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Millennials have unprecedented access to product information. Looking for the scoop about a digital camera? Type the brand and model into Google and you’ll be inundated with blogs and reviews. Buying a first car? Go to one of countless auto-enthusiast message boards and you’ll have enough reading material to last you for weeks.
Gone are the days when you would pick up a magazine and read a professional review column, thinking it was the be-all-end-all say on a product. These days, people are putting their trust in blogs, choosing peer opinion versus expert opinion.
Word-of-mouth is not new, but this is new territory for companies constantly jockeying for the market’s attention. Trying to tap into something as organic as blogging has proven difficult. Sponsored blogging company PayPerPost ran into trouble when Google decided that sponsored blogs were unworthy of front-page rankings. The sponsored blogging business model still remains controversial and has yet to see full-fledged mainstream adoption.
The recent news about Bike Hero being fake reminds me that Gen Y has extremely fine-tuned BS detectors — it seems that we think something is even remotely fake, it probably is. It’s almost disillusioning and insulting to think that agencies are continually trying to camouflage adverts. Why pretend to be something? The magic is always lost when you discover something to be a lie, even if it’s just a YouTube video or a funny blog.
It’s a very fine line between corporatizing something natural versus being a contributing participant. For brands trying to infiltrate Gen Y and its media, the key factor is, and has always been, sincerity.
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Comments
12.23.08
I think Gen Y is the first generation to come of age where nothing is real. Even reality TV isn't real. So it makes sense that they wouldn't trust the "experts" - they trust their peers. One challenge of this is when you come across someone who actually is an expert, you may or may not listen to their advice. With so many fake experts, even the BS detector can have trouble.
12.23.08
Relying on "crowd" wisdom before experts is changing the marketing and advertising industry. Gen Y seems to rely on others for product information online. Previous generations still relied on word-of-mouth, but were limited to physical social circles prior to the Internet.
What is great about this time in social media, video, etc. is that there is so much room for innovation. However, sincerity and transparency will always be key.
12.23.08
When I think about GenY accepting advice from their friends, I think of all those episodes of "reality tv" shows like Laguna Beach, The Hills and Newport Harbor I watched with my teen-aged daughter. I remember turning to her and asking how real this was, do teenagers really think like this and dispense advice like this to their friends?
Surprisingly, the answer was yes most of the time. And most of the time, the advice a 20-something gives another 20-something is either wrong or dangerous, even though it is sincere.
Sometimes, real sincerity may just come from an experienced expert who may not belong to "the crowd."
12.23.08
Despair.Com has the best word on this:
http://despair.com/idiocy.html
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
12.23.08
@jrandom42 high-paw! ;-)
12.23.08
Having the vast amounts of information at our disposal that we do, its going to be a tricky situation. People will make mistakes with purchases in stocks, cars, or new technology. It is now up to us an information analysts to take all of this information in and filter out the garbage as we see it.
This is where the intelligent and disciplined will stand out from the crowd...
12.24.08
Crowds often are really, really wrong.
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