SPEAKER: -- out of his mind,
and he did what people these
days do when they are bored,
or actually do for any reason
whatsoever if you can call
this up, he started a blog.
And joshspear.com became
a very popular blog.
I don't know if you can shift
to the laptop PC, we'll have
a chance to see his blog.
There it is.
In fact, I think it was
conspicuously showing on some
of the laptops present.
I saw Josh there, moments
before, it was then on his
home page and was left there
for you all to notice.
A form of guerilla
marketing that I applaud.
His blog became very, very
popular and he now has found
himself in the position of
consulting with many, many
corporations large and small on
an area that I guess he calls
brand-vertising-markability.
And if you don't know
how to do good
brand-vertising-markability,
he's the guy to tell you.
He's founded a company called
Undercurrent that is taking up
nearly all this time, as he is
using up his carbon offsets
faster then even we are.
And I hope he'll give
us some wisdom today.
So Josh please come
up and join us.
JOSH SPEAR: Get my dongle here.
Hi.
This is daunting.
Definitely humbled to be here,
with such an amazing group of
speakers and people and
brands and agencies.
Thank you for having me.
Special thanks to [? Nakesh ?],
who actually read my blog,
found me and invited
me to be out here.
SPEAKER: And thanks
for dressing up.
JOSH SPEAR: And I dressed up.
I was going to wear a ripped
t-shirt and decided I
would wear a collar.
Who am I?
John did a good job with this.
I started this blog in the
back of a journalism course.
I was going to be an
advertising / journalism
double major.
And it really disappointed me,
as a young person, to see
that the universities were
basically ignoring new media.
They're still teaching old
styles of advertising and still
learning about film and radio.
It just blew my mind that
one of the best advertising
programs in the U.S.
wasn't talking about it.
So I started a blog to place
things that I thought were
interesting or cool or emerging
in art and design and food and
gadgetry and really
just my life.
My job was really quite
easy, because I just posted
things that I liked.
Fast forward a bit.
Now there's about eight people
that work on the site, and I,
unfortunately, because it's my
favorite thing to do, I work
on it very little now.
And I launched an agency that
helps companies integrate
into the digital space
without advertising.
What would it be like if they
were to spend that money on
building resources and things
that young people, and all
people, would actually use
and would be infinite?
And we're going to talk
about that today.
So enough about me, let's
talk about digital youth
trends with Josh Spear.
That's not Josh Spear.
This is Ally.
She's unimpressed, she's
bored, she was born digital.
She's anywhere between
the ages of probably
14 and 22, let's say.
But instead of talking about
trends today, and instead of
talking about big global turns,
I want to talk about a few of
them that manifest in her daily
life and things that really --
that make her tick in
the digital world.
Things that she cares about,
things that she's doing often.
Obviously she wakes
up in the morning.
Alarm clocks no longer exists
for the digital youth.
It's all happening
on our cellphones.
It's probably all happening
for many people in here.
How many people use their
cellphone, even when they're
at home, as there alarm?
Enormous.
Not in the shower, though.
Mobile are in our hands.
It's in her hand before
anything else happens.
And she always
knows where it is.
This is something that's
really interesting.
That's happening across
everyone, but the digital
youth is being born with
this insight, this internal
conscious about where their
cell phone is at all times.
They know if it's in their
desk, what drawer it's in.
If it's in there jacket,
what pocket it's in.
If it's in the hand bag,
where in the hand bag
it is, what pocket.
And so do you probably.
Everyone knows this now.
And it's literally changing
the way that we as physical
human beings think about
where we are in space.
Where's our connectivity.
Because I feel awkward when
my cellphone isn't around.
And if I leave, I feel naked.
And for someone that's was born
digital, like Ally, without
that, right away the first of
the day, she's almost naked.
So the first trend that's going
to echo throughout the stuff we
talk about is mobile as
my center of gravity.
And this isn't the center of
gravity for everybody, but for
the digital youth people are
born with that as their
center of gravity.
Ally and friends drive to
school, they twitter and text.
Louis said, how many
people twitter?
You want to do the
numbers again?
Because I was watching people.
SPEAKER: How many
people don't twitter?
How many people are like,
what the hell is twitter?
OK.
And we have to double that
for the people who are
to embarrassed to say.
So you need to explain it.
JOSH SPEAR: I'm going
to jump into twitter.
The best term I've heard
for it is micro blogging.
It is simply, what
are you doing?
It is this community so you can
sign up, with your cell phone
or online or through IM, and
say what are you doing
at that given time?
And the things that people
are twitter are ridiculous.
It's something that concerns
me, but it's quite interesting.
Here's Ally, she had
a purse twitter.
She accidentally twittered from
her purse because she was so
interested in letting her
friends know what
was happening.
Ally is based on a real person.
Ally's actually got 1736
followers, she's updated
more than 1200.
SPEAKER: And is I Justine
a friend of yours?
JOSH SPEAR: I Justine
is a friend of mine.
So Ally's based on real person,
rather than use the real person
I thought it would use Ally.
SPEAKER: And have you
met her in real life?
JOSH SPEAR: I've never met her.
An interesting that's
happening here are twitter
location based stuff.
It's like twitter meets crack.
This is what I call
the buddy beacons.
Anyone know Helio,
that company?
Nobody knows Helio?
A couple people.
This company, their whole
campaign, they have the
campaign called Friendar.
Where are your friends?
Now it's not just about what
are you doing, it's what are
you doing and where are you and
how close are, are you in my
proximity, are you within five
miles so we can meet up for
a drink or a date
or other things?
So this big trend is -- I'm
always on, find me anywhere.
This is something else that's
going to echo through this.
Ally fires up her laptop during
a free period at school.
She's got something nice in her
email box from a guy she likes.
Virtual gifting, anybody?
Seen virtual gifting?
Anybody on facebook here?
Who is not on facebook?
SPEAKER: You could check again
at the end of the session
and see who signed up.
JOSH SPEAR: Ally's received
a gift that a boy
spent $1 to send her.
Actually, it doesn't exist,
it's a small icon that was
placed on her facebook page.
You can choose your gift.
Everything from a roll of
toilet paper, to a shot
glass, to a small bunny.
What's most interesting about
this is that these gifts are
actually limited edition,
and limited time.
And there's rumor that facebook
is selling more than a million
of these, that's more than
a million dollars a month
of something that has no
limited supply, a month.
Hot or Not is another
group that's been
doing this for awhile.
And they recently within the
last month, actually overturned
their membership numbers, which
was creating about $600,000
in revenue a month for them.
And they went strictly to
virtual gifting, and they made
that back in the past month.
They make $600,000 just
from virtual gifts.
Obviously, $2 for a red
carnation, but it's $10
dollars, 10 U.S. Dollars
for a fake red rose.
SPEAKER: Plus they're shipping.
JOSH SPEAR: Yeah,
there's shipping.
There's bandwidth costs here.
This trend, virtual gifting,
this is really, really
interesting to me.
Anybody can write prose now,
anybody can send you a text
message, anybody can twitter
you, and anybody can do all
these different things, but
how do you show that
you really care?
So right now, and I think this
is going to really blow up, is
let me show you I really care.
I care enough to spend
$10 on a fake rose.
That must mean something beyond
just the note that I can send.
SPEAKER: So it's not the
thought that counts.
JOSH SPEAR: No, it's no longer
the thought that counts.
It's a cross between
ingenuity and pocket change.
I mean it's really fascinating,
this virtual gifting.
And I've seen a lot of brands
here that it would be
interesting if they were to
apply that virtual gifting.
How that would work.
Show the appreciation for a
car, or the appreciation
for a brand altogether.
SPEAKER: Hey, Josh,
just a quick question.
Do you think if these folks
were offered a chance to trade
there virtual gift get back
in for the dollar,
would they do it?
Or would they keep the
little rubber duckie?
JOSH SPEAR: I think they would
keep the rubber duckie.
I think there's no question.
I mean if we if we bump
back we see that Justine
here has 37 gifts.
SPEAKER: She has $37 but
she'd rather have the gifts?
JOSH SPEAR: She'd rather
show off the gifts.
She's also got 741 wall posts,
and 493 photos, so she's a bit
of a new media whore but --
[LAUGHTER]
-- all them --
SPEAKER: That's some of the new
youth lingo you're using there.
That's very good.
JOSH SPEAR: All of the
digital youth are.
And that's something that
needs to be thought
about a little bit.
These these things that means
so little to all you grown
adults mean so much to them.
And though we can laugh it off,
it's still, like, well, wait a
minute, that's a million
dollars a month.
SPEAKER: I could be
selling them those gifts.
JOSH SPEAR: And I just might.
So after home she goes
online to, yes, to flirt.
I can't wait to talk to talk to
the Bebo guys about social
networking and what it's for.
I strongly believe that whether
you have a social network for
dogs, for cats, linkedin
for work, facebook for
school, people and work.
It's all about the
exact same thing.
It's about flirting.
It's about sex.
It's about booty.
Anybody who says otherwise is
lying, I really think so.
This is a new site.
Anybody seen the site
I'm in like with you?
SPEAKER: Nobody is
going to admit what.
Come on.
JOSH SPEAR: One, that's good.
AUDIENCE: We're married.
JOSH SPEAR: Well, if you
work in advertising, you
should see it, I guess.
I'll show you this site.
This site, I'm in like with
you, I'm not surprised
you haven't seen it.
It's fairly new, maybe four
or five months old now.
And the site is invite
only, right now.
Due to bandwidth issues.
And you can come on to
I'm in like with you
and you set up a game.
So Ally goes on and
she sets up a game.
Her game is called
suggestion box.
And her call to action
is improve me.
So bidders go on and they
actually bid points, points
that they received initially --
now this is back to mobile is
the center of gravity, and I'm
always on this -- when they
signed up for the site they
were prompted if they'd like to
-- they were prompted
immediately for their
cell phone number.
Because most of the management
of the site happen
through your cell phone.
It would text you and
say, how old are you?
And then it would text you and
say, I you like to upload
a picture of your profile?
And it would text you and say,
what would you like to be known
as your as your likes and
preferences, et cetera?
That's how you acquire points.
So now boys, or girls, or
anybody, can come and
bid on her and say how
would you improve her?
What you get when you win
this game is you get the
ability to contact her.
So people bid more blogging,
another mac, you're
fabulous, keep it rolling.
So they bid their points
on these people.
SPEAKER:
And does she get those points
or they go to a third party?
JOSH SPEAR: She gets those
points, she gets the
person's points when
she chooses the winner.
So when she chose me as the
winner she gives me, Josh
Spear, the jets setting
super maven, the
ability to talk to her.
SPEAKER: Is how you met her?
JOSH SPEAR: No.
No.
SPEAKER: They could hear
there's another story in there.
JOSH SPEAR: So now that I was
the winner of this game, I was
given the ability to
send her a message.
And not only was was I given
the ability send her a message,
I was giving her the ability to
actually call her on the
telephone, without ever
revealing my phone number, or
seeing her phone number.
They built a system where a
call system says, thank you
for calling I'm in like with
you, would you like to be
connected to, and it reads
through your contacts.
This brings up a lot
about privacy, and a
lot about anonymity.
And a lot about this big
trend, which I think
is, dating is gaming.
And dating is gaining
is -- dating has been
gaming on TV for ages.
But it hasn't translated on the
internet yet, and this is the
first place I've
seen it happen.
And I think it's
going to be huge.
In fact, I know it's
going to huge.
Because people can step behind
and actually have a better
process to vet out potential
people that they talk to,
or potential companions.
And it's something that
the digital youth is
comfortable doing.
They're comfortable uploading
those things by their phone,
and they're comfortable
playing a game to achieve
some type of success.
Even if that success is
just talking to someone.
Shop at the mall.
She could.
They're not anymore,
as much as they were.
She finds one of a kind
jewelry, cool T-shirts,
custom ring tones,
nobody else has online.
Etsy.
Any Etsy users, or people
that know Etsy in here.
A couple.
Etsy is awesome, for
people of all ages.
Etsy is sort of like the
eBay of homemade stuff.
Ally goes on Etsy or most
digital youth would go on Etsy
to find things that have been
hand made, things that
nobody else has.
So she could pop on and find
the orange blossom necklace
which costs a whopping $10.
Which has a rating of
586, and purchase it.
Something that people will
say, where did you get that?
And she'll say, well, I got it
on Etsy, but they're all gone.
It won't be I got it at Hot
Topic, or I got it at the mall,
why don't you go get one.
Another place for her
individuality is Threadless.
Any Threadless people in here?
One.
A couple.
Cool.
I love Threadless, and I
love the Threadless guys.
Threadless is a consumer
generated fashion label.
So people actually upload
artwork to Threadless and then
users of the community vote on
that art works to be
placed on T-shirts.
And after they reaching a
maximum number of votes,
the T-shirts go on sale.
Here they are for $25 and when
they're sold out, they're gone.
She can actually go on and say,
OK, you know I like the origami
being lit on fire T-shirt.
I'd buy it, tell me if it wins.
These guys, Jeff and Jake,
friends of mine, they ship more
than a million T-shirts a
year doing it this way.
And a majority of them
are not the same.
Because they only will
produce 100 or 200 of that,
of any given T-shirt.
Another place that she achieves
her individuality online is a
company called StartMobile,
that I think is going
to be quite large.
This is a ring tone and
wallpaper place, but it's all
about independent artists and
emerging designers and people
that actually want to program
their own ring tones.
It was interesting to hear from
the singing frog man earlier.
Their slogan is enough with the
singing frog and enough with
the bikini babe wallpapers.
How long can that really last?
Before the digital youth, or
anybody, realizes that they all
have the singing frog ring tone
and says OK, where do
I go to get this?
So there are things like this
that are popping up and
allowing this girl Ally to go
on and have something
that nobody else has.
So she can really
be an individual.
This trend -- here she goes
on, she types in her cell
phone number, super easy.
It's like everything
else online now.
Longtail anyone?
This is crazy.
There's like hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds
of individual artists.
If you are an artist, and if
Ally was an artist, and Ally
might be an artist, she could
go on and actually upload her
own art works to be
sold on this site.
And then make money back off
while having unique ring
tones and wallpaper.
So this big trend.
Mass individuality.
And online has only
made that stronger and
stronger and stronger.
So when it comes to reaching or
selling anything to Ally or to
the digital youth, it's
not about finding her.
There are unbelievable
researchers that can tell you
exactly what they're doing.
And it's certainly not
about interrupting her.
We know that.
We learned that a
long time ago.
It's about creating content and
functionality that's she's
going to seek out, use or
interact with one a
day to day basis.
I do this chart to try to
help illustrate this point.
Things that Ally seeks
throughout her day, throughout
her day as a digital
youth are good.
So she uses things like twitter
and Bebo and facebook and I'm
in like with you and Etsy
and YouTube, of course.
But things that seek her, as
far as advertising, and direct
marketing and things that
advertisers, and there are many
in this room, say are bad,
they're still happening.
Because we're still trying to
attract these people that way.
I think as someone who recently
launched an agency working in
this space, things that are
happening in that other world
of text advertising, which I
think at least Google does
contextual advertising,
with all due respect.
But they're still in
another universe to Ally.
You can go through that day
that Ally used and that was
only five trends of
a very short day.
None of those things apply to
her, because she's not there.
And even thoug -- the slide
with -- I try and show the
slide while offending the least
amount of people, those things
they may be measured as
effective to some degree,
because people are clicking on
them or young people say
they're working or -- but if
you look at the trends, and
what she's doing in her daily
life, and things that she
actually cares about, she
doesn't care about
those things.
That's all.
Thank you.
