invited to apply for membership through a series of invite codes that were given away virally (and free) by already-accepted members or through online social networks. Young consumers with codes could then fill out ümobile's membership application, which includes a range of personal information as well as lifestyle questions such as preferences in movies and music and whether or not they go to a gym, for example. Also required is a willingness to accept ads, of course.

Based on their answers, Filipinos who were approved by Aug. 31 were given their ümobile SIM cards for free—delivered at no charge—along with a free PHP 100 load every month for the next six months. Just how many ads users will be sent each day isn't yet clear, but viewing them earns further rewards in the form of free loads or discounts and freebies. A portion of the revenues generated by a brand’s campaigns is given back to subscribers, who can then purchase ümobile services or pursue product offers.

Is there any market free love can't conquer? Seems unlikely. Mobile operators: where will you spread some love of your own...?

Website: www.umobile.com.ph
Contact: customerservice@umobile.com.ph

Spotted by: Matthew Cua