NYU professor and author, Clay Shirky, famously said, “Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring… It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen.”
It wasn’t that long ago we were talking about wiring classrooms and libraries with the Internet. Next came online quizzes, gradebooks and course materials. Now the bigger story is how technology can actually change the way students learn.
This semester, University of Notre Dame is experimenting with a totally paperless class, replacing traditional textbooks with Apple’s iPad.
“This has become known as the iPad class,” Corey Angst, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame, told his students on their first day of class Aug. 24. “It’s actually not…it’s ‘Project Management.’”
The course is part of a year-long Notre Dame study of eReaders. The broader goal, beyond equipping a few lucky students with iPads, is designing an “ePublishing ecosystem that serves faculty, students and staff by making the creation, distribution, sharing, reading and annotation of eMaterials simple and inexpensive.”
The iPads are on loan to the 40 students in the class, not a permanent gift. Nevertheless, the early reports from students are very positive. Students use the iPad to conduct research, access Wiki discussion groups and manage real world projects. Indeed, one of the purposes of the experiment is to see what indeed they do with it. Will it replace paper textbooks and paper-based handout materials? Professor Angst says he:
“…expects the students will rely on the iPads to develop creative ways of collaborating with their teammates. They can share documents, timelines and to-do lists, and show sketches to their clients. The possibilities are endless. Sustainability is a great fringe benefit, but my motivation has more to do with efficiency. I don’t like stacks of paper in my office.”
A similar experiment at Abilene Christian University involved with 2,100 students (about half the student body) and 97% of the faculty. This initiative leveraged iPhones and iPod Touches and reported great results. Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies, helped plan the initiative. Here’s what he had to say about his motivation:
“About five years ago my students stopped taking notes. I asked, ‘Why are you not taking notes?’ And they said, ‘Why would we take notes on that?…. I can go to Wikipedia or go to Google, and I can get all the information I need. For us, it isn’t primarily about the device. This is a question of, how do we live and learn in the 21st century now that we have these sorts of connections?…. I think this is the next platform for education.”
As far as my personal experience, initiatives like these make me realize I could do more to incorporate technology with my teaching.
A class blog has proven to be a real hit with my MBA classes. I have also experimented with video. Here’s a video of my class reporting on an in-class exercise to create a new candy bar from Brach’s. I was able to use the video in subsequent classes to make relevant points about leveraging trends, pricing and innovation.
In the future I hope to make even greater use of social media and class room technology for two reasons:
1. Students need to be prepared to use collaboration tools when they leave the university.
2. Schools need to keep pace with Millennial students who are often more adept at putting technology to use than professors.
To hear Professor Angst talk more about his aspirations for this class, check out this video.
Also recommend Mashable: “The Case for Social Media in School” for some great examples of technology for school kids.
One of the common observations (complaints) about Millennials is that they lack the ability to sustain attention.
Jonah Lehrer, author of ‘How We Decide’, wrote in Wired magazine of his concern about reading becoming so easy that we lose the ability to concentrate on what is meant.
An recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (“How to Get Boys to Read“, 9.26.10) blamed the dumbing down of children’s literature to suit the shorter attention spans of boys, a phenomenon they called ‘grossology’.
“There certainly is no shortage of publishers ready to meet boys where they are. Scholastic has profitably catered to the gross-out market for years with its “Goosebumps” and “Captain Underpants” series. Its latest bestsellers are the “Butt Books,” a series that began with “The Day My Butt Went Psycho.” The more venerable houses are just as willing to aim low. Penguin, which once used the slogan, “the library of every educated person,” has its own “Gross Out” line for boys, including such new classics as “Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger.“
I think these fears are misplaced. What we see as ‘short attention spans’ may actually be a functional adaptation to information-saturation. Gen Y absorbs more information faster than the rest of us, and that gives them an edge.
(As if to confirm this conclusion, my 16-year old son wrote “IRRELEVANT” on the WSJ article when I placed it strategically for him to see on the kitchen counter. I’m not sure if he read it or just reacted to the headline, but either way it supports the point!)
Millennials Do Read! A Lot.
Contrary to common perceptions, Millennials do read. According to the New York Times, 15-24 year olds spend on average 50 minutes a day reading and ‘pursuing other interests’. This is much higher than 25-64 year olds who spend just 32 minutes. A UK McKinsey study reported last spring that the average person consumed 72 minutes of news a day, up from just 60 minutes in 2006. What’s more, the increase was driven almost entirely by people under the age of 35.
A Generation of Scanners
Millennials read with purpose, efficiently filtering and searching for what’s relevant. It’s fair to say this is the Google generation. In his book, Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott maintains their scanning skills are highly developed:
… The Net Gen brain may be able to execute certain perceptual tasks more rapidly, and may maintain more items in working memory. In order to deal with all that incoming information you have to be a great scanner. Digital immersion has given the Net Generation the visual skills that make them superior scanners. They’ve learned to develop the filters they need to sort out what’s important from what’s not.”
Later in the book, Tapscott describes Joe O’Shea, a 22-year old student leader from Florida State on his way to study at Oxford. O’Shea had this to say about his reading:
“I don’t read books per se, I go to Google and I can absorb relevant information quickly. Some of this comes from books. But sitting down and going through a book from cover to cover doesn’t make sense. It’s not a good use of my time as I can get all the information I need faster through the web. You need to know how to do it — to be a skilled hunter.”
Writing and Art Directing for A Millennial Audience Requires Adjustments
Millennials want catchy headlines, condensed bytes of information and text that is formatted for easy scanning. They want content short, condensed and artfully presented with colorful graphics, bold type and simple headings. And they want condensed content.
1. Focus on What’s Important
I just finished reviewing a book by Gen Y author, Sam Davidson, “Fifty Things You don’t Need in Your Life”. The content was great, but what most impressed me was how economical it was. The book leads off with a list of the fifty things and a short introduction. It is immediately followed by fifty 2-3 page ‘chapters’. Voila. Here’s what our Gen Y ‘Super Consumer’ community members have to say on the topic of relevant content.
Anne Mahoney: I will read long blog posts only if they are acutely focused on a topic I’m interested in, or I know the source and expect value through reading the whole thing. Otherwise, skimming titles, first paragraphs, bolded text and links are how I whip through them. I honestly think Twitter has conditioned this behavior. By reading hundreds of short headline-type messages a day, my patience has dropped for staying on one topic too long – unless it really catches my attention and is 1) useful or 2) enrapturing.
McKenzie Lawton: You want everything fully explained and comprehensive, depending on what you’re talking about. In my RSS feedthe first thing I do is read the title, and see how much it interests me. If I don’t care, then I just keep going.
Josh Opinion: I will be the first one to admit I don’t have the patience to follow and be absorbed by someone’s thought process unless I have already have an affinity or connection to them. The one type of blog posts that really intrigue me are minimalist in nature where it is right to the point and induce you to talk and think. (ala Seth Godin)
2. Keep It Short
As they suggest above, Millennials will read a long article, but they prefer a short one (don’t we all?). Here what community members have to say about length.
Rob Lisenko: I can only speak for myself that I lack the patience for long blog posts, with a possible exception to a handful I already have buy-in for the author. I suppose this concept applies to broader concepts of reaching audiences.
Baillie Buchanan: I follow and read a LOT of blogs both for personal interests, as well as for keeping up with business topics. I find that this often ends up with me having an overwhelming number of posts to read. I would say that I skim titles and the first few sentences and from there decide whether I’ll move on or continue reading.
3. Appearance Matters
Whereas people my age are attuned to the words, visuals and layout really matter to younger readers. A quick comparison of my blog to that of Millennials like Sasha Halima or Chanelle Schneider shows they don’t mind what I would call ‘clutter’, as long as it’s well organized on the page, colorful and picture rich.
We first observed this emphasis on visuals in our work with Vogue. We compared the responses of those under 25 to those 30 and older to the same magazine pages. The older readers were more likely to read the editorial and comment on the content. Younger readers were more attuned to details of layout, font, color and overall impact. If a page is not well designed, Millennials have a hard time getting past the way it looks. Here’s what our Gen Y ‘Super Consumer’ Community members say about format:
Mariam Shahab: I don’t read long blog posts that look daunting. When the content is broken up with images, videos, bullet points, bolded font or other visual breaks, I am more likely to read the post.
Joshua Opinion: I get more engaged when it is visually easier to read. Where though patterns are clearly broken and my eyes aren’t to consumed on a lengthy paragraph.
4. Easy Navigation
A recent research study used Eye Motion II technology to observe 46 people for one eye as they read real news sites and multi-media content. The findings were fairly expected but worth reviewing. People read from the upper left to the lower right so the important things should be in the corner. Headline size should not contrast too much with the body, and blurbs are important, although can sometimes replace reading the entire paragraph. The study is too long to summarize here but worth reading.
Note: Our private Gen Y “Super Consumer” market research community continues to grow. If you are a Gen Y marketing professional or student or a brand marketer who wishes to connect with them, please give me a shout. @carol_phillips
I had a bad day yesterday on Twitter.
First, I tweeted way too often – nearly 50 posts, a record. This is a clear sign that I was either working on an article or speech or avoiding working on an article or speech or both. The answer is the latter. I actually lost followers yesterday and my blog traffic was pretty low. I apologize to those of you who stuck with me. It was an instructive experiment.
Second of all, I learned how far I have come in my thinking about Millennials. I am actually embarassed by some of my earliest posts and especially by an article I wrote about Millennials for Advertising Age in 2007, “Millennials: Clued In or Clueless: The Ten Things Millennials Don’t Know About Marketing”. By my more enlightened standards three years later, it was condescending and negative. My defense is that three years ago there wasn’t much research or writing about Millennials, in fact I had barely heard the term. Several of my Twitter followers called me out on it and they were right.
Even today after hundreds of research reports and blog posts by marketers, HR folks, educators and parents, it remains a tricky business to write or speak about Millennials.
I have given several speeches over the past few years and am in the process of writing a few more. I always agonize, am I too general? Too specific? How to condense such a complex and fascinating cohort into 20 minutes or even an hour. Or as another speaker I know, 6 minutes? The Millennials in the audience are generally complimentary, but what are they really thinking?
Here’s my advice to those of you who will find yourselves trying to describe this group for the purposes of illuminating them to another.
- Stick to the positive. There’s so much good to say, why dwell on the negative? They may even turn out to be positives in the end. It’s all a matter of perspective.
- Use their words. There’s a lot of great material out there to draw on. Start with TheNextGreatGeneration blog, it’s a great resource.
- Focus on one aspect: Painting a portrait of an entire generation is just too hard to do in a few brushstrokes. Know what point you want to make, make it and get out.
- Avoid talking about it 3 years later. The world will have changed.
I’ll be pretty silent on Twitter today. I have speeches to write.
Four members of "My Generation" cast
I have been looking forward to the premiere of ABC’s new primetime ‘mockumentary’, “My Generation” for months. It promises to be a great platform for exploring the joys and anxieties of today’s 28 year-olds.
Here’s the basic premise: Friends from the high school class of 2000 (the year for which Millennials are named) are tracked down and filmed to see what’s happened to their lives over the past, event-filled decade. Director, Noah Hawley, has been tweeting all summer about the production.
The first hour-long episode aired last Thursday night. The good news is that the ensemble acting is superb, the characters are earnest and believable. However, the bad news is that the characters are almost too earnest. The show lacks a sense of fun.
I know its risky to judge an entire season by the pilot, but I found myself feeling like I was watching a real documentary rather than a mock one.
The characters each have their issues, mostly involving romantic mismatches which threaten to rival the Forsyte Saga for poignant plotline potential.
Here’s a brief synopsis:
The Nerd, now earnest schoolteacher, is living with the wacky and pregnant ex-Punker who is happily married to the former Jock who is now deployed in Afghanistan.
The aggressive and Smart young female Capitol Hill staffer is pining after her Rich Kid high school beau who is also also pining after her via old Facebook videos. Alas Rich Kid guy is married to the ex-Prom Queen.
Ex-Prom Queen is aggressively pursuing the beach bum drop-out who has just learned he fathered a child with the Wallflower on prom night 10 years ago.
And to bring it full circle, the earnest school teacher (who used to be best buds with the beach-bum-new-dad) is in love with single-mom-ex-Wallflower.
Back stories are begging to be filled in.
Why did the Rich Boy not marry the Smart Girl when he had the chance? Allusions here to some tragic star crossing involving parents and inheritances.
Why did the beach bum, everyone’s choice including his own for most likely to succeed, drop out? Why is the prom queen so unhappily married?
The hour-long “My Generation” was so busy establishing these entanglements that it forgot something crucial: To be fun to watch.
One of the reasons I treasure Glee and the Office are that while serious stories unfold, there are many over the top, outrageously ridiculous moments to hold my interest. There are more reason to watch than to just find out what happens. On the Office, we knew from the beginning that Pam and Jim would eventually marry. Yet our attention was sustained for four seasons by the crazy antics of Dwight, Ryan (my favorite Millennial character ever), and above all Michael. All the adults in Glee are ridiculous and fun to watch.
My favorite characters are Rolly in Afghanistan and his loopy ex-punker wife, Dawn. Their scenes were memorable, both funny and real. I especially liked the segment ‘filmed’ in Afghanistan and their video-Skype telephone call. I can only hope Rolly isn’t a casualty, I’d like to see more of him.
My other complaint about the show, which is minor compared to taking itself too seriously, is that the Millennial characters don’t really seem to represent their generation as well as they could.
True, the cast is a rainbow of diversity. But It seems more like the Breakfast Club all grown up than Gen Y. All of the characters who seem to want jobs have them. Their careers are fairly standard like the military, politics, the family business, schoolteacher. Most still live in the town they went to high school in. Missing are the grand ambitions, the striving for something more. After all this is Austin, the home of SXSWi. Surely there should be someone who is involved in a tech start up, a philanthropy or start-up?
The lofty idealism and hip-to-be-happy attitude is missing as well. Other than the army couple, there is a joylessness about their lives that doesn’t ring true to me. Who is giving back? Again, this feels more like the “Breakfast Club” ten years after than Millennials.
Also on the plus side is the amazing iPad integration. If you watch with your iPad, it will sense where you are in the show (even if watching on DVR) and provide extra content.
Noah Hawley says there are surprises coming. I have great confidence that new ABC President, Paul Lee, (who I have had the real pleasure of meeting), deeply understand Millennials, having two teen sons of his own and having engineered a remarkable Millennial-focused turnaround at ABC Family with shows like “Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Ten Things I Hate About You”.
Tweets about #MyGeneration suggest I am not the only one feeling ambivalent.
“I don’t really know what to make of #MyGeneration… It was OK… maybe give it another go next week.”
That sums up my feeling as well. The ratings are low – just 5.1 million viewers vs. 14.0 for Big Bang Theory. I want to like this show and can only hope it gives me some reasons to check back in on how Rolly and Dawn are doing. But to succeed, a show titled “My Generation” had better live up to its title or we may decide to just rewatch the Forsyte Saga again instead.
by Guest Blogger, Andrew Hall
For people coming of age in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the idea of the penny-pincher, unwilling to spend money on virtually anything, seems like a stereotype that existed, more than anything else, in the memories of their parents or perhaps even their grandparents.
Then the American economy took its pronounced nosedive in 2008. New high school and college graduates struggled for weeks, months, or years to find jobs, and suddenly you saw and heard two words far more often than you did in 2007 or in 1997: “I’m broke.”
Redefining the Dream
Millennials, like (but not in such extreme fashion as), the children of the Great Depression, are growing up in a world where money is tight and the notion of achieving real economic success – or even making as much money as one’s parents, if not outperforming them – for the first time in decades seems unrealistic, as American prosperity has given way to intense economic contraction. However, rents in hip neighborhoods populated by young people are still steep and entertainment (like movies, concerts, restaurants, and bars) is getting more expensive. For example, American beer sales are down, yet sales of American craft beer, almost invariably costlier, has gone up considerably.
American pop culture has clearly been influenced by the recession. A number of popular musicians to emerge in the last several years, like the singer and producer Washed Out, began making music that reflected nostalgia for easier times after moving back to his parents’ house in rural Georgia. One of the year’s more popular singles, “Blessa” by Toro Y Moi, features the line “I found a job, I do it fine / Not what I want, but still I try.” Millennials are rarely doing the work they set out to do earlier on in life, and their music reflects this.
For many, the present measure of success is how much time off to do other things one’s job offers, not upward mobility or potential pay increases, and this marks a distinct shift from how American society conceptualized success for centuries.
Many Millennials care deeply about community and society; many are doing work for non-profit organizations in order to mobilize voters (and especially young voters) in order to bring about reforms of the financial and political systems that produced these problems. Others are working to produce change in systems that seem easier to influence, like local food systems, by participating in activities like community gardening.
Careful Consumers
All of this then makes Millennials difficult to market to, and in ways that don’t necessarily overlap with children of the Great Depression. The Millennials are set to bear the brunt of the excesses and recklessness that prompted the current recession, as well as coming changes to welfare, Medicare and Social Security. These changes are necessary to ensure that those programs can continue to exist without bankrupting themselves. Many young people have emerged distrustful and angry towards politicians, economists, and others who let this and countless disasters happen.
How They Aren’t Like Their Grandparents
Despite the similarities, there are differences. Potential financial gain or loss does not necessarily inform their purchases, as scarcity for raw materials is artificial in a way that it simply wasn’t before or during World War II. Many choose to go with less or with lower quality rather than to go without, even when dealing with frivolities and entertainments.
Another difference is that one’s peers have far more say than anyone else. A product recommendation from someone close to them has a million times more sway than any commercial, though online opinions even from strangers can also make the difference. This is especially true for films and pop music, certain publications. Online reviews can prove crucial towards making those peer recommendations happen in the first place, and their dollars will often move in those directions.
Andrew Hall is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online schools for Guide to Online Schools. He is currently a senior at Whitman College, majoring in English literature and graduating in 2010. After graduating, he hopes to pursue a career in writing.
The LA Times recently reported that Millennials are forsaking the ‘something for everyone’ concept that has defined department stores for the more personalized approach of stores like Zara and H&M. They also point out that the online world poses an even bigger threat.
In the past, department stores mainly contended with other retailers muscling into their territory. Now they face an even bigger challenge: a generation shaped by the Internet and the recession that values everything that department stores lack — immediacy, individuality and a place where their opinion matters…. Generation Y shoppers relish their uniqueness and are willing to pay for it, said Kit Yarrow, a consumer research psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and author of “Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings are Revolutionizing Retail.”
Young fashionistas who want more than off-the-rack fashion have discovered a world of online tools for easily finding the best designer and one-of-a kind offerings at the best prices.
Among the more commonly known and written about are Etsy.com, Net-a-Porter.com and Shopbop.com. These sites boast high traffic volumes. According to Quantcast, Etsy.com gets as many as 1.6 million U.S. visitors a day.
Aisling McDonough
Aisling McDonough is Sales Director for BUZZMEDIA. I met Aisling at the iMedia Summit in San Diego and was struck by her engaging style and fabulous clothes. After a brief discussion of the wonders of the movie, The Breakfast Club, we moved on how she stays on top of fashion trends. It was an education. Here are some of Aisling’s favorite sites:
ShopItToMe.com This fun site records your brand preferences (from a list of nearly 700) and your clothes/shoe sizes. It then keeps you posted about when items you might be interested in go on sale via ‘salemail’. The site even suggests brands you might like based on your preferences. It was fast and easy. Aisling says this is one of her ‘go to sites’ for deals on the designers she likes best.
Designer Social: Designer Social not only lets you buy new items, you can sell or swap old ones that ‘no longer suit your style’. Talk about economical! The stylish interface is as far from E-Bay or the Goodwill as you can get.
Beyond the Rack: and Gilt.com are shopping ‘clubs’ that purport to offer deals at 70% off retail. You have to apply to join and there is a waiting list for each.
I asked Aisling if she still shops in stores? She says she does because in New York City there are shops everywhere she goes, but she relies mostly on her online shopping sites to find the best deals.
With this kind of competition, department stores may find they have a very difficult road ahead.
Katie Lorenz, Nathan Goetz, Will Johnson
Last week I had the honor of participating on a six-person panel at the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA) titled “Digital Natives vs. Industry Experts”. Panels can be deadly but this one was different. Troy Mastin, of the Marketing Store, provided great moderating direction before and during the panel. (It also helped that we had an hour to get to know each other over dinner and wine.)
The three ‘digital natives’ were all students or recent graduates from different schools. Each provided a unique perspective on their media usage, social media habits and preferences. Then the ‘industry experts’ – me, Brad Kleinman of the Online Marketing Institute and Jeremy Thum of the Chicago Bulls – reflected on the same questions.
Judging by the live Twitter stream (#ChicagoIMA) projected for everyone to see, the audience liked what they heard. Here are some of the highlights from the Millennial ‘digital natives’.
Katie Lorenz
Katie Lorenz (the former Miss Illinois) recently graduated with an MBA in Marketing from Loyola Univeristy in Chicago and is now the Manager of Communications at the American Lung Association. Katie is an avid user of digital media. She keeps her Facebook page open on her browser at work, but expects to use Facebook less in the future. As she put it, “I don’t want to be one of those sending a stream of wedding and baby pictures in my updates. I hope I’ll have more important things to do with my time in the future than social media.” (More on this in a future post!)
Katie uses Twitter to keep up on news from CNN and the WSJ as well as links from people she knows. She is an Apple enthusiast with an iPhone and Mac laptop. If you want to reach her, don’t send an email – she may answer in two weeks. Friends know to reach her via text. Katie like social coupons and is ‘sitting on four Groupons’ right now. Discounts from Groupon on yoga have enabled her to drop her gym membership.
Will Johnson
Will Johnson is a senior at Northern Illinois University majoring in Marketing. He was a resident hall assistant last year which allowed him to make observations about the students in his dorm as well. Will says he “doesn’t watch TV anymore” and would let go of his cable subscription if he had one. He observed that the students in the dorm at NIU tend to only watch live in a group setting – social TV watching. Will was the least involved with social media of the three digital natives. He just signed up for Twitter earlier in the day (two tweets!). Like Katie, he thinks Facebook will be replaced by other social networks such as new competitor, Diaspora. Unlike Katie, he finds Groupon offers irrelevant. “I’m not interested in a boat cruise no matter how inexpensive“.
Nate Goetz
Nate Goetz graduated in May 2010 from the University of Iowa, but NOT in Marketing. He doubled majored in Finance and Cinema and is pursuing a career in finance. Nate says he gets most of his information online, but isn’t partial to any site – ”wherever I can get the info.” He claims to check his Facebook page frequently, ‘cracking open a new tab about every five minutes”. Nate sees no immediate use for Twitter. He carries an Android phone and thinks Apple is “a bit hyped right now.” Nate maintains you are either an Apple person or you’re not”. He also notes that PC’s are better for games, although he prefers to play games on a console. Although he enjoys games he finds constant social game updates like those from Farmville “annoying”. “Why do I care if your horse needs more hay or your lawn needs watering?”
The diversity of the panel is what made it work. All of these Millennials are a digital natives, but each has a unique approach to using digital media. What they share is an ability to make the tools of the online world work for them.
When I was in college and we wanted to raise money, we washed cars, baked cookies or picked and sold strawberries.
Today’s empowered students have more options thanks to online services like, Kickstarter.
Creative endeavors in search of funding describe their project on Kickstarter. Then they have a set amount of time to raise pledges from friends and strangers. . Kickstarter keeps 5% of the funds collected in exchange for hosting the fundraiser. The coolest part is that funding is all or nothing. The pledges only have to be paid if the project reaches its goal. This ensures only the worthiest projects will be funded.
According to Quantcast, Kickstarter gets about 24,000 U.S. hits a day, 36,000 globally.There is a strong Millennial skew: forty-one percent of the traffic is people 18-34.
One example of a Kickstarter project is Massive.tv, a ‘creative storytelling’ project proposed by sixty students at Northwestern University. Here’s the description from the Kickstarter site:
“Our plan is to profile one student a week, someone who we feel is creative and innovative, someone whose skills are unique, whose talents and sense of individualism break through the mundane, and come out the other side. We’ll do a brief, high-quality video profile, a written profile, an interview, and a photo shoot. Our site will also contain an arts and culture blog to tell the community about interesting events, while simultaneously serving as a promotional vehicle for our profile subjects. The third component of our site will bring to the fore existing video content at our school. Check out our prototype site to see how it all works:www.massive.tv
All we need is the equipment to bring a new storytelling aesthetic out of the box and into the world. With Kickstarter, we hope to raise enough money to purchase a single Canon 5D Mark II Digital Camera, and the necessary audio equipment and lens kits. This revolutionary machine looks and acts like a photography camera, but shoots higher-quality HD video than anything in its price range. By a long shot. All we need is a single camera to bring an incredible new resource to the digital media community.
Congratulations to Ben Millstein, Massive.tv’s founder and editor in chief and to his team of undergraduates for their creative funding of their creative project! With just 4 days left, the Massive.tv project has garnered 46 backers who have collectively pledged $3,883. The goal was $3,300 so the project will be funded on September 20. That sure beats a bake sale!
Kickstarter is just one of many online fundraising services non-profits and charitable causes are using to attract new donors.
Mashable profiled ten popular online services,( “Ten Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online“). Each has a slightly different emphasis, like volunteer team raising, arts or raising funds for charity. Here are some to check out if you are looking for a cause to support or are one:
FirstGiving, which allows donations to any cause in the Guidestar database.
Razoo.com, individuals fundraising on behalf of their favorite charities
TeamRaiser fundraising for events
Stayclassy, fundraising for events
The latest report by Mintel Research on Millennial Marketing (March 2010) describes persons born after 1994 as ’The Matrix Generation‘. I doubt any moniker will stick for a while, as the characteristics of those who are 15 or younger are still being shaped.
Meanwhile, it’s easier to define Gen Z in terms of what they won’t experience or know about than what they will. Here’s a starter list, feel free to add:
1. Being lost without a map
2. Resolving a dispute without resorting to Google
3. Searching for change to make a pay phone call
4. Deciding which travel guide book to leave home
5. Having nothing good to watch on TV (or conversely having to decide between simultaneously scheduled favorites)
6. Checking prices with a travel agent (or realtor, or banker, or car dealer, or…)
7. Waiting for the bank statement to arrive to know your balance
8. Missing a rendezvous at a bar or restaurant
9. Forgetting to bring a coupon or flyer to the store with you
10. Going on a blind date
Crowdsourcing gets a lot of attention these days. Based on the idea that there is wisdom in numbers, the idea is to harness that wisdom on behalf of innovation or evaluation.
Yet there is something reassuring about knowing who’s opinion you are trusting. Our Millennial Marketing community of Gen Y ‘Super Consumers’ provides an alternative to crowdsourcing.
Our over 100 members are widely scattered across 20 states in the US., and internationally –in Germany, the UK and Brazil. Four are in Boston, Seven from Chicago, and 8 from New York. About half are women and half are employed full time although not necessarily just the women. Many PR and digital agencies are represented in the mix: Edelman, Burson, McCann, Unilever, Mullen, Strawberry Frog, BBHLabs and Intel to name just a few. The rest are students or interns, working part-time or looking for work.
The biggest commonality is a passion for social media. Half describe themselves as ‘social media enthusiasts’ and several are ‘community managers’. Nearly all use Twitter, and many maintain blogs. Most important, they love to talk about marketing. There are lively discussions of technology, social media, finding communities of interest, nostalgia and more.
The community is closed, by invitation only, so this represents a private space to have conversations that aren’t open to the world.
I recently asked the community their opinion of crowdsourcing. Here’s what I heard:
Josip Petrusa: Although crowdsourcing is powerful, the idea itself implies that you simply ask a crowd a question and members from the crowd will answer back. Whereas the idea of community and community-sourcing imply a stronger and more elaborate process. Even though in both cases I’m sure the process is quite similar, being a community and being a crowd speak two different tones.
Rebecca Denison: I agree 100%, Josip! I like that you bring up the difference between a crowd and a community. Anyone can be part of a random crowd, but community suggests something much stronger and more relevant.
Community sourcing doesn’t have the scale of crowdsourcing, but it has the advantage of asking people who actually have a stake in the answer. We think it should be a part of developing Gen Y targeted programs. After all, who better to not just respond to an idea, but provide their own ideas on how to make it better than Gen Y marketers?
Our proposals for Gen Y marketers generally suggest three phases:
Discovery: What is known about how Millennials feel about the category or subject?
Community Research: What does our community say about the topic? What ideas do they have for making the client programs stronger or more targeted?
Recommendations and Validation: Broader scale research to test ideas among a wider population of Millennials.
If you are interested in learning what this hand-selected group of savvy Gen Y marketers thinks of your program, I’d love to hear from you. And if you are an under 30 Gen Y marketer, contact me for an invitation to join us!
