As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, last week saw some of the best minds in youth marketing flock to San Francisco’s temperate confines for YPulse’s 2009 Youth Marketing MashUp. Our very own Carisa Natvig, youth marketer extraordinaire, was there and in fine form. As I shared in my post, she gave a excellent overview of YMC’s work for ROCKSTAR Energy Drinks on college campuses throughout the country.
The immortal and indispensable YPulse has recently added a post that links to the many, many blogs that covered the event. If you couldn’t make it out to San Fran, this is the next best thing.
This week, from June 1st to June 2nd, marketing luminaries from around the country flocked to San Francisco for YPulse’s Youth Marketing Mashup. The conference, which featured keynote talks from MTV Network’s Kate Connally, Disney Online’s Paul Yanover and the author Donna Fenn, covered every conceivable corner of the youth marketing world (as evidenced by the overflowing schedule). But if you were one of those who couldn’t make it out to the city on the bay, don’t dispair! YPulse’s conference also happens to be an exceedingly well-documented affair. Navigate your way to the conferences stand-alone site, and feast on the wealth of content — live blogs, transcripts and video streaming abound.
Not only was our very own Carisa Natvig there, but she spoke to the conference about the work YMC has done for ROCKSTAR Energy Drinks. Over the course of her talk, Carisa walked through the ways that YMC has used student reps to integrate ROCKSTAR into the day and life of college students nationwide. She reported a total of 13 million program impressions — which is definitely a number we’re proud of.
Because we love sharing, here’s a short slideshow we produced to help Carisa tell ROCKSTAR’s story. And believe it or not, all of the photos used were taken by our student reps, often with just their camera phones — it doesn’t get more authentic than that.
As I think I’ve mentioned more than once, my job is, well, pretty great. From February to May, I regularly leave the cold and gray confines of Washington, DC, to oversee our marketing campaigns in Cancun, Acapulco and Panama City Beach. My “work” there involves beaches and margaritas. This, needless to say, is a pretty good deal.
Youth Marketing Connection’s very own Carisa Natvig, however, has some work-related travel plans that are making me jealous. Beginning June 1st, Carisa will be speaking at YPulse’s Youth Marketing Mashup in San Francisco, arguably America’s coolest (and climatically reasonable) city. So while we’re all withering in DC’s 100 percent humidity, Carisa will be dropping youth marketing insights and heartily enjoying herself in temperate, cosmopolitan San Francisco.
Having been to more than one YPulse event myself, I can enthusiastically endorse the San Francisco Mashup. Carisa will be speaking at a the “Campus Case Study Slam,” which will outline real-world examples of what works (and what emphatically doesn’t) when it comes to marketing to the college set and peer-to-peer marketing. And because the folks at YPulse are absurdly generous, I can even offer you a ten percent reduction on registration. Just enter the discount code: SPKR09.
Though I’m getting to hear Carisa is enough of a draw for most of you, here’s an abbreviated list of sessions to further convince you (for a complete agenda head to: mashup.ypulse.com/agenda:
Opening Keynote: Advice for an Integrated Digital Generation by Josh Shipp
Exclusive Screening of “DARE,”a Hit at the Sundance Film Festival
SurveyU Case Study
Spotlight Keynote by Don Tapscott
MTV’s Networks’ Greg Clayman Keynote
Ypulse Urban/Multicultural Mashup
How The Recession Is Impacting Gen Y Attitudes About Spending
Happy Friday,
Paul
P.S.: As mentioned in YMC’s last post, I have recently given in and joined Twitter. If you’re of the Tweeting persuasion, visit www.twitter.com/paul_himmelfarb and “follow” me, so I don’t look like such a newb.
Before we begin in earnest, a brief apology to you, dear YMC reader: You’ve probably noticed that as the Spring Break marketing season has ramped up, the number of blog posts has dropped — precipitously. This is a consequence of being (a) ridiculously busy and (b) having a job that involves weekly trips to Cancun and Panama City Beach. Take it from me: it’s almost impossible to blog with a margarita in one hand. But with another Spring Break season coming to a close (click here for a summary of the brands we created campaigns for this season), I promise to redouble my blogging efforts. Hold on to your hats, YMC readership — things are about to get sassy in the blogosphere.
Now, on to the business at hand: this past week, the ever-awesome YPulse published a survey that examined the top 12 ways “young people” around the world relieve stress. There weren’t really any shockers here, but it’s certainly worth taking a look at. As you might imagine, music — which is involved in some fashion in just about every moment of a Gen-Y-ers life — is front and center. The study is most interesting when it notes the stress-relieving habits of Gen-Y-ers around the world; if you were ever curious about how the youth in Sweden respond to stress, this post is for you. Check out the top three stress releavers below, and click here to read the rest of the post at YPulse.
1. Music Rules. The number one way young people cope with stress is to listen to music — 65% of all youth globally do this.
2. The Sun Always Shines On TV. In at number two, 48% of kids watch TV to relieve stress. 60% of youth globally lie down to watch TV. But….don’t watch CNN. MTV’s research proves the more news kids watch, the more stressed they become.
3. Talk To Me. Third is talking to friends (not face to face). The explosion in the new tools available to connect to friends has seemingly come at just the right time for a generation seeking moral support. That said, it is existing friends that provide the most support, rather than strangers, the only nation likely to turn to help from online strangers in significant numbers are the Chinese.
And, yes, I’m finally on Twitter: YPulse also recently published a list of Youth Marketers you need to be following on Twitter. Now, seriously, I’ve been meaning to dive into the world of Twitter for quite a while now. I’ve been chomping at the bit, I swear, to get in there and just tweet like there’s no tomorrow. Thus far, however, I’ve left Twitter and its minute-by-minute, 140-character updates to our younger employees who seem to be unable to go for more than a few minutes without touching a keyboard of some kind. But after being told for the 12,000th time that I should be on Twitter, and after checking out the legitimately fascinating conversations taking place on Twitter regarding marketing, it became obvious that I could be a hold out no longer. So, without further delay, make your way to www.twitter.com/paul_himmelfarb and “follow” me quickly! I need some friends so that I don’t look like such a newb.
(Also check out our good friend @carol_phillips who writes the always-worth-reading Millennial Marketing. She was mentioned in YPulse’s best-of-Twitter list and definitely deserves it!)
I should begin by saying that, yet again, the fine folks at YPulse have made me stop and think. Their most recent post chronicles Gatorade’s attempt to rebrand (and score media attention) through their cryptic and much-discussed “G” campaign. (If you need a refresher, you can view a clip here. Essentially, Gatorade ran a series of unbranded, star-studded commercials in an effort to build buzz.) And it worked. For weeks, curious viewers flocked to the web, asking the Google Gods who was behind the ads. A few weeks later, the ruse was revealed, and just about everyone gave a collective nod and said to themselves, well, that sounds about right. Most media watchers agreed that it was a success — if a short lived one. One point Gatorade.
In an effort to build on the success, Gatorade has created a stand-alone microsite for the “G” brand. The site is designed to house a wealth of Gatorade-made video content, which, at least in theory, Gen-Y-ers will spend hours pouring over. This attempt is of particular interest to YMC since we’re in the business of helping brands connect with their consumers both physically and digitally. Now, to be sure, Gatorade (or rather, Gatorade’s creative agency) has made some excellent content. This stuff is stunning. I mean, they have access to Kevin Garnett, Tiger Woods, those weird masked dancing guys from that dancing show on Fox, and they have a budget, I’m sure, that rivals NASA’s. In that respect, Gatorade is just about the ideal client to develop a digital campaign for.
And of course, like any smart brand, Gatorade makes it possible to share the content they make on just about every conceivable platform. Add a video to your blog, your Facebook page, your, er, LiveJournal. It’s yours! Do whatever you want with the content, Gatorade tells us. But I wonder: is there enough opportunity for dialogue with the consumer? Sure, you’re allowing those share-happy Gen-Y-ers to send your 30-second video to their friends, but are you giving them a chance to really interact with the brand?
So, I’m going to open this up to y’all. What do you think of Gatorade’s efforts? Do you think this will resonate with Gen Y? Or is Gatorade not going far enough?
