’Notoriously fickle, incredibly cynical and remarkably elusive’,
screams the copy, supported by de rigueur psychedelic graphics and a
funky little font. I find myself invited to yet another ’yoof’
conference where it’s a sure thing delegates will be told the youth
market is a ’mindset and not a demographic’. Frankly I’d prefer to watch
paint dry.
Yet the conference organisers are merely taking a bite out of a market
worth pounds 38 billion and feeding a communications industry intent on
cracking it. My beef is with those ’yoof’ agencies who try to run a
closed shop by frightening the life out of new and existing clients,
banging on about the complexities of the youth market and seeking to
create superficially ’hip’ identities in a desperate attempt to
differentiate themselves.
A PR company does not need to make a complete prat of itself trying to
prove how in touch it is. In the advertising world the best youth
campaigns are created by the most established ad agencies and more often
than not the same is so in the PR industry. Yet the popular perception
is that you need to have an ’underground’ name or image even before you
pitch for a youth account.
But isn’t being in tune with your audience a pre-requisite for putting
together a PR campaign? Hardly rocket science, more like Noddy-entry
level.
Mainstream youth brands are increasingly appreciating the fact that
small is not always beautiful. Having worked in-house for a youth brand
I came into contact with several youth agencies and I believe that they
have no more inside knowledge or better contacts than bigger agencies in
this area. It comes down to the quality of the people you employ, their
understanding of the market and of the brand. Niche is a state of mind,
not the size of the office you operate from.
The stark truth about taking a youth brand to the marketplace is that a
PR consultancy must prepare it not just for short-term awareness, but
for potential criticism, tampering, imitation and even withdrawal. Plus,
what happens when your client asks you to tailor the campaign to every
European market? In an increasingly competitive market this is where the
gap between a multi-specialist agency and a youth agency turns into a
gulf.
This is not to rubbish youth agencies but to challenge the view that by
opting for a multi-specialist agency you necessarily compromise on
either creativity or youth marketing know-how. If this is so how can
Hill and Knowlton have won PR Week’s Consumer Campaign of the Year for
1996 and a commendation in 1997 and in both cases for work on youth
brands?
The problem is that all-too-often youth marketing is referred to in its
narrowest sense and relates to niche brands such as Red or Dead. It’s
often uneconomic for multi-specialist agencies to work on behalf of such
brands and youth agencies have a role here. However, as soon as that
brand kicks into a wider market where audiences, issues and media
multiply, a multi-specialist agency, with strong youth credentials, is
arguably the smarter option.
