Wise & Young: The nuances of Gen-Y marketing, branding, advertising, trends, & more

Hello everybody, my name is Jason – the other half of Wise & Young. This is my first post on Wise & Young: The Blog, and I’m going to continue with Levi’s previous topic about how our generation will not listen to traditional advertising with as much faith as other generations. I’m going to use the movie industry as a prime example.

Due to being apart of the MTV generation, the youth is taught real well how to thin slice. We know what we like and what we don’t like by quick first impressions. This concept is explored in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, an essential read for anybody in this business. It’s only natural for this ADD generation to be really good at thin slicing—the superficial means everything.

You don’t even have to read reviews to know that the movie Stealth was seriously bad. But why did it flop when it had Oscar winning Jamie Foxx? Why did the film flop when so much money was thrown in to marketing it in commercials and billboards? Well I haven’t seen the film, but I’m thin slicing from memory all of those advertising spots on MTV, and I just knew it was going to be a disaster due to the ugly/unclear nature of it all. The billboards of Stealth boast the cheesiest graphics that I’ve seen since the XXX: State of the Union. I looked up at the billboard and wondered what the hell was the production company thinking. Saying the name and throwing some flashy B.S. in my face isn’t going to sale the movie.

I need context, I need a connection, and I need love!

Our generation defines trends in almost only word of mouth. Malcom Gladwell talks about connectors in his other book, The Tipping Point, and how connectors create trends by being the trusted source of what’s “cool”. Almost every movie I see, every album I download, or every show I watch is based on a referral from a friend. It’s usually from a trusted friend or a large group of strangers who keep saying the same thing over and over again (for example, thank you to everybody that finally convinced me Arrested Development is a damn good show).

Word of mouth is so important these days (with the internet), which is why Levi has mentioned several times on this blog that you have to have a great product before you even think about marketing it. The movie industry needs to stop throwing money at marketing and start throwing it at better screenwriters, artists, and directors to come up with films that the public (and the most important market, the youth) is going to enjoy. Everybody is chatting up a storm on the internet in forums, chat rooms, blogs, etc, so you better have a great product or they are going to bag it.