Adultescents, The Nomadic Generation
Eighty delegates either battled through the west London traffic, or walked the half mile from the station in drizzly rain to descend on the Cosmic Comedy Club, situated in a seedy Hammersmith street. They weren’t flocking to another industry party, but to Marketing Week’s Marketing To Adultescents’ conference.
It was a surreal setting for a serious day of lectures and debate. Delegates sat behind rows of paper-clothed trestle tables. The classroom arrangement stood in stark contrast to the dream-like clubby decor; gold stars were sprinkled like fairy dust around the walls, huge brick pillars supported the ceiling at 60 degree angles and velvet pelmets hung behind the presentation screen that loomed over the speakers.
Pre-empting the drug-like stupor the venue was in danger of inducing, Harry Drnec, conference chairman and managing director of Red Bull, kindly provided cans of his stimulating drink to all participants. Aside from the frequent product plugs, Drnec was an effective chairman, he skillfully introduced topics and linked seminars with entertaining debate.
John Grant, planning director of St Lukes was the first to play teacher. Grant gave an informative and interesting presentation that illustrated the diverse group of people that make up the adultescent generation.
Age was found to be the only common characteristic of this generation; they are all between 25 and 35. Quoting from his ‘bible’, Robert Bly’s Sibling Society, Grant commented: “adultescence is the best of times and the worst of times.” It is a transient life stage, this group of people are considering marriage and starting a family, they are trapped between the need to grow-up and the wish to cling to youthful ideas. Statistics gathered by the Henley Centre, show that this group is not very politically correct; they are unlikely to be vegetarian and have only a niggling concern for the environment. This evidence is reflected in the success of magazines like Loaded and TV programmes like TFI Friday. Adultescents have lived through boom and bust, the AIDs scare, poll-tax and the fall of Communism, they are used to uncertainty and so live for the moment. Adultescents feel that they are living on sand and so cling on to material objects on a search for a permanent identity.
This nomadic generation were born into a baby boom and represent 15% of the population, so they are a very important target group. Simon Aboud, managing director of Magic Hat, highlighted the significance of branding to this age-range. Patsy and Liam are persuaded to wear Clark’s shoes and all of a sudden, school teachers find that their footwear is the height of fashion! Word-of-relevant mouth is still one of the most effective marketing tools. Aboud sited God’s success to underpin this statement.
After the agencies had had their say, Jane Davies, head of client sales at the Guardian and Observer, looked at advertising from another perspective. She explained that adultescents are the most opinionated media-users around, they like being given advice and tips, but they hate being patronised.
This view was reinforced by Mark Rodol, managing director of Ministry of Sound, he advised: “Don’t be a dad in disco, work from the clubbers perspective.” In other words, be sure to understand the scene that these people are moving around in and get in the right conversation line to catch the words from the relevant mouths. Malcolm Cox, marketing director of EMAP Radio, and Jon Mansfield, head of clubs and concerts at Kiss 100, the lectern double-act, followed on from Rodol’s drift. They said that the problem is: “when you identify a trend and give it name you effectively kill it.” Adolescents are always one step ahead of the media.
This is why sponsorship often fails to attract the attention of this generation. Adultescents tend to avoid the corporate sell. Mike Mathieson, managing director of FFI enthused: “non-traditional sponsorship routes, such as music festivals, are the most effective avenues to take when targeting this market.” These events are professionally run and nearly always generate capacity crowds. This marketing ploy enables the brand to be absorbed into youth culture.
The captive audience at this Marketing Week conference were still busy scribbling notes at the end of the day, this is either proof of the success of the event or proof of the effectiveness of Red Bull! Most of the candidates enjoyed the day and found it a good source of information and contact-building, though there were some complaints about the venue and hospitality. Your Newsline reporter may have won the star prize and got a free press ticket, but as ever will never succumb to bribery: the food was scarce and decidedly rubbery. At the end of the day a good conference can be ruined by bad grub.