In October 2009, we were pleased to host our first Youth Marketing Seminar.
As we all know, successfully marketing to the youth demographic is becoming more and more of a challenge. With the rising popularity of viral marketing and the emergence of social networking sites, marketers are seeking new and exciting ways to understand and reach this demographic.
At Brown, we are aware of changing trends and committed to understanding youth culture. We know marketing methods that were successful even five years ago may be missing the mark today. So how do we reach a generation that that has grown up in the digital age? How do we speak to a demographic that is more marketing savvy than any prior? And how do we keep up with a host of new tools and technologies that seem to be changing by the minute?
We were thrilled to present bestselling author, acclaimed speaker and award-winning entrepreneur Jason Ryan Dorsey, better known as The Gen Y Guy™. A proud member of Gen Y (who texts his mom every day), Jason has been featured on 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Today Show, The View, and in Fortune Magazine. His talent is teaching leaders creative and inexpensive ways to maximize Gen Y employee performance while leading all Four Generations in the workplace.
As expected Jason provided a truly thought-provoking and enlightening afternoon. Jason’s extensive knowledge of the Y Generation provided valuable insights about how to best connect with and speak to a new age of consumers.
The two workshops that followed Jason’s presentation gave our audience a glimpse into the world of Canada’s Y Generation and a case study of a successful youth marketing initiative.
We heard from Mike D’Abramo, of Youthography, North America’s only full-service research agency dedicated exclusively to youth. Mike specializes in research pertaining to youth and contemporary culture and opened his presentation with Eight Things You Need to Know About Canadian Youth, such as “There are a lot of them!” and “What happens when you’re always connected?”
We then introduced our audience to one of our very own clients. Jennifer Keller of Alberta Education walked us through the development of their phenomenally successful Speak Out student engagement initiative. And wrapped up the event by employing new technology to test the audience on facts about Generation Y.