Youth Marketing Mega Event Conference Day One & Two dispatch reported by Cari Gelber:

Today was the pre-conference symposium for the Youth Marketing Mega Event in Huntington Beach, CA. Hosted by the beautiful upscale Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa, I feel like I am at a resort in the Caribbean, rather then California — that is, except for the weather. Apparently it's not always in the 70's and sunny, here, it's colder than the east coast (where I'm from) and has been raining all day!

Today was broken up into three symposiums - Marketing to Mom & The Family, Youth Market Research and Marketing to 20 Something's.

After the morning coffee, I got comfortable at the Marketing to 20 Somethings track and sat in on Todd Cunningham's (marketing guru from MTV) presentation "The extraordinary search for the individually digital on-demand life of 20-something." He painted a very vivid picture of just how important technology is today. For example, IMing grew 26 percent from 2004-2005. Twentysomethings on average have at least two media subscriptions (Itunes, Netflix), and there's been a rise in "gaming fever," including online gambling (poker, sports, entertainment events). He also talked about how we are trained not to pay attention. And if you think it's bad now, he projected that by 2008 we will be adding an additional 3,700 hours of media into our lives.

Newsletter readers: Come to Ypulse.com for the rest of Cari's coverage.

Youth Marketing Mega Event Conference Day Two

After seeing the flashing weather alerts for a chance of SNOW on my TV last night, I was afraid to wake up this morning — but fortunately it looked like the snow would hold off another day!

The Difference Between X and Y

The day began with a presentation by trend guru Jane Buckingham of The Intelligence Group (a Ypulse advertiser). I have to say, I'm a huge fan. I have been a subscriber of Trend Central, her daily dose of "what's hot" for years. Buckingham spent the time describing the difference between Generation X and Generation Y, stating that some marketers tend to group them into the same target but there are glaring differences.

We'll start with what shapes Generation X (born between 1965-1977):

One out of two families divorce, world of decay, threat of death (AIDS, gangs and violence).

They are pessimistic, realistic, independent, "savvy yet skeptical," and nostalgic. They feel a need to bring back the past since this generation lacks stability, they recycle trends, clothes styles, even drinks selections (the martini & cosmo), and feel that there is no guarantee in finding happiness and success.

What shapes Generation Y (born between 1978-1992)

-Believe that they can do things on their own — starting their own business at 15, want to be famous because they think that they can because of shows like "American Idol"

-They have role models – they don't just look up to celebrities, they look for good elements in real people

-They are individuals, hopeful, entrepreneurs, optimistic, and "smarter than you."

-Extremely STRESSED generation

They are also extremely hard to manage because they strive for so much.

To sum it up she gave a quick overview on what's hot for 2006 including ARG (Alternate Reality Gaming), experience clubs, organic food, comedy (Blue Collar Comedy Tour), interactive billboards and podcasts to name a few and left us with this thought:

"There is definitely a shrinkage of the teen market. Today, teens acts like they're 20, and tweens act like they are teens."

Everybody Needs a Brand Ambassador

My highlight was the presentation by Mr. Youth called "Tapping into the Pulse of Campus life with Student Brand Ambassadors" (2004 GLOBES Award Winner for Best Use Of Event Marketing In The World). If you aren't familiar with this company, they are the kings of out-of-the-box marketing initiatives. With their networks of hundreds of college brand ambassadors across the U.S., they have helped companies like Microsoft, Victoria Secret, Jet Blue, Rebok, Dell and Kotex with product launches.

Matt Britton, the founding partner believes that brand ambassadors are the foundation of every successful initiative. No one wants to see a 50-year-old walking around on campus trying to sell you a product. College students need authenticity. College kids speak the same language so why not train them to be the voice of your product. Peer to peer marketing is the most effective kind of marketing, they sneak through the clutter, they know what's going on on every campus — what big events are coming up, concerts, popular fraternities- they are your "insiders." Students that become a part of the ambassador program get hired to represent a specific brand, they get paid a stipend, and get trained until they are completely schooled on the product. Mr. Youth's goal is to find brand enthusiasts – when they worked on a Microsoft product, they made sure that the people they screened and hand picked used Microsoft products, and were comfortable promoting the product as they become an extension of the brand. They ended with a great video montage of case studies.

Live Panels: Tweens love mac & cheese (and Gucci ads)

I was heading to the College Live Panel – Six college students who would speak their mind for the next hour, when I saw the tween live panel waiting to go in. There were a dozen of them — all anxiously waiting to get their chance to sit on stage and answer questions that adults in the audience were waiting to ask. They were so cute, that I had to stop in and hear what they had to say. I watched as one little boy played with his Red Gameboy Advance until his mother pulled it away from him right before the first question, one girl sat with her American Girl Doll on her lap the entire panel and the two girls on the end sat and whispered to each other. They started by introducing themselves and their homework assignment that they had been given: Create a time capsule. If someone was to open it 500 years from now, what would they find in yours? The collages were filled with some of their favorites : Macaroni & Cheese, Ipods, Paul Frank, Lord of the Rings, Quiksilver, pictures of friends and family and my favorite, a Gucci ad — remember these are the TWEENS 8-15!

When asked what is important to them they stated school and getting good grades so they could get into a good college! They also said, "Can't live without my iPod Nano," obsessed with basketball, spending time with friends and playing on the computer. Neopets.com was the website of choice. None of them had MySpace accounts. Most said they were not allowed. One boy even said "No Way!" because their parents said bad people go on that site. Two girls had AIM screen names with buddy lists of up to 150 friends, none of the boys used AIM.

As I moved onto the Teen Live Panel (an all girl panel) they talked about their love for reality tv — especially the "ridiculously staged ones" like "Date my Mom" and "Flavor of Love." "I love the 80's," "Gilmore Girls" and "The O.C." were among other shows they mentioned.

One of the issues that came up in all panels were advertisements, and whether or not they pay attention to commercials, radio spots, or billboards. How does a product catch your eye? The teens were quick to say they definitely pay attention to commercials, especially the "funny ones," and the ones that have real people in them. There it is again — authenticity, I am sensing a theme. Some of their favorite commercials:

Dove's real beauty commercial, Citibank's identity theft commercial, and Mastercard's "Priceless."

While the College Live Panel said they usually switched the channel when commercials came on, they don't listen to the radio –- only to Sirius, XM or their ipods, and rely on print ads to find out about new products, clothing, brands etc.

They discussed how much they spend on their clothes. Two trendy girls said "at least $250 on jeans, $100-$150 on shirts, up to $1,000 on a purse and around the same on shoes." The guys on the panel looked at them like they were crazy but then followed by saying they would spend up to $400 on sneakers…maybe more.

Facebook's Non-Pitch Pitch

It was interesting to be sitting in a packed conference room listening to Mike Murphy from The Facebook give his pitch, on the same day Businessweek stated the site is up for sale for $2.8 billion. When asked by the audience is it true? He stated, "It is a rumor and I don't discuss rumors." Everyone in the room laughed. He started the presentation by saying, "I don't want this to sound like a Facebook sales pitch," but then followed up with a 30-minute presentation on all of the ways you can use Facebook the market your product to college students…for a hefty fee. Did you know you can target a user not only by college, hometown, ivy league, public college, gadgets (if they list three or more gadgets in their profile), birthday, cell phone carrier, class schedule, favorite bands, movies, actors, passions? And the list kept going on.

The day ended with a happy hour and performance sponsored by 12 to 20 featuring Aly & AJ, Everlife, Jonas Brothers, Britney Christian (she's only 16 and had an incredible voice!) and Jordan Pruitt. The kids on the tween panel even were invited to attend!

You can read Cari's coverage of day three here.

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