Reaching Youthful Audience Demands Break from the Norm

With an average attendance of more than 46,000 over five events in its inaugural 2005 season, the Dew Action Sports Tour topped the average attendance of every team in the NBA, NHL and MLB with the exception of the New York Yankees.

Organizers of the Dew Action Sports Tour kept their target audience involved in planning.
How did an action sports tour, long regarded as a niche market, outdraw some of the most storied sports institutions in the United States?

By clearly identifying and doing everything possible to connect to its target market — in this case, extreme sports fans in Generation Y.

From the beginning, officials discussed with that demographic (the 60 million young adults born between 1979 and 1994) how to make the Dew Tour a success. The team designing the logos for the tour hung out at skate parks and surf shops, talking to the event’s core audience and involving them in the creative process.

This tactic is especially useful when marketing to Generation Y, who are a central part of virtually every sports organization’s target market. Not only does the technique ensure that an organization’s marketing strategy, visual design and branding appeal to its target demographic, but it also begins the process of creating a community around the product.

Studies have shown that Generation Y, which has grown up being bombarded daily by advertisements, is much more influenced by the opinions of friends and others with similar interests than by traditional advertising.

How, then, can a sports organization cultivate and create a community of fans and supporters?

Many marketers try to dazzle this audience with slick graphics and flashy Web sites. A much more effective strategy is to stick to principles that will keep a marketing plan focused on meeting the needs, and therefore gaining the loyalty, of Generation Y.

A few guidelines:

Understand your audience: Generation Y is a complex, diverse and often poorly understood demographic. There is no such thing as a unified Generation Y point of view.

You must identify and understand a specific target segment of the population. Make sure that your research includes your target market’s favorite methods of communication (often cell phone or Internet-based) and entertainment activities.

Talk to the consumer: The only way to be sure that your research is on the mark is to confirm it in face-to-face interactions. Don’t send the intern.

Have the decision-makers and those in charge of the product talk to the people who will be consuming it.

Be honest: Generation Y is skeptical when it comes to marketing and will tend to disbelieve any claim you make unless and until it has been independently verified.

This means that (a) you shouldn’t make any claims that you can’t support, and (b) you should work to become a trusted informational resource on your product and your industry.

Use new tools: Generation Y sees billboards, television and print ads, and Internet banners as annoying clutter. To get your message across, you will have to find new ways to communicate your message.

Branded events, interactive Internet campaigns and sponsoring consumer-generated media have all been successfully employed to connect to a Generation Y market. The trick is to make sure that a clear and beneficial connection exists among your product, your target market and your campaign.

Stay focused: Sometimes the process of creating and executing a marketing strategy can defeat the strategy itself. A great idea gets bogged down in the bureaucratic process, an executive wants to change the plan because it doesn’t suit his or her personal taste or too many compromises result in a mixed message that confuses and alienates consumers.

Generation Y responds to short, focused, relevant messages (think of the popularity of text messaging), so keep your strategy focused on a small number of key points that will resonate with your audience.

The Dew Action Sports Tour connected to teens because it developed a strategy that encompassed the simple guidelines above. Instead of relying on the popular perception that teens are naturally attracted to anything having to do with action sports, the tour took the time to understand its audience, even using it to check its own designs and plans.

The Dew Tour sought out new ways to communicate with the consumer and never lost sight of the fact that the Tour shouldn’t be designed for boardroom executives. It should be designed for the consumers who will ultimately decide its success or failure.

Using this model will help any company to connect with its target audience. The advantage is particularly significant if that target audience includes Generation Y.

Keys to connecting with Generation Y:
DO
• Identify your audience
• Become a trusted resource
• Know how they communicate
• Keep the message relevant

DON'T
• Homogenize your message
• Make claims you can’t back up
• Rely on the usual clutter
• Get bogged down in bureaucracy