pool: Interviews

BBDO Singapore interviews youth guru & guiding light, Mr Ian Stewart of POOL.

How has youth of today changed?
I believe that the basics of "being young" never change: the need to belong, fit in, "see and be seen", gain popularity, create identity by aligning yourself with different "tribes" like music, are all the same as other generations. What has changed are the tools that youth of today have to achieve these goals and dreams, with digital clearly the main differentiator. Youth today have 100's of digital friends, which makes them almost a media in their own right.

Issues facing youth today:
Personal issues (as above) remain the same. Society issues are clearly based on what is topical today: the environment, religious wars, digital privacy and safety would be examples.

Youth culture today:
Is more similar than different. because of the Net, young people across the globe are tapping into the same elements of popular culture as everyone else. While they may think they're unique, special and different (don't we all!!) they are wearing the same clothes, listening to the same music influences, and absorbing the same movies/tv/books as others. E.G. Twilight & Vampires, Nu-rave & Electro, etc...

What brands are doing well to connect:
My favorite is Converse, with their use of global pop culture icons and local music. A perfect combination.

Which brands have got it all wrong:
Without wanting to name names, many of the "youth icon brands" of the 90's have either failed to remain relevant to young people today, or are trying to hard to be all things to all people - cool for youth, functional for adults - this never works.

How has social media impacted:
This is the biggest thing impacting youth (and all of us) right now. Consider a 24 hour day; 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for work/school, leaves 8 hours for "me". With youth spending 3-4 hours of that online, and 75% of online time spend on social networks, this is clearly the dominant medium of the moment. Building digital communities, sharing digital content.

How do I keep abreast of youth culture:
I keep in mind the fundamentals, the things that never change and thus look to the surface for shifts. For me these are changes in pop culture - how can music tastes be interpreted as defining youth? how can movie/tv/book themes be used to define youth? how can fashion/design trends be used? With this in mind the internet is filled with sites that offer clues to these questions.

Must-dos:
Know what you're looking for. The world is swimming in content, so you need to have a goal when you are sifting and sorting thru it all. I also like the concept that you can't chart the future without a map of the past - trends are cyclical so taking the long view forwards and backwards can often be helpful.

all the best,
Ian

Excerpts from the Flamingo interview with Brian Tiong and Paul Tan from POOL.

June 4, 2008

FLAMINGO: Can you give us your personal general perspective on Asian Youth behavior and trends? Are there any overarching themes or frameworks that come up?

Paul Tan from POOL with a few words:

PT: Generally, like any generation past and future, youth behavior and trends today stem from alternative culture, a peripheral reaction to popular culture – Look, Learn, Modify and Create. Just like a tent – individual structures or communities starting at base ground level which is the internet and meeting at a peak. This peak is where all youth behavior and trends converge in one big inter-section.

The RIGHTCLICKA Project is a good example to illustrate this view. Starting out at a ground level no frills mixtape blog because of the lack of access to good music, gathering an opinionated community as it grew and converging in the big inter-section of pop culture where it has influenced the creation of many other Singapore music blogs or groups to distribute ‘mixtapes’. You will find many interlinked communities both local and global promoting their music through ‘mixtapes’ on the internet today, especially in social networks such as Facebook.

The original mixtape blog:
www.rightclickamix.com

Other mixtape blogs or groups today:
www.rawjak.mypodcast.com
www.themixtape.mypodcast.com

FLAMINGO: Attitudes of Asian youth vs Western?

PT: Both share the same attitudes. I call this ‘Designer Socialism’, “A Left sensibility, purged of puritanical austerity and fear of pleasure, attracted to stylish made things but vigilant about being hoodwinked or exploited.” – Taking issues, ideas and concepts into their own hands and openly flaunting them in blogs and social networks, gathering like-minded allies or a community in the process.

A good slice of this attitude can be viewed at www.awe50me.com

FLAMINGO: What are the inter-relationships, within friendship circles / professional circles; family, religion etc…

PT: All online communities are interlinked with each other. Be it fashion dictating music or music dictating fashion, it all functions as one big community of friends, professional relationships and common interest – The source is open to all who connect with each other. This only happens because technology has allowed us to reach out more people than we could ever have imagined.

Family and religion are left in the cave unless you utterly believe that youths listen to their parents and religion, and if they do, you will be able to find them in their respective communities.

FLAMINGO: In particular what large trends do you see going on now, or what do you feel is ‘on the horizon’?

PT: The next big wave will happen when communities evolve into mini-corporations or agencies like www.awe50me.com This Tsunami is on the horizon and is gathering power as it approaches. Once it hits, it will blow everything away and force us to rethink all our strategies. After which the cycle will begin again with an alternative ripple.

FLAMINGO: Would you be able to sum Asian Youth culture in a few words or a sentence?

PT: Independently Modified Nations

Brian Tiong from POOL with a few words:

BT: Youth in SEA are obviously very different in terms of language, family, religion, ethnicities but looking at specific sub culture segments like music, design and the work we do with the RightClickA project, it seems that there is a common tread with trends in the music space in and many similarities between the western and Asian youth culture. We find similar results in AWE50ME our interviews with opinion leaders our social network for creative talent across Asia. The Internet has managed to connect these like minds together based on their interests irrespective of where they come from.

With the Internet, we have a common platform, Asian and western youth culture have an equal opportunity to reach a global audience. People are self aggregating in communities. We just have to watch these communities to understand what’s coming up next. Look at the online gaming scene, its huge in Asia.

Asian Youth culture & its sub culture will be very much bigger than its western cousins. Just look at Asia now (esp – China) now and how fast its growing on the Internet. The kids are creative and hungry and this kind of hunger creates sub culture and these sub cultures are the seeds of trends.

FLAMINGO: Any large trends that you see in relation to Asian youth and the digital world, or online activity? What are they?

PT: Any technology that allows youths to communicate and function more socially with each other will be a trend because of its utility. Be it small or large, they all contribute to the bigger picture. Social Networks, Bulletin Boards, Chat, Widgets, Blah, Blah, Blah…they are all happening and being created at a breakneck speed because there is a huge want to get with each other. COMMUNITY is the largest youth movement today.

FLAMINGO: Why do you think the internet is such an important resource for Asian Youth?

PT: The internet is less an important resource but more of a natural thing for Asian Youths because they were born into it. It is their state of being.

How else can you express yourself to the world so quickly? Where else would you go to access everything and anything? Where else would you go to find a hundred million like-minded youths? If they can’t find it, they’ll be able to create it online.

FLAMINGO: If the internet is indeed an important resource for Asian youth, how do we see this manifested - what are the main ways in which we see this? Any specific country / regional examples?

PT: We see an ocean of social networks and their clones out there catering specifically to Asian youths. A good example is the social network, Friendster. It is now available in English, Chinese, Malay, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesian and Spanish.

FLAMINGO: What about blogs? Any initial thoughts? How have they changed the digital youth landscape?

PT: Blogs have been around since desktop publishing in the 90s. They have and still do, provide a space for self-expression. For the youths of today, because HTML is so basic to them and because blogs have evolved and become so easy to put up that even a one-eyed child with 1 finger can publish, it is the quickest and still the trendiest way to say who you are and what you think. Even social networks such as Myspace and Facebook provide blogging functions.

FLAMINGO: Do you think that Asian Youth would use blogging or social forums as platforms through which to express a deeply personal agenda? Asian culture is on the whole more conservative that Western…we see lots of this type of agenda-pushing / investigative blogging in the West, any thoughts on the Asian perspective

PT: The more conservative you are the easier it is to express yourself thru a blog where you can either remain anonymous or have an avatar. That being said, we have to understand the maturity of Asian Youths compared to Western Youths. Most Asians mature much slower and therefore take a longer time to formulate articulate thoughts on certain issues. The trend is to blog as a group and community under a topical umbrella organization eg Asia Youth Environmental Network.

BT: Youth and Digital are really the same word different – Asian youth live online and their activities in social networks, blogs, bulletin boards and forums show this. Friendster is the no 2/3 site in SEA right in Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and these social networking, blogging, video sites that attract the Asian youth are in the top 10 most visited sites. We at POOL always start looking at these online properties for insights on all Youth trend & community related projects that we work on.

The Internet is an important resource for all Youth not only in Asia. Its also the largest social club out there for making friends and having conversations globally. How can you beat that?

Blogs have allowed Youth to have their own personal online space for whatever they want to do, share and talk about. Asian youth are taking this platform by storm. The most visited blog in the world is a Chinese one. Actress Xu Jing Lei has over a 100 million hit in the past 2 years. A lot of communities around the world use blogs as their main websites and some use a lot of open source software as building blocks to build their own websites. Have a look at this blog that documents street culture and part of AWE50ME our creative network. www.streething.com

There are a lot of blogs that are people rambling on about their day to day personal dramas, there are more interesting one talking about their passion or hobbies and like any mass attracting platform, you’ll every kind of personalities there. I don’t really see Asians being more conservative than their western counter parts online.

FLAMINGO: With web 2.0 and the collaborative atmosphere – where consumers or “pro-sumers” are co-creating with brands (cite some global examples like NikeiD; Adicolour; ConverseOne etc), do you see any Asian brands that are doing this particularly well?

- Which ones?

- How are they doing it?

- Any country specific or region specific examples?

- Any brands that have tried and not done it so well?

BT: Tiger beer was a Asian client that I worked for in 2006. They have a collaborative platform showcasing the best creative talents in Asia to the world. I think this year they have over 150 artist collaborating with the brand. Check out http://www.tigertranslate.com/2008/

Social networks are probably best for collaboration as this as it allows multiple different like minded artist conversations to happen at a time and this is the spark that leads to brand innovation.

Collaboration seems to be the flavor of the month with a lot of brand recently from sports (with athletes) to fashion (with designers) to music (with artistes)... The only thing brands need to remember is what’s in it for everyone that collaborates with them and what is the end result they are expecting. Its the spirit of authentic collaboration and the word of mouth after that is important. Brand innovation take the brand to new spaces that they might not be ready for with their community collaborators. The best brands out there firstly listen to their collaborators and then experiment with ways to create this innovation.

PT: I wonder if brands treat collaborators as equal to them? It is obvious to the consumer if the collaboration is exploitative and so yes, many brands have tried and not done well.

Giving collaborators due respect is in order because they bring not only talent to the table but also their community of fans and peers. One bad WOM and the seed of skepticism will be planted deep into their psyche.

FLAMINGO: As an audience how pro-active are Asian consumers as compared to Western consumers? Any thoughts on this?

PT: It boils down to how you treat your consumer. Asian consumers (if not all consumers) respond well when their needs and goals are treated with the proper accordance and not used and discarded after the campaign. I believe we all look for sincerity when it comes to collaborations.

FLAMINGO: Do they co-create in the same way?

PT: Putting the right ingredients together will always make a better soup. But this soup needs to be managed by the right chef.

FLAMINGO: Are they critical in the same way?

PT: Certainly if not more critical but in a quieter way. They may not express this to the brands openly but they will certainly voice their issues with their own communities. The brand will be quietly screwed without knowing a thing.

- ENDS -

- BBDO INTERVIEWS IAN STEWART -

- Asian Youth Cultural Experts Discussion - FLAMINGO interviews POOL -

- zouk book DJ interviews -

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