Ypulse MashUp Recap One: Goodbye to Youth
In my overtired, perma-22 year old mindset, it somehow slipped my brain that the majority of us at the Ypulse MashUp are adults ("serious marketing professionals") perhaps looking to find a teen tech-like fountain of youth. At times, when a presenter did something funny or was trying to be engaging, many attendees seemed uncomfortable and were looking around to see how the person next to them was gonna react first. I guess that did feel youthful; in a funny, high school sort of way. Experiencing leaders in the youth space getting uncomfortable was fun, at least to me. On day one, an energetic motivational 20-something, Josh Shipp, came out telling everyone loudly that "TEENS DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR BRAND". While it's difficult to describe the session, for me, it added a lot of entertainment value to the conference. I mean, hearing people around me muttering under their breath "who does he think he is.." was awesome. From the day's chatter, it was clear that attendees vastly differed in their opinions of him. Regardless of what anyone thinks, he dropped pure knowledge on the importance of being authentic and that simply focusing your brand efforts on adding relevant value with consumers is key to success. Thanks Josh for being irreverent and taking people out of their comfort zone bright and early on Monday morning.
During the afternoon session; Get Addicted to Immersive Marketing, Amy Bloustine, from The Partnership for a Drug-Free America ,and I talked about WreckED; the new youth drug prevention education program we recently developed. One part is an interactive card game where teens (in this case the audience) complete a life-like drug or alcohol-related scenario with a personalized ending. Everyone in the room had a card and when I read the scenario and asked for a volunteer just about everyone went ghost faced. Thank goodness one guy from Barnes and Noble (I think) jumped up and told everyone a fictional ending about how pill-popping didn't pan out well for him! The lack of participation was a severe contrast to playing the game with teens -- you can't even get the cynical to stop talking!
On the way home, Goodbye to you by Patty Smyth was blasting through the airport and having just been at a youth event for three days all I could hear was "Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye to YOUTH". Corny, yeah i know, so lets get to the point...
Take some time, pencil it right into your digital calendar and get out of your office. Make it a goal to feel really uncomfortable in your target audiences environment. Idea -- head to a skatepark and chill for a while, IF you can figure out the flow of things and find the right place to chill!
Gregg Witt, Partner/Creative Director
Lunch Today: Pizza, Pizza, and more Pizza!
