For MTV, today's youth is a ring master, not a ring viewer

The MTV Youth Marketing Forum 2012 aims to decode the 'digital butterflies' in marketing to today's youth

Ananya Saha | Delhi | April 26, 2012

There has been no single answer so far on how to market to the youth. The 'how can it be given that the youth' conundrum is changing every year. While it was cool to 'chill out' till last year, it is supposed to be a 'loser' phrase now. To decode the youth of today, MTV is ready with yet another property – 'Tata Docomo presents MTV Power of One - Youth Marketing Forum 2012'.

The youth insight forum is a platform where some of the best known marketers, trend hunters and thought leaders from different industries come together and dissect the thought-process of the country's youth. The one-day forum would offer creative workshops, trend presentations and interactive sessions delivered by content creators, brand bosses and trend setters. The speakers include Andy Ridley, Co-Founder and ED, Earth Hour; Henri Holm, Senior VP, ROvio Entertainment (Angry Birds); Angela Barkan, Senior Director Publicity & Marketing, Sony International; Simon Smith, Digital Director, Interbrand; and author Chetan Bhagat, among others.

Talking about the forum, Aditya Swamy, EVP and Business Head, MTV India, told BestMediaInfo, “Understanding the youth and incorporating the learnings is the bedrock to all that we do.”  While last year's India-specific study was called 'The age of Sinnocence' (sin + innocence, which implies that the youth is living in duality), this year the study focuses on 'Power of One'.

Swamy elaborated, “In a comprehensive study with 5,000+ youth across 30+ cities, where we used non-traditional ways to talk to the Sec A trend leaders, we got to know that the Indian youth is connected to the worldwide youth population and draw their power from this big collective. Today, audience is the media – they create, tamper, and publish the brand mnemonics in this connected virtual world.”

Incorporating its yearly findings into the content of the channel, MTV changed its tagline from 'Beyond Music, Beyond Television' to 'Stay Raw' in 2010. And, not only the content, but the impact of research is also evident in business as well. Swami elaborated, “The key influencer for today's youth is 'peer conversation'. Today, the youth is interested in media. They know that the 'collective' is a powerful tool. They experience a brand and have outlets to talk about this brand.”

Swamy mentioned that the international youth is very similar to the Indian youth. “I am talking of the global study, where MTV spoke to 'top-of-the-pyramid youth', and we found that the behaviour was homogeneous with eight out of ten key learnings being the same,” he said. “Since it was evident from our research that young people want to live on the edge, the programme 'Stunt Mania' was born. We are focusing on lot of underground activities because that is what the youth is interested in today.”

The findings also conclude that 97 per cent of the youth believe that they have the power to change the world and that they are participative and aware of happenings around them; today's youth is a ring master more than a ring viewer. A staggering 89 per cent prefer going online to purchase products: they are glued to their computers and phone screens and live in the 'Screen Age'.

Taking a cue from the 'Screen Age' generation, MTV is focusing heavily on the digital space. Boasting of over 10 million fans on Facebook, and 4.5 lakh Twitter followers, MTV India has at least one video trending over YouTube every day. The integration is seamless over the four experiential mediums —TV, web, mobile TV and real world.

And brands are also aware of the digital impact, and every brand today dishes out digital campaigns. “Most successful brands are the ones that implement this strategy to reach out to the youth,” concluded Swamy.

Ananya@BestMediaInfo.com

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