Tracking the Transient yuppies

Media News

Mumbai, May 2, 2011

Does the young generation in India thrive as a gang (live together, think together) or do youngsters here have a strong individuality? How do brands harness that?

Interestingly, Youth think collectively and act individually. Consider the two most happening social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is a groupthink platform where the youth hangs out as a gang - sharing, commenting, poking each other. Twitter is a classic case where less than 20 per cent of the users actively tweet, while the rest are onlookers and followers. The young get twitchy if their gang don't ping them on their handsets. They are connected 24X7 to the wider cosmos of friends. Even while in the same room, you will catch them sending chat messages to each other. While family and siblings are always there for support, friends are the partners in crime and they belong there. However, they do have an extremely strong sense of individuality. The trend now is not about fitting in the gang, but standing out and making your own mark. At MTV, we have seen this across all reality formats like Roadies, Splitsvilla, Stuntsmania. They need to be jack of all trades, but master of one. In daily life, the youth show their individuality through their customized status updates, manicured pics on profile, hair styling, mix and matched fashion sense. While they take ample inspirations from movie stars, they adapt the fashion and never adopt it literally.

Is the difference between urban youth and their contemporaries in countryside stark? Are brands reaching out to only selected few?

Why?

In fact the gap between urban and rural is rapidly reducing. Young people in smaller towns are far more ambitious and impatient, their hunger to get ahead of the metro kids is infectious. The sheer time spent online is much higher in smaller towns and hence they are connected to what is happening not just in the metros but across the world. Their behaviour might be a little more conservative but their thinking and aspirations are definitely not. Successful brands have realized this and this can be seen from the kind of products/services and communication that one sees on the national media.

How has the older generation taken to the changing youth trends? Is there a conflict or a secret pact?

Generation gaps are breaking down rapidly. Parents are friends and that is because today's parents have grown up as children of liberalization. Fighting the youth will only take you further away from them. Align with them and you will go a long way. So I don't see conflict, I see life management, both from the side of parents and the younger generations. Moms with daughters at reality show auditions, dads giving their sons their first sip of beer, parents preferring the daughter to be at home with the boyfriend, sex education classes at home and school are all examples of this becoming of 'happy modern family'.

India is home to the largest population of youngsters, is it an opportunity? How big? How are social dynamics expected to change in coming years?

The current generation is born with two dysfunctional genes: multi-tasking and attention deficit. The youth love continuous change and radical innovations. Yes,radical draws attention and the era of subtlety is passé. Marketers need to wake up to this truth. An IPL for example needs to be bigger and better every season. Another very vital shift has been that brands and users are being treated more as an equal. We are living in an era where you can tweet to your favourite icon and get a retweet from him/her. Brands are bending backwards driving interactivity.

How has the entertainment (dose, frequency, form and medium) requirements changed over time? Is Internet and iPod taking the sheen off the idiot box?

In this era of multi screen engagement, the web and mobile have only ensured a deeper connect with the viewer. While Roadies is on, you can chat with Raghu on a voice chat on your phone and tweet your friends on what he just said to you. It has moved the engagement from one way to two ways.

Are brands doing enough to understand the needs of the youth?

Most of the research studies today are typically onetime affair that ends up being a reference guide for brand marketers for a year or two. As a brand catering to this segment for decades, we at MTV are well aware of the fact that two years are not enough to grip the young peoples' pulse. The essence of youth lies in their transience, they change as quick as time. The need to track them daily is of prime importance and thus, MTV iSpeak was born. It is a hangout of a network of the young from colleges across 10 cities. These ambitious, extroverted, opinionated youth has been handpicked by the MTV. We meet them every day (online) to discuss their life and thoughts ranging from news headlines, politics, and career aspirations to frivolous dating tips, and stories of love life. These online and offline meetings ensure we stay connected real-time and have a firm grip on the youth pulse. MTV decided to share these insights with the people to whom youth insights matter. MTVPlay. in was launched last year to share all that MTV knows. While we started off sharing just the trends, the site now allows data downloads and research updates.

For further information, please contact:

MTV

Arun Kumar

Email: arun.kumar@viacom18.com