Tune in to our intimate conversation with Luke Hodson, an expert in youth culture marketing, who paints a rich picture of how the influential power of youth and street culture shapes the content strategy of some of the world's leading brands.
Discover how dissecting these cultures can prime your content proposition for future adoption, particularly for the Gen Z demographic.
Connect with Luke here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehodson/
And check out his awesome podcast "Back2Skool" here:
https://www.youtube.com/@nerdscollective
---------------------------------------------
If this episode sparks off any new ideas, we would love to hear them! Please email us at info@writebusinessresults.com OR fire us a DM on social media. Links to all our favourite haunts are below:
LinkedIn:
Instagram:
Tune in to our intimate conversation with Luke Hodson, an expert in youth culture marketing, who paints a rich picture of how the influential power of youth and street culture shapes the content strategy of some of the world's leading brands.
Discover how dissecting these cultures can prime your content proposition for future adoption, particularly for the Gen Z demographic.
Connect with Luke here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehodson/
And check out his awesome podcast "Back2Skool" here:
https://www.youtube.com/@nerdscollective
---------------------------------------------
If this episode sparks off any new ideas, we would love to hear them! Please email us at info@writebusinessresults.com OR fire us a DM on social media. Links to all our favourite haunts are below:
LinkedIn:
Instagram:
Hey, what's up guys? This is Ivan Meakin and you are listening to Content Untap, sponsored by Riot Business Results. This is the show where I go on a mission to unpack all those tiny little details that make up fantastic content.
Speaker 1:I report my findings back to you and I try and give you some practical tips that you guys can take home into your next project. If you do like what you hear, please do all those classic podcasty things you know like share, subscribe, tell your friends about us, all that kind of stuff. It helps us spread the word and reach more people just like you, which is awesome. Also, if you wanted to have a more in-depth conversation about what you're hearing today, just hit us up on LinkedIn. You can go to the Riot Business Results LinkedIn page or you can go to my own personal LinkedIn page and FireRSA DM. We can spark a whole conversation there. Thanks, guys.
Speaker 1:Let's just crack on with the episode. We met I think it was a Sunpoint last year and when you explained to me this idea of youth marketing, youth culture, street culture and how that kind of is so influential in the world, I wanted to bring you, wanted to talk a little bit about how things like youth culture, street culture in particular and, in a wider context, culture in general, can help shape content and turn people if they can understand this better into better content creators. So, luke, can you just give me like a rundown and give the listeners a rundown Like what is youth culture marketing?
Speaker 2:So youth culture marketing is basically building strategies that leverage the power of culture and aspiration as a way to engage with prospective clients or your strategic target. And most people, whether they admit or not, are ultimately subscribing to a specific cultural expression or identity.
Speaker 2:Cultural identity Everyone has this cultural identity that is built on shared ideologies, traditions, beliefs, mindsets. There might be a set of behaviors, language, all different ways that that culture might express itself, but ultimately it's around having an identity rooted in something outside of yourself and what we do is basically decode that for brands and then work out how we can use that as a way to connect, because everything is done through cultural production. It products you buy, cue you want to be associated with, how you project yourselves, you know the job that you get. Everything is basically done through the culture. Back in the day it was very much around you would market on product attributes. Then it was like a little bit more around, like emotional marketing, so this product might make you succeed, might make you cool, and then really it started to be more around like cultural selling propositions, which were ways of understanding and identifying a coach intention and then being seen to resolve that coach intention, and that was really what coaching work was.
Speaker 1:And it's so true, right, like, even when people are creating content. Whether you're like a filmmaker or a writer or a business owner trying to create content, everything that you're doing is allegorical to a certain extent, where you're using the culture you grew up in and the society that you know helped bring you up as a way to express your message, regardless of what it is. So definitely, definitely, buy into that. But why specifically, luke, did you choose sort of? You know we talked about different demographics here, right? Why specifically did you choose youth culture as a way to help brands?
Speaker 2:Because I think youth culture is where trends, most trends, are set. I think it's where there's like a continuous like source of newness. I think that's where cool comes from. Really. It's like that. You know, the 16 to 24 is where most things are like established, set, crystallized, and then older demographics are dot and appropriate. I think that the cultures that I were into were predominantly very, very useful and like well, it's more like mainly adopted by young people and I just kind of like stayed in that space and I have like a genuine fascination of, you know, emerging or fringe cultures and fringe communities and often they're like powered and front line by young people. That's just what I'm finding. Is that most interesting?
Speaker 1:It's interesting from my side as well, because we create a lot of content for small business owners and, interestingly, a lot of their clientele are not necessarily like that demographic. And potentially they're a missed opportunity there for a lot of entrepreneurs who are running small businesses who think that you know they have a specific demographic in, you know that late 20s or 30s to 50s but like what's the opportunity that like a brand or a business can have if they can unlock this and access the kind of the youth culture today?
Speaker 2:I think you hash, like anyone that owns a business, has to be thinking about how am I priming my proposition, you know, for future adoption, it needs to be set up in a way that you know is going to attract new people.
Speaker 2:It's like how you get new generations into your funnel, your pipeline, into your business, into your sector, your industry. People will be Gen Z, it's like you know that's a huge proportion you can't really afford to neglect, like, especially when every year you know it's going to have more of a dominant impact on all areas of society, that you have to set your business up in a way that is going to be able to appeal and at least like engage or not push away this consumer group. So I think it's like it's really important to understand one like youth culture and what the next generation is doing. Then also understanding like the idea, like the ideas of social influence and the importance of culture, regardless of demographic, like everyone aspires to a certain lifestyle ideology, regardless of who you're talking to. You need to understand that and then make sure that you're reflecting that in any of your content, regardless of who your strategy is just need to embody what's aspirational.
Speaker 1:So that your consumer group 100% businesses, especially smaller businesses a lot of the times think about like the immediate, you know the, the, the next year or the next kind of Three years, like I'm not sure how many people when especially when I think about creating a content campaign are creating content. Think about how can we use this content to shape a legacy. That's gonna, you know, the business is gonna be Attractive to the next generation of people coming up who are building businesses, and we're gonna be in the place of your current clientele in the next sort of five to ten years. So that's a really interesting point. So, for you, look with their collective. You work with quite big brands, don't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, usually global brands. We bought plenty. That's nineteen, you go boss. North face Is there all I? You know pretty much the biggest, you know the most iconic brands of in our space and I'm pretty culturally innovative and I'm looking at ways of how they can continue to innovate in terms of the content, what they create, the communication. Looking at what's next, how do we differentiate, how do we create impact? How do we cut through? How do we harness the power of the algorithm to create content? You know that, ultimately, is memorable. So there's a constant need to look at like what are the new codes, that, what the most influential you want to frame?
Speaker 1:these are content that's gonna deliver impact what are some things that you are doing like a collective and some techniques and tools that you're using to help these brands, like connects with this demographic?
Speaker 2:Think it's looking at what's happening in the real world. Is that what? You know? What's the most aspirational, influential touch points within the world and what can we learn? How do we do, code that and try and bring some of those practices into how we create our own content, because calls always set out it's not in the brand mode, it's not done by commerce, is not done by, it's not done in the commercial world, it's done like, naturally, organically, pushing boundaries are more driven by passion and general, like people together. I think that they love. But that that's ultimately what we're trying to move Right. We're trying to align ourselves through content with that space where every is the strategic target is most inspired by this. That's what. That's what we basically continuously Mining and playing back to brands. They can incorporate some of those learnings into how the connect.
Speaker 1:So interesting cuz like Obviously a brand and a company that are there, built by people, as you said, come from specific cultures and have their own kind of ideologies attached to it. This is obviously is generated from the people to, and yet it's so hard to connect those two things together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really hard. It's really hard to understand that, the mechanics of social influence thinking. A lot of managers don't understand what's cool, they don't understand the latest trends, they don't understand what young people want. You know some of the brand and from content I think it is there was generally a big People who are them consuming the content.
Speaker 2:Interesting what is? What is that is? I think that you imagine like one in ten of some kind of slightly alternative, like cultural expression, might the part of a cultural, some culture group identity. That's like one in ten other people that leave in the charges, that I don't see that staff personality on that person is really represented within the brand of marketing world. Right, I think they're all doing different thing. I just don't think that, not that they're basically to gravitate towards the space to their story. You're talking to people that quite the shurning. I'm actually cultured to create good quality content. When you only got to be two or three percent wrong to show that some awkward uncle, I I think, like you know, that's where brands go wrong. A lot of most brandy content doesn't do that well.
Speaker 1:We mentioned this idea of cool and where that comes from. Let's just talk a little bit more about that, because, yeah, you're quite cool, so let's try to talk a little bit about where like for you and the research and stuff that you've written, stuff that you've written like, where do you think this idea of cool originates and where it's sponsored.
Speaker 2:What I think this mainstream cool. But then it's like every culture has a different context around. Cool, right, so you might have Japanese, that mod, the car mod, culture, right, and I think, like you know, icons and Cultural insiders might look from that space that hold influence over the community matter very different to you. Know someone that is into a drill music. You know that's leaving the charge of in that, do you know? I mean it's very contextual.
Speaker 2:But what's cool to more like, we often find this that you know the kind of consumer advocates so fragmented that they were. Yeah, then it's about all understanding that and then playing to that. What's this more like mainstream ideas of, like traditional cool, you know where it's like people that are just a little bit like culture nuances of it's swag are there at the forefront of the latest trend or a movement is like stereotypically cool. But I think it is, you know, super contextual and I think that it it really depends on what your sources for, for aspiration and inspiration. Yeah, I think like that is the rich cool Really just means a simple lunch or was aspiration, and when you do you?
Speaker 1:Do you do any work to investigate what that is going to be for specific cons? Not comes to you to look at a demographic to say what cool within that space that we can use to engage.
Speaker 2:Yes, like what cool? Who? Who do we believe it was our audience hypotheses? Like who do we believe we have the opportunity to? Who that's the highest density to buy into our product? Is that audience size Got the scale that we need in terms of our sales forecast? What you've agreed on, that I will. Let's now understand that consumer. Listen to this, build out that consumer right now. We can Decode what they think is cool. And now how do we install those, those ideas are cool in our communications, our connections and our content so that when the scrolling shit that's what I aspire to, that's what I want to try and assimilate to you, that's the kind of visual language or like and what's what you know, what I want to project, so therefore more likely to gonna be in, get to engage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense, when you do these investigation exercises, are you looking for any potential like signs or green flags, for you to know that something is cool and is a trend and you should piggyback up of it or assimilate into your marketing message?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's looking at who and where they're influenced. Yeah, what are they looking for? You know when, when looking at shopping, where, where you looking, who you looking like, what are like, what product do you want to be seen? What sounds do you think has the most equity within your community or group? It's looking at really what the influence by right and you can start the map to find the okay cool when you know what's the source of that and then what she's been to say thousand people, when it's always kind of Pointing towards a specific place or area of passion or expression within, say, a culture that is that I could call that's. That's probably the gold there.
Speaker 1:Seems to me, anyway from what I've seen, that like that's a bit of people don't spend enough time doing. They go straight to like who's the target audience. But it's like, rather than think about like the individual people like, and people spend a lot of time on this avatar, like this client avatar, but no one really spend a lot of time thinking about the culture, that avatar Operating in the environment that they live every single day.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, what do they want, what are their needs, desires it's a formal culture. Whether you're into culture, art as a culture, creative culture, vinyl record culture, when you're into middle class mum culture, it's like, do you know what I mean? Everyone has a desire code and it's cracking that desire code. That's really what it is. If you can crack that, then you can leverage people because you know what they're, kind of alter the influence by.
Speaker 1:Nice. What mediums are you finding that are working quite well to reach out to people and engage with them with this message?
Speaker 2:Y2K is very much in now. Right, it's like you know, we went to like, I would say, like a nice nostalgia, and then it went to the kind of naughty nostalgia and I think that colorful, bold form of creative expression and visual language is doing really well. It's just like layers and, like you know, textures and bright colors. There's a lot of colors come back in, I would say, in the last couple of years, Even high fashion, the high street collection color and textures that are dominating our network. That was the same as it was in the early 2000s. So I think it's about big, bold colors that are going to work in textures.
Speaker 1:But one thing I think that has evolved and necessarily doesn't necessarily go in cycle so much is the values that this demographic have that they didn't have back then.
Speaker 2:That tends for me anyway I don't know if you agree, but that tends to be something that kind of evolves and changes and doesn't necessarily harken back to a specific time, especially kind of with news, because they're reappropriating aesthetics rather than like a set of values, right, like you said, right, it's taking the aesthetics of a particular time and adding new values to that and meaning, rather than kind of like bringing those values back.
Speaker 1:I guess to go back with an A Nauti's values message, nowadays you'll probably get counseled.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for sure, it's called progressive, super progressive, right? You can have someone that's like and it's very fluid as well, because you can have someone that's like punk aesthetics into rap music that's intermitting, which you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's like you have these multi hyphen identities, which I imagine makes it such a harder, probably now than ever, for someone to find like, to access and properly connect with someone, or maybe it's always been hard and this is just a new way of figuring it out. What do you reckon?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely it's like, oh, before we be like, oh, you know, let's target like football, right? That doesn't exist today, right? And then there's, like you know, 12 other different expressions of like football, lifestyle, culture as well, that are completely non-traditional, that are like way more fluid, that are subscribing to a whole set of different values, norms, seeking different experiences, and it's like it's super fragmented. You might ask this certainly there's been, not as a true tribe, you know, that's way more fluid.
Speaker 1:One thing that you mentioned just in passing, that was the word authenticity, and it seems to me like when brands try and become cool or like try to become cool or access this new kind of youth culture or a new demographic, it's quite easy for them to do it just because they want the market, rather than they're doing it from a place of genuine like they want to give value back to that community. Do you find a lot of brands making that mistake of trying to like in sustainability? They call it whitewashing, right. So is there a equivalent of that in kind of this branding and messaging that's trying to access a new demographic?
Speaker 2:Definitely, definitely, because ultimately you know, like the idea of greenwashing or whitewashing, or Sorry, I was greenwashing, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:No, I was washing.
Speaker 2:It's like, essentially it's virtual signalling, yeah, and it's appropriating something that's positive, net positive for commercial value, without actually be giving or propelling some. You know the purpose that you're meant to be supporting, that you're just, you're just singing it. You're using that as a trend. There's a desire for that amongst your potential consumers. You're not actually giving behind the cause. So if you're, for instance, working within Black culture and you're starting to use rappers and you're starting to use people from a certain like inner city environment, it's like that's great. But then how are you giving back to the communities that? How give your birth to those artists? Yeah, are you doing outside to support and help with like social mobility? You know helping like increase opportunity for underserved communities, for instance. You know if that's your way of going to play, but you know you just you need to be giving, that friends have to be giving back.
Speaker 1:You know wherever they want to position a brand, so that area of culture or that purpose is like you have to have to be giving me because I suppose therein lies the real potency and power of the connection is when people can see that it's authentic and you're actually doing something for that community and engaging with them in a way beyond just a capitalist kind of commercial way. And that's where you can develop a really strong relationship and strong bond with the community, with a demographic. When you not only you know approach the message in that way, but do stuff like do positive change and help in a way that's beyond just selling to someone, that's probably where that message becomes more, a lot more powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think brands have to have like a social political stance. Now, yeah, you know that's difficult and like there's a lot of brands that have come unstuck by claiming something or projecting something and when you interrogate their proposition it's like they might have an unethical supply chain. So you know that diversity and inclusion program internally isn't particularly strong or it's like mal dominated or whatever it's like. You know, when the values that they're trading on don't marry up with the values that they're coming built on, atone me, then there's, you know, I think that's where the lack of authenticity comes in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure Makes a lot of sense. And you mentioned in a lot of your content how you know there's kind of there's a demographic that's like quite unrepresented in this world. And you, when you say that in your podcast stuff, do you mean, like you, culture in general or people from more urban environment?
Speaker 2:I'm talking about. We talk a lot about street culture, right, Street culture is really born out of like struggle in it Right, spatially disadvantaged, innocent environments under trivenaged, impoverished communities that, as a result of their environment, often adopt quite creative forms of expression, which then is like what you know is probably the most dominant force on youth culture globally. Now, Right, you know, cool, I think it's always come out of the sinkage when it's like punk culture, streetwear, rap culture, everything has come out of inner city urban environments and I think you know, and that now is often adopted by most brands because it's like the number of sorts of influence. But I think that there's still a lot of struggle in those communities.
Speaker 1:And with Nurse Collective. Do you do work with brands to help them figure out what they're going to do in order to give back, as well as help them with their commercial message?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's insisting on that. I think it's about milk. You know it's too risky, Like why would you? It's just unethical. I think we live in a different time now. It's, like, you know, I think young people, Gen Z, are really going to apply partly kind of like create this new working culture where you have to be given back, Whether before you could just kind of, you know, you just use someone as an ambassador and do nothing else, but just, you know, utilize the kind of capital behind that individual to sell more products and that doesn't wash anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could probably get exposed pretty quickly. Yeah, I agree. Well, look, we're coming towards the end of this, but I feel like it would be a miss if we didn't mention one thing that's obvious, if I was on everyone's lips today and I know you're quite passionate about it as well which is technology, especially from a younger demographic of people who are digital natives, now bought up and immersed in tech. But do you see the future of branding and content creation being with the emergence of all this crazy new technology?
Speaker 2:that's coming out. I think that young people see it as a powerful tool to emulate and perpetuate the speed in which people create content. I think it provides for endless opportunities of creative formats. I'm quite pro, like I'm pro, in terms of creative innovation. I think, obviously, the fallout for me is that there's a lot of jobs that can become redundant as a result of the potential of AI, like to get now. Think of it in a year, think of it in two years. It's just going to be insane. The rate and the frequency in which we can create content is going to be incredible, and I think it's, of course, understanding those capabilities. I think there'll be two layers the AI and the animal will be the kind of trumpeting layer. The human layer will be directing AI to create the right content, but I think it will become much more of a commodity.
Speaker 1:We want to give more and more people who don't have the innate skill of writing or the ability to put this together the ability, every chance in the world to share amazing stories in the format that they choose. We're super passionate about it. I'm very excited by people being able to use this as a tool to help them get their message out in the world and share it with more people. At the same time, you also need to get a sacrifice that there's going to be a lot more average, easy, GPT-created content out there in the world, which probably is going to be easier as far as the years go on. Luke, Right, it's been awesome having you on. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for your time, mate. If anyone wants to find out more, hit you up. Find out more about what you do. Any brand that was engaged with Nerds Collective what's the best way they can do that?
Speaker 2:It's probably just on our website, which is nordscollectivecom. My name is Luke Hudson. I'm here on LinkedIn as you share a lot of articles and share a lot of insight and thinking and strategy. So, yeah, reach out contact.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, Thanks again for listening to another episode of Content Untapped. If you are interested in finding out what we're up to at right business results create content to grow loyal audience Please do get in touch at info at rightbusinessresultscom and we will get back to you post haste. Secondly, if you wanted to continue the conversation about creating great content or anything that you're listening to on this show, give us a DM to the right business results LinkedIn page or you can DM my personal page and we can spark a whole new conversation about any of this stuff. We love having conversations about content, so the more the merrier, guys. Thanks again for listening and I will see you next time.