Authenticity is just as important as content when it comes to storytelling, says Matt O’Mara, UK managing director of VICE.
Speaking at the annual International Content Marketing Summit on Wednesday, the former business & development director of Dazed & Confused told a room full of publishers and marketers: “Don’t bullsh*t teens.
“They’ve been marketed to since birth so they have the best developed bullsh*t detectors.”
VICE, the youth brand which in four years has seen all revenue shift from print to online content, was originally founded in 1994 and has since become a global phenomenon.
Additionally, VICE’s video content is currently one of the most engaged with on YouTube, with more than 400 million views, 3 million new subscriptions and the best ratio of likes/dislikes.
O’Mara said that young people have £2 trillion worth of ‘purchasing power’ and are 2.5 times more likely to adopt new technology than older generations.
This, he says, is why it is so imperative that brands, in a time when there is so much content out there, “give [young people] something they can’t get elsewhere” and “provide something which is culturally valuable.”
“It’s not all about algorithms and scale,” he said. “You need to be where [young people] are; go to them. They must choose you.”
O’Mara also said that in order to engage younger audiences and get them to pay attention, brands need to be audacious and take risks. Young people want to be entertained, he said; brands need to move away from doing product-focused things that are advertising based.
“More than any other time in history, brands are fundamental to the creation of culture,” he said. “The onus for brands is to do things that set them apart from the rest, because if you don’t, others will take advantage.”
