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Screen Shot 2016-01-09 at 11.57.20In Campaign this week, Jamal Edwards, the founder of SBTV, writes about what 2016 holds in store for brands trying to target young people.

Jamal starts by relabeling the people born after the millennium – he says that he prefer to think of them as the ‘DIY generation’ in that they are used to using digital technology to create, distribute and consume content without the need to engage with the traditional gate-keepers such as television channels, record labels and publishers. Edwards says that the growth of virtual reality technology is playing into the hands of this trend, for example he was able to use the Samsung Gear VR Galaxy S6 glasses to be transported to the Pasha nightclub. He was able to look around the club by turning his head and take in the whole venue.

Edwards says that this is part of a larger trend where:

The DIY generation crave immersive experiences

But not only that, they want to control where, when and how they access these experiences. So a key platform for 2016, in our opinion (backed up by Jamal) will be Periscope, which allows people to virtually experience events from anywhere in the world and also replay those experiences or watch them at a different time, according to their schedule.

At the same time, Jamal argues that the DIY generation has very high expectations of the brands whose content they do consume. Whilst they might be creating, editing and uploading films on their iPhones, they expect brands to create cinematic quality content if those brands expect to hold the consumers attention long enough to get their message across (take one of our favourite brand productions as an example of that; Patagonia’s Worn Wear film).

Finally, Jamal concludes by saying someting that we firmly believe in:

The DIY generation wants authenticity in 2016

So there are three trends that Jamal has identified that we believe will have a huge impact in 2016 and beyond. They are:

  • The use of technology to give people access to immersive experiences, where and when they want
  • The demand for extremely high quality content from brands
  • Authenticity in everything that a brand creates

Getting those three things right will be a big step to ensuring that your brand engages with an ever-more savvy and demanding audience of consumers and will ensure that your brand stands out from the majority.

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