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Millennials NYC: “Stop Advertising, Start Involving”

Authored by Jay Baage on September 27, 2007 - 9:31am.
Millennials NYC Millennials PanelNew York - At DMW’s sold-out Millennials Conference in New York City on Thursday, the latest marketing and advertising techniques were showcased and discussed. Naturally, new media business models compatible with the Millennial generation were of particular interest.
“We are selling virtual items for real money. Our users don’t see this as fake stuff. There is now even a second-hand market on Ebay and P2P-networks for used digital stuff”, aid Mattias Miksche, CEO of Stardoll.

While regular buzzwords were used a lot - such as engagement, authenticity, personality, instant communication and community - many speakers had proven results to back up their claims this time around.
“Usually we do a survey of our users that accompany a marketing campaign in Habbo. We are very careful of the bullshit factor and want to make sure that the marketing that is done in Habbo is working and accepted by the community,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, President, N. A. Sulake (Habbo Hotel)
 
In virtual worlds, it is clear that “come-and-buy” advertising does not work - especially when marketing towards Millennials. In order to be accepted by the communities, marketers must provide some kind of value to the user and enhance the overall experience in the virtual world.

For example, Mattias Miksche walked the audience through Stardoll Plaza, a posh virtual shoppingmall where, as of yesterday, you can go into a virtual DKNY store and actually try on and buy the latest DKNY dresses - and afford to do so even if you are teen on an allowance.

Rohit Bhargava, VP, Interactive Marketing, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, pointed out that the brands must listen to what the users of new media want and not just desperately try to set up a presence in places like Stardoll and “Second Life,” with no real understanding of what goes on there or a long-tem plan for how to create lasting relationships between their brand the users.
 
“It is like the brands are showing up to a wedding they are not invited to with a gift and hope that they will be accepted”, said Rohit Bhargava.

However, as a reality check, the Millennials themselves took the stage after lunch and answered questions.
“We call it our ‘bullshit meter’ panel”, said Ned Sherman, CEO and Publisher of Digital Media Wire who moderated the panel.

MySpace and Facebook are still used by Millennials, but they are not as hot anymore. Moreover, when it comes to which applications are hot, Sarah Hu, College student at NYU set the media executives and marketers straight.
“I don’t know anyone that uses Twitter or Joost”, she said.

They Millennials also gave the audience a taste of what is the future as they see it.
 “The younger generation are even more connected than we are”,
said Seth Brodie.
“My 13-year old sister sends 200 text messages a day from her cell phone and download songs from iTunes. I have never downloaded a song from iTunes,” says Ben Hayes. 

Joakim Baage

Published in DMW Daily, September 27, 2007
tags: Games | Mobile | Video | Marketing | Advertising | Events | Millennials NYC 2007 |



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