The paparazzi generation

The man who posted Facebook messages that made jokes about April Jones, and Madeleine McCann, and transit vans, and April fools, didn't cry in court.

The man who posted Facebook messages that made jokes about April Jones, and Madeleine McCann, and transit vans, and April fools, didn't cry in court.

Published Aug 20, 2012

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Johannesburg - Technology is spawning a new paparazzi generation – individuals living in a world where everything is recorded every minute of the day and loaded in real-time onto social media platforms.

This generation is constantly on show, always feeling pressure to look their best.

This is just one finding of recent research by Starcom MediaVest Group’s Human Experience Centre.

Another new phenomenon the centre discovered is that of Youth Expressionistas, where young people express themselves through video.

Head of the centre Eve Pennington said this can range from shallow interactions where “Expressionistas” view and comment on posts, to producing and editing content, be it original content or video spoofs.

“The hyper, modern marketplace means it’s no longer enough to rely on industry tools such as TGI and AMPS. It’s becoming more important to do research finding real-time insight into the world of the consumer, so brands can offer valuable and meaningful experiences to the consumer,” she said.

According to Pennington, this gave consumers an opportunity to respond to how they’re feeling, behaving and sharing.

“Rather than just creating content for consumption, brands have an opportunity to involve Expressionistas fuelling interaction with content and playing the role of cultural curator through driving sharing, creation and management of content abundance,” she said.

The latest study and ongoing research enabled youth brands to meaningfully respond to audience needs, by providing real-time points of view on youth behaviour on a global scale.

Pennington added their Human Experience Centre of Learning was all about simple, meaningful, real-time data because marketers and advertisers were struggling with a deluge of data on a daily basis.

“Our network has put resources behind these centres consisting of dedicated global teams sifting through data for global points of view. The really exciting part is we can tap into this real-time data and expose clients to it on an ongoing basis,” she said.

The Youth Human Experience Centre uses data gathering mechanisms such as socialising and listening. It monitors youth conversations and digital interactions around key categories, using video ethnography to illustrate key youth behaviour in a video format.

Pennington said this insight gave brands a great opportunity because while brands are welcomed into this world, they are not as present as they could be and plenty of roles existed for them to influence consumer behaviour. - Saturday Star

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