Just released! Following our successful 2009 tour, we’re putting together a tentative tour itinerary to share mobileYouth updates on trends and youth marketing insights for 2010. Here are the initial dates. If you want mobileYouth to speak/present at your conference/company or seminar then contact us here in first instance and let’s get talking. As you can see, time is going to be limited to 2 engagements per city so contact us early.

Feb Week 1

• Turkey

Feb Week 2

• Bahrain (1 space left)
• Dubai (fully booked)
• Delhi/Mumbai (1 space left)
• Kuala Lumpur (1 space left)

Feb Week 3

• Jakarta
• Singapore (1 space left)
• Hong Kong
• Taipei
• Shanghai

Feb Week 4

• Tokyo (fully booked)

Mar Week 1

• Seattle (1 space left)
• San Francisco
• New York
• Toronto

Use Twitter to contact Josh or Graham directly.

1) Disney XD: A Case Study on Packaging Boyhood
Shaping Youth

2) Seseame Street Turns 40! | TV / KIDS
Zandland Blog

3) Will “Droid Does” Be Meaningful?
Marketing with Meaning

4) Flash Animation & Viral KidVid? Give Pause
Shaping Youth

5) Bug Banners | MARKETING
Zandland Blog - Powered by Zandl Group

6) The Future of Social Media Gerd Leonhard Picnic 2009 Amsterdam Part 1
gleonhard’s  Youtube

7) Is Michael Buckley the Future of TV?
Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

8) Miley Cyrus: Twitter should just be, like, banned from this universe
Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

9) Kicking out unwanted customers
Church of the Customer Blog

I first heard about the Egyptian pig cull back in October when the story broke in the New York Times. Needless to say, it piqued my interest because as is often the case, seemingly irrelevant stories can provide insights that the less trained eye will simply pass by.

When Egyptian government officials reacted to the growing concerns about the possible spread of Swine Flu beyond the Mexican borders it was more motivated by concerns that it would be singled out as the backward administration unable to deal with matters of national interest as opposed to the bigger picture of its citizens wellbeing.

The received wisdom stated that Swine Flu was, in part, caused by the existence of pigs therefore the mass culling of pigs would preempt a contagion of scale seen in South America.

What happened next could only be described as the stupidity of the organization taking hold in dealing with an organizational problem - what’s measured gets done.

Within weeks of the mass cull the streets of Cairo were strewn with garbage, festering waste and a stench that made Egyptian hydroponic sewage farms smell like Elizabeth Arden. Rats, pigeons and vermin were beginning to think it was their Eid, Birthday and New Years celebration all in one.

Egyptian hospitals reported freak outbreaks in typhoid like symptoms combined with other sporadic incidences of diseases more associated with 14th Century bubonic conditions than a developing economy in the 21st.

So bad was the situation that municipal workers went on strike because the garbage mountain was, as they saw, simply unassailable. Garbage chaos had reached crisis point; strikes, gridlock and a general breakdown of services. Four months into the strikes schools were refusing to open because the logisitcal situation had deteriorated so severely that locals could neither reach it nor service it.

The government’s plan to innoculate school children on the commencement of their new year - the crunch point for most disease transmission - was scuppered.

Why did the solution actually make the problem a lot worse?

If you want to know what went wrong look no further than the Zabaleen - an ancient caste of Christians who for centuries had been tasked with the duty of collecting garbage from Egyptian households. Rather than the custom as expected in our countries of “putting the garbage out”, Zabaleen collected it from your home. Why? Because they fed all that good organic waste to their pigs.

We often compound our organizational problems by opting for short term solutions to long term problems largely unaware of the context in which interactions occur.

The above parable can be applied to numerous aspects of our lives. I’m considering here in the context of marketing; our own metrics compel us to blindly interrupt and annoy our customers because they’re avoiding us.

Some time ago we asked the question “When does Social good represent Exceptional marketing?”

There are plenty of brands keen to express their social values on the bigger stage in order to bask in the reflected glory of the causes they support. Does bandwaggonism impact the sincerity of the scrupulous marketer?

When the Jonas Brothers encouraged teens to get involved, perhaps the message resonated with this impressionable bunch of consumers because a) they are less hardened to bandwaggonism and b) a brand or artist speaking to them directly shows a brand or artist willing to speak on their level.

There’s no doubt we live in a time where the technology is widely available to youth to make a difference. The work of our colleagues in emerging markets such as Africa with companies like MXit just goes to show that new technologies - mobile , social media and web2.0 are often the avenue of choice for young people to make a difference.

Not only can tech give youth a voice in social issues but it can also address the issues at source. Mobile is a good example particularly in relation to health issues that touch youth (here’s a good summary by Priyanka M) or outreach counselling services.

There are numerous opportunities for brands and non-profits to reach this generation using the technology available. The question is, if they all will - how are youth going to discern between the relevant and irrelevant causes?

Youth are socially aware. Millenials, the research tells us, lead in volunteerism. There are many good examples of increasing youth volunteerism that work as a result of giving them a voice rather than preaching the message.

80% of youth, for example, would consider a greener product over an alternative and similar numbers are aware of their own culpability in the wider problem (check out similar research in China). The line drawn from brand to social values is clearly marked.

Youth cause marketing is set to expand significantly in the next 5 years but youth time and attention remains fixed. The corollary of this statement is that youth will become harder to impress, harder to reach through promoting social values. Youth are acutely aware of unauthentic statements, dissonance between “say” and “do”. Greenwashing is on their radar.

Vinspired’s Voicebot challenges brands using social programs to be much more than a simple sponsor. Sponsorship is the easy option and youth want to know that you’re authentic in supporting the cause.

Brands and organizations that “get it” will be those that establish a dialogue with youth, those that involve them in the production of the social marketing message rather than simply “going Facebook” with your cause.Rather than sell the social cause as a good idea, use the social cause a platform to address the daily challenges facing young consumers. Insyght in the US got it right when they converted Red Cross CPR awareness into CPR training for singles. Bingo!

I wrote an Ebook on the subject of youth marketing for non-profits available for download here. But this isn’t just about non-profits this is about the wider issue of giving youth something to care about and getting them involved in doing social good.

Virgin Mobile Freefest is a good example - moving from simply raising awareness of the cause to getting young people to actively volunteer in helping disadvantaged youth. Here are more examples highlight on our earlier Cause and Connect post.

OK, it’s on - we’re visiting the Americas and here is the tour schedule:

November

Sun 8-Wed 11: Brazil Sao Paulo
Thu 12: Chicago
Fri 13: Seattle
Sat/Sun 14/15: Vancouver
Mon 16: Saskatoon
Tue/Wed 17/18: Toronto
Thu 19: New York

If you’re interested in making contact or want mobileYouth to come present @ your office then ping us here

When you talk about the amazing things a brand can achieve, few will mention sponsoring a music festival or buying the time of a celebrity to endorse your brand. That’s because these are the easy options, they’re lazy. Lazy brands create content not the context the customers so desire - i.e. lazy brands make the stuff, not the value the stuff creates for the customer.

Remarkable marketing - marketing worth remarking on - requires creativity not money. Of course, it requires the both but it’s the depth of the creativity not the department pockets that defines success.

I’m not talk about the “Big Idea” here - i.e. paying your ad agency to come up with the Monkey on a Trike (copyright Mip Phillips?) the flashmob or whatever, the Britney Spears model of marketing is done. Simply attracting the eyeballs and talking about how many “hits” and “impressions” you get doesn’t work; Ashton Kutcher has 3.7 million Twitter followers but couldn’t convert this content into success at the box office where his movie grossed only $250k and his new TV series was duly cancelled (thanks to @_VNL for the find). Awareness means nothing without creativity.

So if it’s not the sole prerogative of the “creative agencies” who is responsible for the creativity? What we’re talking about is a corporate culture that enables its people to take calculated risks, break a few eggshells.

Here’s the Shaun White half pipe constructed by Red Bull for the snowboarder released only very recently. Rumours have been abound (see Red Bull Project X). Dan Pankraz from DDB (featured here on my Youth Marketing 100 list) first alerted me to the grapevine that something was afoot. Now, it’s public and what better marketing and reinforcement can you achieve than creating something that lasts? Yes, Shaun’s a celebrity but this isn’t about Shaun drinking Red Bull then being seen the next weekend coming out of a club clutching a Monster can in his hand (a la Britney) or worse still, Tiger endorsing Buick (talk about dissonance). This is about adding value, living it.

Red Bull Project X, like Nike 6 in San Clemente and so many of the Next Gen Brands (see the list) focus on connecting the customer, not selling them products. Next Gen Brands sell context not content.

Give the challenge to your average agency and average brand and they’d simply sponsor the Shaun White tour, Shaun White website or get Shaun to feature in some high visibility advertising. We’ve moved on from that model but 95% of brands still languish in the past because they’re afraid of breaking those eggshells.

From Monster Energy Drinks to Jet Blue - here’s a list of the brands we love here at mobileYouth on Twitter so you can easily keep up with the trends

NEXT GEN BRAND LIST

To follow the list click here and the follow button (you’ll need a twitter account to do this). If you don’t you can simply keep up to date by bookmarking the link above and visiting regularly (the news will update daily).