Keynote speaker for today’s Understanding Youth conference, and senior strategist for Much MTV, Chris Unwin knows a thing or two about marketing to youth and keeping them engaged. Before presenting a talk on how the digital and everyday real world are in constant emergence, Unwin spoke with strategy about youth marketing and the importance of integrating consumers into brand campaigns.

What excites you about youth marketing?

For the most part, everyone here at Much MTV considers youth marketing to be kind of a responsibility. Because you pretty much have to be constantly evolving with our audience, otherwise you are going to be irrelevant. The responsibility to keep evolving with our audience is what excites me.

What brand(s) do you feel are using youth marketing well and how?

I have been really impressed with Doritos; their past campaigns I think have all been really great. Especially the recent one “The End” where you had to choose between the two flavours. What I love is the idea of involving the audience in product development, because it really gives your audience a sense of ownership. They had feedback on the very product itself which is a tremendous opportunity.
It is more a matter of the audience running the brand instead of a bunch of marketers in a room – the way in which they have harnessed engagement for product and campaign development.

How can brands do better in youth marketing?

I think that looking beyond the campaign and investing in engaging with the community around a brand – serving and being responsive to that community.

With that, there is the notion of having brand-inspired content. So, my social media account and my campaigns shouldn’t just be trying to compel people with why they should buy the product. Engaging them around the world of a brand – with that I think the brands can be successful in driving product sales. It’s about looking beyond the campaign and engaging a long-term responsibility to your followers.