Youth congress: H2O and acronyms but no crossmedia

By Kees Winkel on 18 May 2009

I visited the congress on trends in youth marketing (www.kidsenjongeren.nl) last week in Nemo, Amsterdam. Quit interesting. The congress took two days but I only visited the second day because the topic of the second day, youngsters (teens), has my interest, more so than the very young kids. As usual, a score of presentations and workshops overloaded the day. So, what have I learned? Well, again like almost always, if you are critical, not that much. The topics dealt with during the day were ‘as usual’ and not a word was spoken about crossmedia, apart from the numerous citations that teens are multi-tasking. And again, generation Einstein was not just mentioned as the capturing of our crossmedia savvy younger generations, it still seems to be a sort of religion for youth marketers. Hmmm.

One of the presentations however did inspire me to a certain extend, the one about Levi’s, the original jeans manufacturer. In fact, the topic was the role and use of originality and authenticity of the brand when communicating with young people. The Belgian ‘Insites Consulting’ started out with a nice lecture on youth and branding. Mr. Joeri Vandebergh elaborated on the fact that the traditional definition of authenticity in branding as used in brand storytelling; the so-called H2O formula (History, Heritage and Origin) does not work when communicating the brand to youngsters. This makes sense. For young people a brand like Levi’s or Apple is perceived as old. These generations have grown up with them. For older generations, the brands are relatively new. Telling young people about the (cultural) heritage of a brand like Levi’s simply does not seem trustworthy to the youngsters. Levi’s has an even greater problem when using the H2O formula in communicating brand values to youngsters. Their parents use the formula when they tell stories about the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Who wants to be associated with those stories when you are trying to unleash from your old folks? So, what is the answer?

Insites formulates the answer with CRUSH; Credibility, Reliability, Uniqueness, Shared values and Honesty, with the remark that you don’t have to tell the exact story as long as the youngsters feel linked in to the brand. The brand story has to tap in to the group’s perception of reality; their reality. Nice but difficult for marketers who believe that they understand all those different groups with different realities. Another acronym used in this context is SIMI; Strategy, Inclusion, Mass communication and Irony. SIMI is used as intrinsic ammo. If you use SIMI in your campaign, chances are that you affect young people.

Then there was Qrius, the market research agency that deals with youngsters. They have announced a new research platform, not on their boat at Oosterdok in Amsterdam but right in the heart of young people (13 – 16 years): Habbo Hotel. I think it is a smashing idea. Instead of asking kids to come and join a real life discussion, the kids are asked to participate in a discussion in Habbo. Of course they have to ask their parents first and somehow this is checked (don’t know how). But then a bunch of avatars can sit at a table in a nice Habbo atmosphere and chat about issues. An Einstein look alike who’s asking the questions guides all. The kids get rewarded with Habbo money via SMS. Finally some crossmedia after all?

Last case. I saw one of Mobile Youth’s executives (www.mobileyouth.org) babbling about youngsters’ behaviour in the UK. The website is more interesting than the 30 minutes of generic info that was spelled upon us. The interesting case I saw while skipping workshop number two was called Silent Strike, the Dutch navy’s trial to get more boys to join the submarine division (www.silentstrike.nl). If you are into the regular pong of sonar, silent attacks and self proclaimed heroism; this might well be something for you. The job has been done nicely with casual games incorporated in a simulated attempt to rescue two people from guerrillas on the beach of some exotic island. How many boys enlisted was not told. And the only thing that slightly resembled crossmedia was the fact that the online game was presented by a nice lady in navy uniform with the help of a beamer and PowerPoint presentation. Apparently the Internet was not available. Too bad.

tagged with: congress, young people, youngsters, branding, levi's, crossmedia, Marketing

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