Voxburner’s Youth Marketing Strategy (YMS) is the leading youth marketing festival, offering two days of keynotes, panels, masterclasses and networking focused on the valuable, exciting 16-24 demographic. In April 2019, YMS will return to Old Truman Brewery for the 9th London edition of the event, where speakers will include Revolut, Ticketmaster and Chelsea FC, with many more big names to be announced. This will also mark the launch of our annual Youth Trends Report for 2019, showcasing and analysing the emerging trends set to define the year ahead for the youth market.
Below is an excerpt from the 2018 report, on the subject of the distinct communities forming on Instagram, the youth market’s social app of choice. The full report can be downloaded here.
IG TRIBES
Subgroups within Instagram (IG) are creating similarly themed content that brands need to know about, and act upon. The creative social platform, which has 500m daily users, is officially the go-to app for teens and young adults as it allows them to express themselves in visual ways that were deemed unreachable before. 43% of our survey respondents post on Instagram at least once a day and 31% would admit to being obsessed with the social network. It’s become such a crucial tool for young generations, that there are now new IG tribes cropping up left, right and centre. We’re talking self-care, feminist, body positivity imagery where ‘imperfections,’ like stretch marks and cellulite are in full focus. And there’s also more subtle clusters of youth content forming where the visual aspect of a user’s post contains alike concepts such as black borders, multi layering or colour blocking. Expect this to be the focus for the young cohort’s Instagram goals for 2018, especially as 72% of our group say the visual aspect of their profiles is very important to them.
“This year, we’re going to see a growing content trend in animation and apps that use graphic design techniques to add dynamic animated effects. I can see DIY creativity increasing on Instagram as young people are abandoning traditional training and self teaching graphic design, tattooing, film and photography. The key is to identify a common thread within the heritage of the brand, not all trends are relevant to every brand and its important to recognise this.”
Jamie Brett, Creative Project Manager, YOUTH CLUB
“The power of community is becoming increasingly significant. There’s a new sense of togetherness. Gen z is particularly good at voicing opinion – they are open about self-care, mental health, spirituality, identity, harassment (#metoo) and 360 degree wellness. These are key content themes that will continue into 2018, with the addition of environmental and political advocacy. It’s all about positive engagement that goes beyond the surface.”
Shanu Walpita, Trend Forecaster/ Digital Content Creator
This year, brand instagrammability will be more crucial than ever. 62% of our 16-24s feel a brand’s account is very important, with 45% agreeing that it has the power to change their perception of them. If your Instagram game is on point, it’s more likely that these imaginative content creators will give you a follow and therefore increase engagement and exposure. In addition to this, brands need to get to know these IG Tribes for content inspiration as their expert editing techniques using the new app of the month are nothing short of genius. For 2018, it’s all about getting involved with the online IG conversation and Missguided are a prime example of how to get noticed in this space. As part of their #makeyourmark campaign, they made a pledge to never retouch any of their models, resulting in an online image of a model with stretch marks going viral. Their online engagement due to this grew immensely, with their followers giving their opinions for all sorts of reasons; messages of support, messages of dismay and online toing and froing as to whether they believed the image to be real. As Missguided have proved, showing support for these types of causes on Instagram is a key way to increase engagement amongst feisty and passionate youth generations. To do so, focus on speed, as the power of reaction is crucial. Enter into conversations as soon as they start to ensure your brand isn’t late to the party; that would just be #embarrassing.
Join us at YMS19 LDN with a 20% discount exclusive to E-Commerce Nation members, using the code ECN20 at checkout. Tickets are available here.
