I'm learning that speaking at a conference and blogging a conference are two different mindsets. As a speaker, I was much more concerned with repeating positive affirmations in front of a mirror before my talk than attending and blogging sessions. Add moderating the Mashup to that last night, and my conference coverage goes downhill even more. With that disclaimer, I'm going to summarize two great keynotes I did pay attention in -- Michael Wood from TRU and Ariel Rosen from Virgin Mobile.

Michael Wood is a polished speaker -- he incorporates sound and images seemlessly into his slides (yes, I have Power Point envy) and opened his talk with the ole' game show motif to get people to participate. It was fun. His talk was entitled: "Authenticitude Is The New Real And Other Lessons In Teen Life." I love when marketing people make up new words -- they seem to do that quite a bit. Trendwatching does this all the time with words like "Transumers" and Youniversal Branding." Wood's new word was "Authenticitude" -- or the notion that being authentic is more of an attitude than having to truly be authentic. This was a new take on the whole "be authentic" mantra you hear chanted at most of these events.

He gave a couple of examples: When teens were shown two ACDC T-shirts, one a real vintage T priced at $55 and the other a much cheaper knock-off available at Target, the teens TRU interviewed overwhelmingly opted for the cheap Target T. When the question was reframed and teens were told they could choose either one at the same price, teens still went for the Target knock-off because c it’s easy to get, it fits better, lasts longer and no sweaty guy put it on his back -- it's better than the real deal.

He also talked about PacSun vs. Hollister. While PacSun is really the authentic brand that grew out of a single surf shop, Hollister was a brainchild hatched in a corporate boardroom. Yet according to the TRU teens surveyed, they think Hollister is more authentic because of their retail environment (clothese strewn casually around, surf videos piped in from Huntington Beach, music, plasma screen TVs, etc.).

The final example he gave was the "fake reality" of the popular MTV series "Laguna Beach" and how that has in many ways overtaken the original "O.C." on FOX. My take on this is that while Hollister may work for the kids at the mall, it definitely won't fly with the kids who really surf and are a part of that culture. I also think teens love "Laguna Beach," but know very well that it's scripted. Either way this opens the door for brands to project "authenticity" without having to be really authentic. Is this a good thing?

Newsletter readers: Visit Ypulse.com for the rest of this post.

Authenticitude was one of Wood's five big themes or ideas. Here are the other four:

Autonomy: The notion that teens are living in a world of their own separate from their parents (in large part facilitated by technology). Wood said teens live in a "zone of their own," choosing when and where adults interact in their lives. He used the example of the "Peanuts" kids who only hear adults in that wa wa voice. According to TRU, 62 percent of teens said parents are involved just the right amount. Then he went on to define what "just right" means for today's teens with the stat that 75 percent say parents rarely if ever monitor their internet use and that 1 in 3 have computers in their rooms. He also used the example of the ringtone only teens can hear (I've blogged about this before), originally used as a repellent in the UK, now being marketed on MTV as well as the reality that teens are using their cellphones 24/7 or getting calls and texts in the middle of the night. He said there is a tug-a-war going on between teens and parents and that technology is the rope. He also listed tech such as GPS tracking devices on phones and in cars as one way parents are "fighting back."

I don't think GPS tracking adoption is that high among parents yet. He also claimed that teens he has spoken to are buzzing about Second Life - and used the American Apparel store as an example of what they're doing in there. To my knowledge, teens under 18 aren't allowed in adult Second Life where American Apparel has an outpost -- only in Teen Second Life, which is totally separate from the adult grid (and a lot of very adult content). I wonder how many teens are lying about their age and playing in Second Life?

The Big Easy: Keep it simple, stupid. I've been saying this a lot here, especially when it comes to teens and technology. Teens want products that are easy to use and meet their core developmental needs as teenagers. It's not about the bells and whistles, it's about "Simple interfaces that improve their lives." He pointed to Bebo as a nice example of creating a clean and easy social networking interface and Google's Picasa as an easy to use application for finding photos on your computer.

Warning: another made up word - Obsolessence This one is all about teens' comfort with the rapid pace of change, whether it's in technology (think: how many different iPods have been released in the past couple of years), or in celebrity engagements, marriages and divorces. He said teens want a new digital camera every two years, a new cell phone every year and new sneaks every 3-6 months. And of course they want the newest video game console as soon as it comes out. He also mentioned the phenomenon of tech "hand-me-ups" or teens giving old phones or iPods to their parents when they're done with them. He mentioned that teens are gaga for eBay and selling relatively new stuff, and also cited Plato's Closet as an example of this.

VIP Premium: This one is all about teens being the reality TV generation and wanting to be famous - "Celebrity Me." Wood said two out of three teens think they are just as good as celebs and one out of five think they will indeed become famous. The poster child for this? New "It Girl" Kristin Cavallari from 'Laguna Beach." Of course this ties into MySpace, where regular teens can befriend real celebs on their profiles and on YouTube where anyone can potentially become famous. Because of this, Wood said teens expect to be treated like celebs (think Super Sweet 16), velvet rope and all.

Bonus material: Wood pointed to the growing popularity of Christian Youth Media with 3 million teens attending Alive concerts this past summer, said Wal-Mart is number one with teens as a cheap place to get anything at any time, and pointed to the increasing popularity of the Webcam social networking site Stickam, which was originally developed to be a corporate conferencing service.

Virgin Mobile, Youth Noise and Stand Up for Kids

The other keynote I enjoyed was Ariel Rosen's case study about Virgin's recent social marketing effort around youth homelessness, i.e. The ReGeneration campaign. WIth all of the buzz about corporate social responsibility and the GOOD trend, the main take away from this preso for me, was that to really do this as a corporation (I mean to really do it - Virgin invested over $1 million in this effort), you have to have support from the top. The fact that Richard Branson and Virgin's top execs are all bought into corporate social responsibility and see it as a value of their company, is nothing to sneeze at in terms of getting these partnerships done.

Virgin's involved in lots of different causes under the Virgin Unite umbrella and sends its execs on "wake-up trips" to Africa or other places they are active to see the reality on the ground and come back energized and ready to work on these issues. Here's how Virgin went about launching ReGeneration, which is all of their cause related efforts related to youth:

1) They did research - they surveyed their young customers, asked them what issues they cared about. They heard, in this order, terrorism, war, unemployment, education, environment, and homelessness.

2) Identified what they were looking for in a partner - they wanted an organization that was "synergistic" and "on brand," that had the same sentiment and tone - who was irreverent. Virgin wanted to make a disproportionate impact on these partners rather than being just one of a few corporate friends. They also wanted organizations with national reach. Ariel also mentioned they were careful and evaluated their non-profit partners much like an investor would a potential company to invest in. They chose Youth Noise (for access to its 150K activist teens) and StandUp For Kids (for doing incredible work with homeless youth, who are underserved and often under the radar).

3) Asked their customers for help defining the look and feel of the campaign with a user-generated art contest to design the ReGeneration "charm" (to date 25K charms have been distributed. The winner also won a trip to Africa, and runners-up went to New Orleans. They also asked Youth Noise kids to participate in shaping their text novella about a homeless youth named "Ghost."

4) Created easy "armchair activist" ways for teens to get involved by texting or downloading:
- Customers can text a code and donate to Youth Noise or StandUp for Kids
- They can download ringtones from ReGeneration artists and 100 percent of money goes to partners
- Five percent of anything they download goes to the causes

5) Incorporate ReGeneration into everything Virgin does: They had popular artists create work, which debuted at the Virgin Festival and that will be auctioned in NYC next week as well as sold online (prints). Offer bags where teens can easily send in their old phones to be recycled, etc.

I also thought is was interesting that at first Virgin wanted to keep these efforts on the downlow so as not to appear they were patting themselves on the back. But after their customers demanded to know more, they went public and made it their mission to educate other marketers about what they're doing. To date:

To date:

- 11K teens have opted into the novella
- On Dec. 1, for World AIDS Day they sent 1.2 million customers an SMS blast telling them they would match a $1 donation to charities. 15k customers responded within two hours!
- Youth Noise seen huge increase in participation on their site
- StandUp for Kids has launched four new programs

News item: They are also about to launch another pro-social texting effort with American Eagle where young people can text the word "karma" and literally help clothe a homeless teen through StandUp for Kids.

I think this partnership is fantastic -- it's completely win-win for everyone involved.

Posted by anastasia