Intergenerational change is disrupting connections norms

Brands are struggling their way through a disruptive period of ‘intergenerational’ change that is having a profound impact on every facet of business, writes RadiumOne’s Rupert Staines.

Charles Darwin famously said, “It’s not the strongest who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

One of the biggest challenges facing marketing departments today is that of “connecting the dots” in a rapidly changing world. In other words, the increasingly complex, fast-paced, real-time media environment they operate in means that reaching the consumer effectively (when they are engaging with so many different communications channels) is the ultimate challenge.

At Mediatel’s recent Connnected Consumer Conference I was privileged enough to sit on a panel discussing the future of advertising and how to reach the connected consumer of today. We talked a lot about connections, future communications, consumers, cross-channel and what it all means for today’s brands.

Lots of marketing directors and agency leaders have said to me in recent months that their biggest struggle is in connecting audiences that are quite literally everywhere – the cross-channel, multi-touch challenge. We’re living in the most exciting yet complex media environment ever witnessed so it’s easy to understand why there is what I like to call the “Connections Conundrum”.

One of my key observations was that many brands are struggling because we are going through a disruptive period of ‘intergenerational’ change that is having a profound impact on every facet of marketing and general business practice. A fundamental shift in behaviour, approach and strategy is required if brands are to succeed.

What is intergenerational change?

We often refer to ‘Generational change’ – significant change that happens once in a generation. It gives businesses a false reference point in that they can broadly plan their product and business cycles around the trends and behaviours of the different generations.

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However, since around 2004, we started to experience exponential technological change that has taken human and information connectivity to another level. The rapid growth of the internet; Google’s dominance; the rise of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; the chatter of instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat; the advent of the Internet of Things, and much more, has completely changed the reference point for business.

This rapid evolution has fundamentally shifted our natural speed of adaptability and necessitated a new norm, which I like to refer to as ‘intergenerational’ change behaviour.

Why is it important?

It’s important for businesses in every sector and even more vital for today’s marketers to grasp. It has spawned new ‘species’ of communication into an ecosystem that most believed was static and not prone to such speed of change.

This false comfort has seen severe disruption with many businesses not able to cope or move fast enough. Such digital disruption requires entirely new ways of thinking and is gradually turning everything on its head.

You only have to look at the struggles of Blockbuster, Kodak, Nokia and Blackberry in recent years to understand that not all companies are coping.

What does it mean for brands?

Intergenerational change has empowered consumers and made consumption patterns extremely fluid. It’s also meant that brands and agencies have had to play catch up and adopt new business models to cater for the increasingly empowered consumer.

We need to understand how people share content, determine what is relevant to an individual at the right time, and adopt the right communication vehicle while maintaining the integrity and ethics that are increasingly important to people.

RadiumOne sees 10bn sharing occasions each month

Brands need to focus even more on what makes them relevant and different. The narrative to their customer base needs to be clear and simple so that any communication is highly adaptable and agile to an individual’s pattern of consumption behaviour, which will increasingly align to their engagement with the ‘networks’ that they choose to contract with.

The question is who can move fastest to maximise the opportunity? Who can adapt to change as per Darwin’s famous quote the best? Who will be most responsive to change?

Consumers have been quickest when it comes to adapting to technological change but many forward-thinking clients and agencies are adapting well and seizing the huge opportunities on offer.

But, there is still much more to be done to integrate communications in this intergenerational revolution.

To take full advantage of this intergenerational change brands need to fundamentally shift their structures, behaviours, approaches and attitudes. Many are already doing so and are putting themselves firmly at the forefront of the revolution.

Rupert Staines is managing director, Europe, at RadiumOne.