Speaking To 450 P&G Executives About Gen Y
July 1, 2008 – 9:57 pm | by Daryl TaySo today Estee, Ian, Michael, Dorothy and I headed down to Sheraton Tower to speak to about 450 P&G Executives about Generation Y, the New Consumer and our purchase decisions as well as media consumption habits.
Michael, Dorothy and Ian getting ready.
Without a doubt, it was the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to (not including emceeing) and I hope they found it useful. One big concern (as always) is how “safe” it is to put your brands in the hands of consumers. As one of the execs put it, how do we know a blog won’t serve as a “brand spoiler”?
Left side of the room
Right side of the room.
I think it’s simple. The point I tried to hammer home today is: If your content or brand or product or service doesn’t suck, it won’t happen. By suck I mean the whole world hates it. I don’t think it has to be a perfect product, but a flawed one open to feedback is fine. And if you’re P&G, the textbook example for great brands, why should you be afraid? Your products should speak for themselves!
The one question I always want to ask is this: If you have kids (say, above 15). Do you really believe that your current media buying habits are in sync with their media consumption habits? I tried asking this today, but less than 10 people in the audience had kids over 15. So it became a moot point.
To some extent I think that’s a very dangerous position for an organisation to be in. If your key decision makers are at the age where they’re not interacting with Gen Y and think they are “safe” in the knowledge that what has worked for the last 30-40 years of marketing will still work, that spells trouble.
The smart companies will pick the brains of their youngest employees. MTV did that when I was there. Almost every week they would ask me “What would your age group think of this?” or “Is this lame to you?” or questions like that. I remember one instance where somebody two levels above my immediate superior (meaning she’s VP level) came to me and asked my opinion on some new VJ audition tapes.
I’m not trying to be a diva, but it astounds me that there were 140 students at Ad:Tech last week, and almost none of us were approached by execs just to talk.
Let’s put it this way: Every six months new graduates enter the workforce and decide what to buy with their newfound spending power. If you haven’t been communicating to them earlier, what makes you think you can do it now?
ps: While we’re on the topic of Gen Y. I found it weird to receive this as a “thank you” gift from P&G:
I don’t want to seem ungrateful but… Boss for women? I don’t get it. In future, either get “thank you” gifts that can go to either sex, or label your “thank you” gifts appropriately.
Tags: brand spoiler, brands in the hands of consumers, communicate asia, dorothy poon, geek goddess, generation y, media consumption habits, p&G, proctor & gamble, purchase decisions, sheraton tower, the new consumer
9 Responses to “Speaking To 450 P&G Executives About Gen Y”
By bjornlee on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
those pics make the P&G dinner look like a fund-raiser.. lol
seems like the P&G dinner crowd was young? no kids above 15? so did any of the slightly middle-aged folks come up to you after ur talk to talk Gen-Y shop with you?
By brian on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
for you to give to your special lady friend lah -)
hahaha, anyway.. i think there is also SOME onus on us Gen-Yers to say more about why brands need to connect with their consumers. new marketing for new consumers.
i was just sitting through a class yesterday, very informative, econometrics, regression models and all the whizz bang, and it became apparent that as Gen-Yers, we may be experts in communicating with our peers, but what about communicating with those before us.
a simple “as long as your product doesn’t suck.” is perhaps why they see us as idiots, or that digital will just be another bubble, or something they jump on because everyone is talking about it.
no. there has to be more of a belief in the accurate analytics that digital campaigns can give us, about the influence about online voice, the transparency between brand and people.
it calls for attitudinal shifts, not just manifestos and statistics. and now being in the transition period, is how we communicate that, and how we conduct ourselves to this communications platform.
By Mark on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
the perfume doesn’t small all that good if that’s any comfort, lol… What a great experience it must’ve been for u!!
Anyways, would like your opinion on this post i made and if you would give the I’m campaign a thumbs up or down? Thank u!
http://oldskoolmark.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/im-talkathon-campaign-thumbs-up-or-down/
By Michael Netzley on Jul 3, 2008 | Reply
The revamped blog site is looking good…and you did a great job yesterday. As for that photo…looks like pasta has become my best friend (not a good thing).
By priscilla on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply
Nice one, Brian!
Daryl, heard from Mark that you’re having a great time at MTV. They are a global partner of ours.
Anyway, i agree with Brian’s point and I find the exec’s view about “how do we know a blog wouldn’t spoil our brand” very valid. Alot of us have ROIs/ deliverables to meet and answerable to the things we proposed to do ie (campaigns that is supposed to move the needle etc).
There are alot of real life cases of great brands, great products but some silly Gen-Y bloggers who are not savvy or simply trying to be “controversial”… writing bad reviews about the products. when that happens, the brands can do two things - (1) engage with the blogger and try to re-educate (2) freaked out as many would and decide it’s not worth the risk to “leave the brand in bloggers’ hands”.
By Daryl Tay on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply
@Priscilla & Brian: Oops I was negligent in replying this thread! Wonder how I missed it! I am indeed having the time of my life here, thank you!
I definitely agree that people like you guys shouldn’t go to your bosses and say “As long as our product doesn’t suck” and use that as a basis to get approval. I meant it like if people like us are sitting back thinking “Is my brand/product/whatever suitable for moving into the space” then the first question should be: “Do you have a damn good product that will hold up under scrutiny.” If the answer is no, then pumping in money back to R&D is a better use of resources than spending it to go online.
For me, the answer to a “bad review” or “controversial” or plain silly bloggers is definitely engage and re-educate. Some will be receptive, some won’t, but I believe in the long run things sort themselves out. It’s definitely scary for the brand and they would be freaked out, but I believe it takes time and patience and there are no fixes.
Btw thanks to the both of you for leaving such thought-provoking comments on my blog! Very humbling to know that people in the working world who deal with these real issues EVERY DAY are dropping by to discuss issues with a student who blogs without having to deliver ROI/metrics/results/etc.
By Priscilla Tan on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply
Appreciate you being real candid and i guess what we all adore about your blog is, you are out there exploring, questioning and learning! We all do and that’s part and parcel of making the social media space more dynamic and for the lack of better word, more “sophisticated”.
Senario: esp. for folks like Brian ( and previously, when i was in PR and advertising agency, i had the same issues), what if, you are working for an agency and your client has a real product that is constantly behind its competitor but you still need to keep your job and find ways to market and do publicity for the product?
There is no way going back to client and say - erm, think you need to spend more time on R&D than to pay us PR fees. You’ll find yourself out of job very soon. heh.
So, i believe, if your product rocks, it is definitely bonus. Most of the time, realistically, nothing is perfect. And sometimes, clients come to consultants and agencies to help them “alter public perception” and create an “image that is right for the brand” and not so much of hearing the agency preach to them about how their product doesnt measure up.
BTW, what do you major in?
By Daryl Tay on Jul 10, 2008 | Reply
@Priscilla: Thank you! Spot on about the scenario. In fact I’ve had that exact conversation with Melvin (but not about HP). I guess I tend to blog from the client side a little bit, so when I mention that I mean before they even think about engaging an agency to enter the space, like wayyy earlier than that, the very first step internally would be to look at what they have and see if it makes sense.
I feel like I should say products don’t always have to rock on the same level that Apple does. Not everyone is an Apple, but if they have some sort of standard there, then social media can be a very, very strong complement to it.
I’m a marketing and corporate communications major.