GenDigital

We're Back After Six Weeks In Stealth Mode

Before jumping into why we've been dark for the past six weeks, let me start by first wishing each of you a very happy new year. Yes, it's been a little while since we've posted. There has been a lot going on and I will try and fill you in as to what we've been up to. There are two major initiatives well underway at Youth Trends that will ultimately reshape the company's image and offerings moving forward. First, on the research side of the business, we've been building a foundation over the past three months in order to launch the first of several international Youth Trends youth research reports. Based on our existing resources coupled with the amount of interest we received over the past year from brand marketers and media companies we will start first with the launch Youth Trends UK and Youth Trends Australia in the early part of the second quarter of this year. We are enormously excited to take our existing infrastructure we've built up here domestically and leverage our comprehensive model to create an international offering. This has been a huge task but we're confident that our strategy and hard work will pay off. Once we gain some traction and learnings from the first waves of Youth Trends UK and Youth Trends Australia we will begin to focus on Youth Trends Asia. A lot more to come with this, so stay tuned. Back here in the U.S. over the past six months we have been building out the next phase of the Youth Trends marketing services practice called Ignition. Ignition is a next generation word-of-mouth marketing platform that leverages the fast growing Youth Trends proprietary panel of tweens, teens, college students and young independents. We saw a large market opportunity for Ignition as early as 2006 and have been dedicating resources to its launch since July of 2007. As Youth Trends transitions from a pure play research company into a more diversified marketing services firm, we believe we have some distinct advantages to offer to the marketplace. First, we intend for Ignition for solely focus on the youth market, those young people between the ages of 8 and 28. We have no desire to have Ignition be all things for all people. The youth market is what we know and do best, hence the simple decision. Secondly, our existing focus and value proposition to our research clients--personalized and customized results and actionable follow ups bodes well as look at Ignition following a similar path in the word of mouth marketing space. Simply put, our word of mouth marketing clients will receive a highly measurable product that will feature a series of metrics that can be used a form of return on investment. As a company grounded in collecting and analyzing data, we're well positioned to migrate these tactics and learnings to the new Ignition platform.  We're excited with all of our new endeavors and look forward to updating you on their progress. We're also happy to be back posting and we'll start 2008 just like we did with 2007 with key market trends we're focused on and certainly ones you should be aware of.

Microsoft Grass Roots Approach Backfires

Oops, not exactly a great way to start the new year. In an effort to get the "influentials" buzzing about the new Vista operating system, Edelman, the PR and supposed expert word-of-mouth marketing agency operating on behalf of MSFT, sent out about 90 computers loaded up new Vista operating system to some well known and regarded bloggers, and no unfortunately, I was not one of them. Which is really too bad because MSFT and Edelman spared no expense sending out top of the line $2,000+ Acer Ferrari laptops. The not so good news was the significant backlash some of the well known bloggers received from their loyal readers. I think there are two parts to this story. First, for several in the digerati community, just bringing up the name Edelman lately is probably not a good idea (remember the fake Wal-Mart blog?). Keeping that in mind, as talented as the participating bloggers are, I am guessing that they don't have much experience in the whole concept of word-of-mouth-driven marketing. Certainly not their fault, but I am sure a few of them are pretty pissed off right now and receiving such negative criticism from their audience...sure some of them are so upset they probably wish they never accepted the laptop and the terms (which have not been released as of yet) associated with it. I still go back to my American Idol example. Coke, Ford and Cingular (originally AT&T Wireless) have been product placement fixtures since day one on American Idol, we know it, their target audience knows it and everyone is comfortable with it. I believe it is a disservice to the audience to execute a word of mouth type program using un-tested platforms like some of tech blogs that have no operating experience in product placement. I wonder if Edelman is re-thinking their WOM strategy?

Fake Blogs Are Lame

There is growing disdain among so-called flogs or fake blogs and it is easy to see why. A couple weeks ago I posted about the Sony PSP flog and the not-so-pleasant feedback the company received from the press and some consumer watchdog groups. Wal-Mart, through all of their personnel-related drama of late had a similar Sony-like experience back in November as well. I really don't see what the allure of these fake blogs are. But it seems like there are a few of the "flog brokers" out there doing pretty well. PayPerPost is one of them. The service's value proposition to bloggers is that they will pay them a certain amount of money based on their post or postings related specifically to a given product or service. For example, bloggers can sign up on the site right now and earn $20 for posting about a Hewlett Packard digital camera...not bad. For brand marketers, the service positions itself as a gateway to an untold numbers of bloggers to get their message out into the marketplace through a supposed relevant and credible channel. But really, is it that relevant? With all of the recent flap, some of these flogger services like PayPerPost require the participating blogs to post some sort of disclosure that this is a paid-for-post. Understanding that that is the case now, I for one would have a hard time buying into anything one of these flogs or floggers are saying. And of course, among the Gen Y audience, relevance and sincerity are keys to success, they don't care (and some even like) if they are being marketed to, just be straight about it. For those trying to dare I say fool or trick them, be warned (again) they can get nasty.

Sony Gets Nailed With Fake Blog

In what is usually a fairly subdued news week, people are going nuts today with reports of the fake Sony blog, otherwise known as a flog. Nice, huh. The fake blog, which you can't even visit anymore let alone post comments on, is resulting in a lot of "I told you so's" from so-called interactive media and marketing "experts." Rather than take the normal route of brutal negativity and all knowing, all of the time, I think it would be more effective to explain the Sony blog in a positive light. Traditional marketers like Sony, in this case it is really the operating unit Sony Computer Entertainment, the makers of PS3 and PSP, are all trying to figure out how to use social media channels as strategic advertising and marketing tools. First of all, they're trying and that might be the most important point. It wasn't too long ago...about eight or so years, when I was literally laughed out of the room at a certain Big Three automotive company (who will remain nameless) with the understanding that the company wouldn't be caught dead spending any "serious" dollars on the Internet because it is only for people who are surfing porn. That was the actual reply from the advertiser. So of course my reply at the time, was something to the effect like..."well, why did let you me come in and present...and that reply will always stay in my head...it went: "everyone gets their one shot at Detroit, and this was yours." Ok, I love the trip down memory road, but back to Sony and the heat they are taking. As far as the target market for the fake blog goes, I think it is relatively safe to say that there will be little to no effect since the blog was up for a couple of weeks and really didn't generate that much in the way of traffic. So, no big harm, no big foul. Essentially, what I think Sony forgot for a moment, and I am sure they know it, is that, assuming Gen Y was the target market for the fake blog, it is better to talk to them directly instead of coming out being something that could be perceived as disingenuous. That's lesson one, and I am sure after all of the backlash, they learned their lesson.

The Skinny on Yahoo/Facebook Deal

In case you are like me and fascinated with the ongoing drama between Yahoo and Facebook, especially as it relates to how Yahoo is valuing the social networking powerhouse, check out some of these leaked documents, courtesy of Techcrunch. Our estimate for Facebook's '06 revenues appear to be right on, at approximately $50 million. Perhaps, what's most interesting are membership projections and revenue projections a few years out. By 2010, Yahoo projects that nearly one in every two young people will be a member of Facebook, that might be a tad aggressive. Also, by 2010, they expect Facebook to generate just under $1 billion in annual revenues, quite a jump from a projected $172 in 2007 revenues. Bottom line, we still remain strong believers of the power of the Facebook platform and brand, we just get nervous (probably because we aren't investment bankers or venture capitalists) when we see these kinds of numbers being thrown around).

Rocketboom Co-Founder Congdon Close To Deal With HBO

Amanda Congdon, co-founder of the once incredibly popular video weblog Rocketboom, is said to be close to signing a development deal with HBO. Signing the popular Internet diva would be a coup for HBO as it continues to transition itself from premium cable television network into a full fledged multi-platform diversified media company. It would also give HBO an edge in reaching a younger audience segment (30 and younger). The network has found some success recently hitting a younger demo, most notably with their hit show Entourage. In my mind, signing Amanda would be not so much for play on the cable network itself, but more for its Internet and mobile offerings which Business Week quoted the company as saying recently they were focused on expanding and developing broadband opportunities, clearly with Amanda, one opportunity would be seized.

Gen Digital Milestone: Thank You!

I started the GenDigital blog four months ago with the objective of providing readers who have a vested interest in Gen Y for one reason or another an unfiltered, educated opinion supported by nationally recognized independent quantitative and qualitative research. I am extremely pleased to announce that my objective seems to be in sync with a growing audience of marketing, media and advertising professionals who have the challenging task of trying to engage this audience. On Friday, exactly four months and one week after launching, the Gen Digital blog hit 1,000 daily visitors for the first time. I view this as the site's first major milestone and hope the next one, 10,000 daily visits, will happen before the year is out as well. I sincerely appreciate and am thankful to everyone who continues to visit the site daily or weekly and to those of you who have passed the site's URL along to colleagues and friends as well. I hope everyone will continue to spread the GenDigital word out in the marketplace. Finally, I hope the a**hole who has the gendigital.com domain allows me to purchase it back without completely ripping me off. As a preview of what's to come, the same brilliant team who just designed our new corporate site (youth-trends.com) will also be re-designing the GenDigital site this month to give it a more unique look and feel and make it a bit more advertiser friendly. In addition to the re-design, we'll be launching a new weekly round up email newsletter that we will start delivering (assuming everything goes as planned) the second week in August. In the meantime, as always, I look forward to any feedback, suggestions, or comments you may have. Thanks again, time to get back to work...

GenDigital Interviewed by Fashiontribes.com

Last week was a big week for GenDigital and me. We did our first podcast interview about the latest Gen Y trends with Fashiontribes.com editor Lesley Scott. If you are interested in hearing what I said, you can download the podcast to your iPod or computer by clicking this link, or you can read some of the highlights from the interview on the Fashiontribes.com blog today. The podcast is about half an hour long and I discussed a variety of topics. After listening to a few minutes of the podcast this morning, I wish my voice was deeper, I mean, is that really what I sound like on the phone?

HBO Utilizing Myspace To Promote Entrourage

A friend emailed me this link last night. Just because Fox owns Myspace does not mean that other savvy marketers can't take advantage of its tremendous reach of teens and college students, all 40 million of them. HBO is on the right track with a crisply designed page promoting the upcoming season of Entourage which broke out as a hit last summer, especially among college aged men illustrated by its number three standing in the August '05 Top Ten Television Shows Report. I would expect the same to happen again this year. The Entourage Myspace page allows users to create their own "entourage" as well as win a slew of prizes including an "Entourage" style trip to Los Angeles. I could also see this same concept working for other shows like HBO's The Sopranos, ABC's Grey's Anatomy and Fox's The O.C. Good job HBO, way to come out with something creative and relevant that is sure to reach (and engage) the target audience.

Webshots Launches Site for College Students

Photo-sharing site Webshots has launched a new community photo site aimed specifically at college students. Any Webshot member with an ".edu" email address (just like Facebook) will be invited to the new site called CollegeLive. Besides offering photo sharing to college students the site also includes an event planning party tool (just like the Evite service) as well as a voting mechanism where students can vote for their favorite campus party. A lot of work to do on Webshots end if they intend to rival Facebook.com.